Landscaping and Autumn in the Fynbos

Autumn is here along with a cold nip in the air.

Loving:

Warm log fires at night with blankets, cats and hot chocolate. Freshly baked bread and soup. The smell of fynbos after the rain. Just picked greens and baked potatoes from the garden. Swapping interesting veggie seeds. Soft wooly jerseys. Lines of gumboots at the door. Waking up to the sound of rain. All the different hues of green on the mountain side.

Taskmaster has been busy creating his beautiful gardens in between surfing accidents and Euphorbia incidents. Please note: Never get Euphorbia juice on your skin or think you are in the world champs at your homebreak inventing a new move “the knee slide air” a this may lead to a swollen face (Aloe helps) and a knee brace (falling over toy cars left in the passage does not help) for three weeks

A great example of play in colour and texture in a small shrub bed:

Log round pavers with wood chip mulch path:

Planted up retaining wall and random paving:

Natural log steps:

Dont forget this is one of the busiest time in a fynbos garden, so come and select some plants in the retail to fill in those that did not survive the Sumer. Re-design, re-plant and re-ap the benefits of this rainy weather in your garden. Prune, mulch and weed and then have a cup of hot chocolate by the fire/ head down to the beach and catch the last bit of summers sun…. Gotta love Autumn in Cape Town!

Publicity, party, veldkos and fynbos.

This month we have had a few times to shine in the media…

We were in an article on windpumps in the Country Life Magazine And Taskmasters amazing roof gardens appeared in a Green Roof article in House and Leisure’s online mag

Which in turn is the result of an article to appear in tomorrows Cape Argus on roof gardens. Cant wait!

Otherwise we have been having quite a few kids parties at the nursery

All catered for by us, including the Kitty cake

For our next project, owner lady and myself are coming up with a fantastic idea. It a bit hush hush but I can say it involves experimenting with veldkos, or bush food. The first experiment was collecting sourfigs (Carpobrotus edulis) and making a syrup out of them. This syrup can be used on ice cream or yoghurt, in cakes and puddings, an addition to sauces and salad dressings or even on toast. Yum!

Amongst getting famous and cooking and planting and general everyday stuff, we took a stroll on the Fynbos Walk and had a look at all the beautiful Fynbos in flower. Inspired, I picked an indigenous bouquet for my grandparents 59th wedding anniversary:

Another kids party booked for this weekend, the retail is looking fresh after yesterdays welcoming rain, fresh lemon and poppy seed cake in the farmstall…so come visit us and chill out in the deep green south! ! !

Cool links and the new spring poster.

So the sale date is beckoning, as well as all the little billion things that need to be completed by then. Here are two cool links advertising the Spring into Fynbos event:

http://www.capewinelands.co.za/festivals-and-events/item/478-celebrating-spring-in-the-fynbos.html

and

http://www.capetownkids.co.za/index.php/events/2010/09/18/

Also,  a rather brilliant blog entry was sent to us from an obviously incredibly intelligent woman A rave review on the nursery! We clustered round the computer screen and in between grunts of delight as we scrolled down, we declared it the Best Review Ever. Check it out at

http://blog.sa-venues.com/provinces/western-cape/good-hope-nursery/

Our article finally came out in the Home/Tuis magazine on the Fynbos Ecolodge. It was well worth the hard work as the pics came out all beautiful and shiny….mmmmm, nice. Go out now and buy yourself a copy – it’s the Eco edition so it’s a good read too. In the mean time here is a scanned version:

Fynbos Ecolodge article

Fynbos Ecolodge article page 2

Fynbos Ecolodge article page 3

Then our good friend Harry-the-girl who is a whizz at design, generously created this bright new poster for our Spring event:

Spring into Fynbos poster

So a week of really getting out there has been fun. Right now though, the rain has stopped, the sun is peeping through the clouds and we are going out to play in the playground and eat a pie in the tea garden. xxx

Back at work/in the garden

So we have returned from an amazing time-out. Annual holidays are the greatest, but it’s also kind of great to be back at the nursery….

On day one of return Taskmaster discovered the porcupine had been visiting. A lot. Set the trap and hey presto a porky was caught! Even have a photo this time:

Beautiful Porky

He was a small one but oh so defensive. If the dogs or we came near, he would ruffle his quills (really loud…imagine a shaker in a mexican band) and stamp his little foot!

In celebration of no bites-in-veg any more, we went to see how much the dam had filled. It’s really been a rain shy winter this year.

The dam.

The dogs and Kingoftheplayground had a blast. Kingoftheplayground decided it would be best to have a dip.

Dip in the dam!

So the landscaping teams are full steam back into work. The nursery is propagating away and getting ready for the next sale. The event is called’ Spring into Fynbos’ and will include all kinds of lovely fun and fynbos on Saturday the 18th of September.. Walks, talks, kids entertainment and Auntie # 1 is coming down especially to do a Wild Flower display with flowers collected off our very own mountain! Cant wait.

beautiful fluff!!!

The tea garden re-opens this weekend…due to staff and menu changes we reopen much later than advertised. Great apologies to those who came for tea last week.  But the good news is that the plan is to now have more of a farmstall food option and I’ve been baking bread (so good) and perfecting the Best Pie Ever. Feeling hungry? Come visit this weekend!

Landscaping our very own garden and the veggie patch continues.

Last week was very exciting because we (Taskmaster and Team) started the clearing for our Very Own Garden. I say this with much joy as we have always (and owner lady before us) had a rambling fynbossy “outside-bit” in which to jump and play and braai as well as the rest of the nursery to wander around…well work mostly – so a Garden as such was never a necessity. Untill now! Because we think it would be fabulous (my word not Taskmasters) and because we can.

Landscaping work always dies down a little bit in the rainy season, leaving us to focus on Stuff That Needs Doing around the nursery. So here are a few before shots:

Taskmaster doing his thing.

Soon to be space for seating under the tree and organic jungle gym in the tree!

An angel of an aloe in a hell of a mess.

So before the rain storm arrived on Sunday (Happy Mothers day) we planted out some veg seedlings…

And off we went.

The radishes had to be seperated…wonder how many will survive the fate of Kingoftheplaygrounds over-enthusiastic root pulling..hmmm.

There were sweet potatoes and aubergines ready for picking.A slice of carrot cake from the tea garden…and an afternoon well spent!

Rain & photos

Descriptive: The plants are happy today. Finally a break from the sun – its  raining and the mist is rolling over our mountain.I am being serenaded by the beep-beep of the nursery truck backing up, ready to load a flatbed of proteas. The wind blows gently at my back as I type because there is no wall. No, I am not outside, there just is no wall because we are still renovating and the wall, she is gone.

Reality: The office was broken into last night, and they stole …wait for it..the computer mouse. Amazing! Why? We were going to get a pack of dogs but maybe we should get cats…mmm.So many jokes, so little time.

Reality continues: I’m packing and packing for the Big Move – so I’m just going to leave you with this beautiful photo and get on with it all…oh, and drink lots of tea and a slice of  Poppy-seed cake from the tea garden. Always time for that!

She is quite grumpy in the mornings  – but making an effort here to show her good side for the photo. Haha. Have a great day.