Convergence

Like many people all over the world, we’ll be switching off the lights at 8:30 pm South African time today as part of Earth Hour.
I like the idea of people all over the world doing the same thing at the same time – it makes me feel like I’m part of a bigger family, and [...]

Read Full Post »

The President’s Potatoes

So apparently the Obamas are planning to dig up a patch of the White House gardens to build a vegetable patch. All the lobbying but people like The Slow Cook seems to have paid off, and I think it’s a great idea. Even if they don’t manage to feed the entire West Wing on the [...]

Read Full Post »

Fire on the Mountaintop

South Africa is famous for a whole lot of stuff, some of it very cool, and some of it not so nice. But the one thing that gets most gardeners exited about South Africa is our indigenous fynbos. Translated from the Afrikaans, fynbos means “fine bush” and it’s a term used to describe the natural [...]

Read Full Post »

And Over On the Other Side of the World…

While Vivh is knee-deep in crocuses and buyers remorse, here at the tip of the African continent we’re beginning to think about planting winter and spring bulbs. March is a little early, but we have had a decidedly wet and cool summer. Which must mean something, right? I mean, that’s what people who garden do: [...]

Read Full Post »

Plotting The Way Ahead

Growing your own vegetables is becoming increasingly de rigeur here in the UK and demand for allotments is such that the National Trust recently released land sufficient to create 1 000 new allotments across Britain.
Although I remain conflicted about buying fruit and veg flown in from Africa, knowing how dependent communities can be on such [...]

Read Full Post »

Digging for victory, Mzansi style

With the national elections coming up in April, it seems South African politicians are taking their mud-slinging out of  the Houses of Parliament and into the Company Gardens next door.  Ex-pres Thabo Mbeki is a dead snake, ex-ANC honcho Mosiuoa Lekota is a cockroach, acolytes of Cape Town mayor and DA  leader Helen Zille are [...]

Read Full Post »

Given the boot

This is the boot.  I mean the boot mentioned in the post before last, and if those aren’t the leaves of Melianthus major (or something very similar, must cover myself) I’m Joan Collins.
After initial enthusiasm for the print I began to feel it was a bit twee, so it took a few days to summon [...]

Read Full Post »

Changes all round #2

And so, with my folks discovering the novelties of city life, and a new year underway, it became time to effect the changes I hinted at towards the end of last year. In short, I’ve left steamy Durban, with its palm trees, curries and Indian Ocean that on some evenings carries the faintest [...]

Read Full Post »

Changes all round

If I remember correctly, it was Mr Brown who said in one of the Paddington Bear books that all good things come to an end. This was certainly how I felt a few weeks ago when my parents moved to the city after nearly thirty years in the countryside. Strangely, none of [...]

Read Full Post »

Here comes the sun

I recently received a note about a solar eclipse viewing and picnic breakfast from Martin Clement, education officer at the Durban Botanic Gardens.  To join you’ll need to meet outside the orchid house at 7am on Monday 26 January -  the local astronomical society will be on hand to point out relevant blobs in the [...]

Read Full Post »