Under the Radar

I do suffer from green envy when others extol the awesome rewards of their gardening exploits. Living within the natural territory of our brazen Chacma baboons, it has proved impossible to grow anything edible. This includes certain types of flowers and most bulbs too. 

From time to time, in a fit of optimism, I live dangerously and plant out one or two sacrificial plants in our garden. 

There is an Afrikaans idiomatic expression which mentions the baboon (bobbejaan) and seems to be very appropriate here: "Moenie die bobbejaan agter die bult gaan haal nie" (literally "Do not go and fetch the baboon from the other side of the hill") which loosely translates to: Don't think or speak of negative, pessimistic possibilities which have not been indicated by the situation or else they might actually transpire. In other words, don't tempt fate to fulfill your predictions of all manner of  imagined negative outcomes. Rather, be positive! In response to my fairly pessimistic nature, my dear friend in the Karoo has often used this expression to damp down my dark forebodings.

I guess by planting some edible plants, I am actually tempting fate, which, in this instance, is a baboon. (Perhaps a clue to the origin of the idiom!)

So, you can imagine my absolute glee when we discovered that a single Paprika Pepper plant had gone unnoticed, even to the point that the plant was dangling its decent-sized fruity secrets.

 

Today the baboons were very active in and around our garden and so, without further ado, we harvested our mini-crop. Most of them had not yet turned red but this has not detracted from our sense of sneaky triumph!

Stuffed BBQ Peppers

With bacon filling

Roads Traveled

We traveled up to the plot last week on the N2 and not only did we have Mad Dog with us but we were obliged to take along our rather old Persian cat, Oliver. He is our last surviving cat and it proved difficult to find an enthusiastic cat-lover to attend to his feeding and stroking needs while we were away. So, in the autumn of his life, Ollie has become a traveling cat. And a good one at that.

 

Wild bush-cat

We spent a few days watering plants and sealing the surface of the new deck. 

 

Painted Malthoid deck

 I noticed that the Waterberry tree was encrusted again with scale and spent some time gently rubbing it off. On the second morning of doing this, the ants were more aware of my intent and attacked my feet furiously as I decimated their partners in crime.

There are only two surviving green plums on the Harry Pickstone plum-tree, proving my point that bearing fruit is a massive undertaking for a plant, especially when there is no guarantee of regular watering in this harsh climate. I think that under these circumstances, it is best to prevent wasted effort by pinching out the buds at their first appearance. However, another tree has borne two fruit successfully since our last visit. This tree stood in our Cape Town garden for 20 years and barely grew an inch. In fact, it pretty much resembled a bonsai tree. We transplanted it to the plot, where it has found its growing rhythm and now, after bearing its very first fruit ever, we discover that it is not an Orange tree as previously believed,  but in fact, a Lemon tree. Lovely.

The two ornamental Black Pearl Peppers are absolutely flourishing!

Mad Dog and Ollie both blundered their way into this spider's web and destroyed hours of patient work.

Argiope Australis

After a quiet New Year under the stars, we decided that on Tuesday this week, we would leave a day earlier than planned and take a 200 km drive from the plot up to Laingsburg to visit my friend who has recently moved there. We left at midday, in the mounting heat, and drove via Barrydale towards Ladismith. About 10 km before Ladismith, we turned off the R62 and followed a 93 km route of which more than half  is a gravel road, undulating and with sharp bends. Luckily, my driver was excellent and I could enjoy the beautiful Karoo scenery. 

We spent two nights in Laingsburg with our friends. It is really quite a small town and the devastating flooding of the Buffels River in January, 1981, is well embedded in the memory and weave of the town. One of the historical notice boards, which are dotted around town, relates how a resident, crouching on her roof, observed brick houses imploding or spinning around off their foundations to face the opposite direction, in the force of the flooding waters. Our early morning walk in the only lush part of town, the Golf course, revealed surviving trees standing in straight lines, where roads, houses and people once existed.

Awesome Pepper Tree

On Thursday, we were once again on the road, this time using the N1 to Cape Town. I was amazed at the green tinge across the veld. When you consider that it is summer, it is surprising to see the relatively happy vegetation. This surely means that the winter rains in this region were unusually good last year.
 

Leaving Laingsburg

Descent of the notorious Hex River Pass into the
lush Hex River Valley and De Doorns

De Doorns' Matroosberg Peak, or "Sailor Mountain". 
Some people believe the peak to be named after a
rock resembling a sailor or "matroos" 
standing on the bow of a ship.

We were determined not to buy grapes from the peddlers on the side of the road. The boxes of grapes are stolen on a grand scale from the many vineyards on each side of the N1 in the Hex River Valley. Who would be a farmer?!

Rather than use the Huguenot Toll Tunnel through the mountains of Du Toits Kloof, we used the old road instead and enjoyed the stunning mountains.

Old Du Toits Kloof Pass road, Worcester side

Old Du Toits Kloof Pass road, Paarl side

Our biggest mistake on the trip was taking the Main Road along the coastline, from Muizenberg onwards, instead of using Ou Kaapse Weg. It is summer time on the False Bay coastline, schools only open next week and the traffic arrangements created for the two-year long roadworks project, meant a long crawl in the sun and salty air. 

Poor Ollie just stretched out in his cat-box and dreamed that he wasn't there. 

Survivor Secrets

The lovely Keurbooms at our plot are so pretty and yet they have a limited lifespan. This drawback has not stopped me from wanting and ensuring their presence in my garden. Keurbooms deliver seeds in pods and I have found them incredibly easy to germinate. (see Plantzafrica ) It is the next phase which sees a huge attrition rate take its toll. Snails and worms just love the seedlings. I have also discovered that being too generous with water causes them to damp off and die quickly. One has to judge the amount of watering just right. I suspect that they flourish under a degree of hardship, but not too much.

After losing about 50 babies, I have coaxed about 20 plants to a less vulnerable size. I will wait until next Autumn before I even think about planting them out at the plot. 

Another success has been the rearing of baby Cape Ash trees. To be honest, I am not quite sure whether they are Cape Ash (Ekebergia capensis) or Wild Plum (Harpephyllum caffrum). The leaves and fruit of these two tree types appear to be identical and I guess only an expert in both could distinguish between them easily. I have one adult tree in my garden and there are two at the school where I work, of which only one bears fruit, the other presumably being the  male. The one in our garden is fertilized by a neighbour's male tree. The tree is a draw-card for baboons but then, what is there that a baboon does NOT eat when it is hungry? So, detractors, the tree stays!

To grow these, I scattered the fruit in the coolest, shadiest part of the garden in summer and just left them lying there on the surface. After the first cool weather of the following season, the ground was soon covered with many juveniles. I transplanted them into pots before they could become too comfortable in situ. Again, snails  proved a huge killing agent, despite them being a sturdier seedling than the Keurboom. Nevertheless, I now have plenty of these to plant out too.

I also have three Num Nums (Carissa macrocarpa) which I grew from fruit, filched from a tree on our dentist's sidewalk. (Gee, I do worry about myself!) They have taken a long time to reach this size and will have to put a spurt on when they get to the plot.

I germinated and planted some Green Pepper and some Granadilla (Passiflora) seeds, harvested from the fruit. Most seedlings were eaten by snails but there are a few survivors. Now that they have grown  bigger, I see that they are all Granadillas which have survived. Fruit-bearing, so these will have to go to the plot too!

Walking along the main drag in Swellendam, over a year ago, Roy picked up a pod in the gutter. He did not observe the tree from which it fell and after germinating and growing four seeds, we were stumped as to the plants' identity. The leaves are most intriguing, differing in formation between the plants. I recently identified them from this blog post: The Worlds Tree species

Illawara Flame tree

The question is, should I plant them out when they are so obviously Australian foreigners? They do not appear on the forbidden list alongside the beautiful  Jacaranda, so perhaps I might permit it!                        See Alien categories

Baboons and other pests

Living along the coast near to Cape Point, we are held hostage in our homes all year round by the baboons. One does not mind keeping all windows and doors shut tight in the winter, but on a hot summer day, it is really annoying, to say the least. When we go out, even just for a walk down to the postboxes in the middle of the village, we have to block off our cat door, which means that our cats are trapped inside for the duration (and since we are forced to leave out a litter-tray when we leave, the cats become lazy to go outside at other times.)

Should we ever forget to secure the house completely, we can be sure to return to some blood-boiling sights!

Have you noticed how certain types of fruit trees are few and far between these days. When last did you see a fully-laden mulberry tree or a loquat tree in a garden? I remember these from childhood, when people had large gardens and there were no supermarkets. Even if growing a fruit tree takes too long, I dream of growing just a few vegetables in my garden.

Another baboon-inflicted limitation on our freedom is directed at our garden. It is impossible to grow vegetables of any kind, as well as certain flowers and plants. Heaven forbid that you should have a tree which bears fruit of any description, including indigenous trees. These serve as a magnet, drawing them into the village. One's neighbours tend to become irate at this and in frustration, you begin to wonder whether you should pull everything out and cover with concrete!

The baboon known as Splitlip enjoys the fruits of his burglary

At one stage, we built a wooden framework and covered it with shade cloth  as a barrier to the baboons, and then planted out some lettuce and strawberries within. How naive of us! It is nothing for a baboon to bite and tear the shade-cloth and devastate the entire crop in a few minutes. Shortly after that, an incident where an alpha-male baboon tore apart our door to enlarge the cat-door opening in order to get into our house, highlighted our futility. Access to the contents of a  locked fridge presented no problem either. They are very strong creatures.

I can imagine how a farmer must feel when his harvest of grapes is plundered either by baboons or the informal fruit-sellers in De Doorns, or when a troop of baboons moves onto corn or onion fields.

Somebody told me that baboons do not like spinach. Delightedly, I planted out baby spinach and they grew into beautiful bunches but before I could pick them, the baboons passed through the garden. While they might not eat the leaves, they do like the stem-base of the plant. Their harvesting method is to pull the entire plant out, take a huge bite of the lower stem and then abandon leaves and roots in the "slagveld". 

This year I grew some spinach and strawberries in pots in our little sunroom where we normally final-dry our winter washing. It has worked quite well but as the days warm up now, the room is too hot and leaving a window open for fresh air is not an option.  I also germinated some seeds of Dragon Fruit, Tree Tomato and Pomegranate and planted them out in some multi-pot trays (which my neighbour's landscaper had discarded).

What I did not realise when I put all these pots and multi-pot trays into the sun-room  was that there were 2 worms and 2 snails hiding in or on the pots and the devastation they caused was huge, way out of proportion to their size. They must have thought that they had died and gone to heaven when they found themselves trapped inside with all those tender plants. I lost two trays of Dragon Fruit babies, some Tree Tomato seedlings and a few heads of baby lettuce before I discovered and banished them.

The Survivors

Baby Tree Tomato

Baby Dragon Fruit