Footprint 43: New plantings

Today was a beautiful, warm, cloudless, wind free, Cape Town autumn day.  It was one of those rare days when us Capetonians know exactly why we choose to live in this beautiful city.

Back to building the garden then.  I had several plants collecting which seriously need to be planted.  Here they are:

Pineapple sage, lemon grass, perennial basil, comfrey

At the back is the compost heap with some new addition.  Propped up against the fence are two 1.5 Lipton Red Tea bottles.  I cut the bottoms off of these bottles and plunged the top into the soil, then put the bottoms back upside down.  The point of these is to fill them with water and let the water slowly seep into the roots during the day.  This is in preparation for next summer when water becomes a material consideration again.  Around each plant is some rooibos mulch.  This has become very popular for several reasons:

a)  The mulch is very spiny, which helps with keeping snails at bay;

b)  The mulch does what mulch does by keeping the soil moist below;

c)  As the mulch disintegrates, it will help to improve the texture of the soil;

d)  It will add further nutrient to both the plants and the soil.

Hopefully over time, the comfrey will grow large enough to hide the bottles, and the perennial basil will provide some cover for the compost heap.  The reason for planting the comfrey next to the compost heap is two-fold:

a)  Comfrey needs lots of nutrient, and grows a tap root which sucks nutrient up from deep down in the soil.  The compost heap will leach nutrient which will then be available to the comfrey;

b)  Comfrey is a great compost activator.  As leaves deteriorate on the comfrey plant, I can remove them and pop them into the compost without forgetting to do it, or being too lazy to do it.

Then next to the vertical garden, which still awaits planting as I am allowing the soil to settle, are the following:

Yellow black eyed susan, granadilla

The Black Eyed Susan was an on the spur of the moment purchase some time ago.  The granadilla was also a spur of the moment purchase today when I went to go and replace my hose which had perished.  Again, they are surrounded by rooibos mulch.  And weeds - sigh.

I also planted some more shallots:

Shallots, planted with an existing garlic bulb and some pretties

One cannot yet see the shallots.  I am attempting to mix and match things in the garden, so that pots are not just pretty or just functional.  I figure I will learn as I go.

I ended the day by lugging two large buckets of garden waste up to the dump.  This takes care of the syringa leaves which are dropping in multitudes at the moment, as syringas are deciduous.

And now for a well earned rest.  My old lady knees are complaining about all the bending today.