Enjoying my garden

The gardening goes on apace. My almost-blind until he has his cataract operation gardener came to mow and tidy up for the Easter weekend - he seemed to think I would be having visitors who need to be impressed - and he did a really neat job despite his disability. The ugly view of the neighbour's house has not yet been blocked by the promised trellis or trees, and as they have gone on holiday for a few weeks, it may be a good idea for us to add a fence of another 3 feet on top of the existing 6-foot wall. The additional shade provided by the lengthening shadow cast by the sun as we approach winter may be the saving grace of my bromeliads in the meantime, and daily watering and weekly feeding of the trees on our side will hopefully cause a spurt of growth.

The last part of the ivy which remains on our side has a trunk about 12 inches in diameter, spreading into a convoluted and potentially very artistically attractive mesh of thinner branches once the leaves have finally dropped off, and I have plans to fix this in place and train a creeper over it in a final show of defiant nose-thumbing. I still think it was a good idea to remove the ivy, but it wasn't necessary to yank everything from my side of the wall as well! New shoots are already appearing on the tree that was smothered by the ivy and with spring only 4 months away, that will speed up.

The vegetable patch is looking great, with 12 spinach plants, 8 bush beans and 6 cabbages firmly established. I suppose it was only a matter of time before something discovered these morsels, and today I chased a guinea fowl out of the patch three times. I will have to construct a cage out of trellises to keep it out. And there I was thinking snails would be the problem!

It usually rains over Easter in Cape Town, but this year it remains fine and blustery, so watering must still be done to ensure no hiccups between now and the onset of winter rains. I have never had such a good lawn thanks to the criticism of a casual gardener from Zimbabwe who pointed out that if I just paid a little attention to my plants, they would grow much better! I took his words to heart and the benefits are evident!

Mango Kitty thinks I'm not paying enough attention to her and has just run up my leg onto my lap, so that's enough blogging for tonight! More to follow.