Our garden

India and I were resting on an air mattress in our Hout Bay garden today. It was too hot to lie in sunlight, so I pulled the mattress under one of the banana trees.

The dogs had been running around, exploring the house and the garden. They were now tired and slept on the grass next to us.

Our garden is mature. The house was built in the 70s, and the garden has been maturing ever since, if not long before. We do have lots of grass, but we can hardly see the neighboring houses behind the thick bushes and leafy trees.

Even though it’s winter, we could see only one tree without leaves. The others are green. Some trees and bushes had red, some blue, white, or pink flowers. There’s a plant called “Yesterday, today and tomorrow”. The blue and white flowers give a strong, sugary, thick and sweet smell. I must get some more of those plants as now there’s only one spot in the garden where you can smell it.

To me, the garden looks magical. It’s exotic to a Finn, to say the least.

We have a lemon tree and a guava tree, which will give fruit. I’d like to get some avocados from the garden, and grapes, so I must go and pay a visit to one of the local garden centres.

We have many trees that I have only seen as house plants. We also have dozens of trees and bushes I don’t recognize as having ever seen before. We have bought books about African birds, snakes, scorpions and mammals. We need one with African plants.

I don’t want a “garden boy”, at least not this minute. I’d like to take care of the garden myself. I’m quite well equipped machinery wise now, but I still need Wellies and good quality gloves for protection.