Poladroided Plumbago

There is this great application doing the rounds at the moment called Poladroid. It allows you to take an ordinary photograph and turn it into a Polaroid. You can download it here www.poladroid.net and it works on Mac and PC. I ran a few plant photographs through it and uploaded them to Flickr (www.flickr.com) – looks like the seventies!

Woody woodpecker

I noticed this striking bird the other day (another member of the menagerie in my new garden) and after watching it for a while saw that it kept going back to a fig tree next to the house. On closer inspection, it turns out that there is a perfectly round hole in the trunk and a nest, complete with youngster, inside.

Is this a woodpecker?  Its the only bird I know that makes a nest in a tree trunk.

Woody woodpecker

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SA prof best in invasion biology

South African Professor David Richardson has been rated the world’s most influential and productive scientist on matters relating to invasion biology.

This emerged after a bibliometric study conducted by scientists of the Laboratory of Biological Invasion and Adaptive Evolution of the Chinese Academy of Science.

Bibliometrics refers to the measuring of texts and information using a defined set of methods. It has various uses, for instance in analysing frequency of citation, the impact of a researcher or group of researchers, or the impact of a particular paper.

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Sustainable futures

I recently had the pleasure of taking part in a week’s course on Sustainability run by the Sustainability Institute (SI) just outside Stellenbosch.

“The Sustainability Institute, established in 1999 by Eve Annecke and Mark Swilling, focuses on learning for sustainable living and is based within the Lynedoch EcoVillage Development, Stellenbosch. The focus has been combining practice with theory in a way that integrates ecology and equity in support of a sustainable South Africa, with special reference to ways of reducing and eradicating poverty.”

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Protect the environment: make your garden greener

Sustainable gardening is largely about choosing to grow indigenous water-wise species and using natural fertilizers. But it is also important to consider how you water your garden as some methods are more efficient than others.

This has never been more essential than it is now as parts of our country are still struggling to recover from drought and water shortage. You can reduce your water usage by 75 percent or more, depending on the type of irrigation you use.

Sprinkler systems are used most commonly in South African gardens. While these are easy to install and operate they result in substantial loss of water as they irrigate onto the surface of a garden, resulting in evaporation.

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