Mulch Love
Garden Reviews and Visits
I picked up this succulent from Evita Bezuidenhout’s house in Darling. It was growing in a pot outside the theatre and I broke off a small piece, as big as a five rand coin. Over the past year or so it has grown into this many stranded, unusual plant. It has flowered once (yellow and fluffy) but I have no idea what it is. Anyone seen it before?
This is a really cool little plant with some really interesting uses. Traditional healers in South Africa use the sap of the plant to treat eczema and similar skin conditions while the tuber of the plant is used to quell vomiting and diarrhoea. I think it is also being investigated to determine if it has … Read more
In an earlier post, my mom asked for help identifying a cactus she has in her garden. Ross came to the rescue, pointing out that it is a Cereus peruviana and a category 1 invader! Needless to say, she now wants it out of her garden but if we cut it down with a panga … Read more
A couple of years back I planted a fever tree outside our gate. The tree never really took off. It didn’t die or look sickly, it just never seemed to grow. I put it down to the fact that the soil I had planted it in was this terrible, sandy, red earth and decided to give it some time to come right.
However, earlier this year, I noticed a black moss growing on the trunk and branches of the tree and thought I better do something about it. First I Googled black moss but didn’t come up with anything useful. Then I went to take a closer look at the tree and noticed hundreds of small, black ants moving up and down the tree trunk. Could the ‘black moss’ actually be the ants footprints, I wondered?
After a bit more Googling, I found something that surprised me. Both the ants and black moss were indicator species, pointing to the real culprit, aphids. I went back to inspect the tree for a third time and lo and behold, there in the leaves, were hundreds of tiny aphids.
I’ve been told they are indigenous and that they are also used as a protection plant of sorts in Zulu culture. That is all I know. Anyone got any more to say?