I was hoping to take some photos of various Hebes to continue Christina’s discussion about plants which are naturally ‘pruned’, but the weather is slashing wind and horizontal rain today. I  have some photos from the frost a couple weeks ago instead.

We don’t have many frosts a year, so I’m always excited to rush out early and see it before it melts away. This particular morning there was a half inch layer of ice on the dog’s water dish, and a bright sun making everything sparkle.

The garden I planted last year this time under the solar panels is quite dense with foliage of different textures and colours. The photo below shows Armeria, a dark maroon sedum, Euphorbia martinii, Scleranthus biflorus, scented Pelargonium, and Artemisia. On the right the flower stalk of a Veltheimia capensis is coming up.

Beside the solar panels steps go up to the green and red garden. Bilbergia, another sedum, and more scented pelargoniums cover the right side of the stairs.

The stairs lead from the Lower Dorothy Path which ends at the greenhouse to the Upper Dorothy Path and the Red and Green garden.

The Red and Green garden is under a row of young Feijoa trees. Foliage wise there is a lot of silver and grey, some purple, and a range of greens. The Sage in the photo below is purple with a coating of frost. The 3 whipcord Hebes are hard to see in the shadow, but grow naturally into perfect little balls.

Here is the Upper Dorothy Path facing west. The South African Restios are getting quite crowded so I’ll need to try moving some of them this summer.

The driveway is shaded to the East by young natives, so the frost stays here longer. Agranthemums are catching the light, and rose Nahema is still blooming which I have never seen before in July. There are even sunflower plants – I sprinkled old seed for the birds at the start of winter, only to see it misguidedly germinate and doggedly continue toward flowering. It will be totally weird if it does manage to flower in early Spring.

The terraces are the oldest part of the garden. Until the fruit trees grew up this was the vege garden. The bottom terrace is full of dianthus, freesias, thrift, chives, and other pretty little Spring bulbs so we call it the Coral Garden.