Baby Garden

On Friday I had another walk through the garden. I can't help admiring the young plants like a proud mother - they are either pushing out new shoots, or flowering.

It's funny when I'm there I just see plants, and yet these photos seem to show mainly mulch. Selective vision, I suppose.

Tortoise in strandveld.


A honeybee pollinating Pelargonium fulgidum in the Veldkostuin (Food garden).

I like the grey mongoose slinking through the mountain fynbos ...

Leucospermum hypophyllocarpodendron - the groundcover pincushion. I'm so proud that we managed to source these plants - and that they are doing okay. They look small and vulnerable - I will want to kill anyone who lets their dogs / kids stomp on them!

Looking back from the Ant display.

For sheer brilliance there is not much to beat the magenta of Pelargonium cucculatum.

Visitors

On Wednesday, 6 october, students from Green Futures came to visit the Biodiversity Garden. Green Futures is a horticultural training programme based at Grootbos Nature Reserve, near Stanford. Susan Lochner, the trainer, had arranged the visit.



Which reminds me: the fire hearth display area still needs various artefacts / items which Khoikhoi may have had discarded around their fires. I'm thinking of bits of ostrich shell, tortoise shell, old bones, porcupine quills, feathers, that kind of thing. The idea is that this is an interactive display - a place where kids can dig in the gravel and find things, and wonder what they are...

It's treasure hunt, a place to explore various textures and materials, hands-on biodiversity and, for older kids the display provides clues about what people ate. I realise that the artefacts will have to be replenished regularly... as fast as the items are carried off in toddlers pockets....
But that's okay, I reckon if I can find some 'friends of the Biodiversity Garden'. Will you help to restock it?

The Natural Pest Control display with its various animals received lots of interest and discussion.




Here is what one student had to say about her visit:

Nature needs you to be knowledgeable and encouraged about it so that you can look after it.

Today - 20 September

Today I nearly stepped on an egg - a beautiful speckled egg, only a few feet from the main path. About thirty meters away were the parents: a pair of blacksmith plovers. They didn't look stressed and left me to go about my work, planting labels.


In total there will be 200 plant labels in the Biodiversity Garden. Considering we have over 330 plant species, we had to be selective and not all species are labelled. I admit I have mixed feeling about labels: on the one hand they highlight the enormous diversity we have, and on the other hand they clutter the landscape and detract from the beauty of the displays. And the very act of naming and putting things into boxes takes us from our hearts into our heads.


Lampranthus reptans, I hear myself think, and move on. Instead of stopping to marvel at the luminous flowers and silver grey stems.


Here is a new one to me - Hermannia multiflora, planted in the renosterveld displays. Full of small orange flowers - those twisted corollas so typical of Hermannia.




I like the way the little grysbok is close to the Acacia karroo (Sweet Thorn) - as if it is about to nibble its leaves.





I notice there is a wide range of colour forms among the Babiana angustifolia we planted in the renosterveld. Species variation? - or are they hybrids, I wonder.




This display is entitled 'Can an ant change a landscape?' and tells the story of the invasive Argentine ant and its impact on local species. All the plants in this bed are myrmecochorous - i.e. have seeds which are dispersed by ants. Which gave me a fantastic excuse to plant showy pincushions, silver Podalyria sericea and aromatic buchus...

Leucospermum cordifolium

And above: recent progress on the Fibonacci spiral. Rob McKenzie is busy with the pebble detail. Next will be a band of much smaller diamond quartz pebbles - translucent and beautifully smooth.

A Biodiversity experiment in progress

A few days ago, while planting, I spotted this fiscal shrike sitting in a tree - a newly planted Chionanthus foveolatus.


This is the first time I've seen a shrike here. The Green POint Park used to be a sportsfield, and for over 18 months now it's been a construction site. How long will it take for animals to arrive, I wonder?

To date my list is very short:
Hartlaub's gull
Cape wagtail
Blacksmith plover (lapwing)
Crowned plover
Common fiscal
frogs

However I have been so nose-to-the-ground with planting, there may well be more. Let's keep a record and let me know what else you've spotted in the Biodiversity Garden.

The Story of the Fish

On Friday a school of ceramic fish took to the water in the Biodiversity Garden. Here they are, frolicking in the lake...


But I'm jumping ahead in the story. It started with a wish: for a school of colourful fish in the Biodiversity Garden. I wanted a visual reminder that biodiversity includes life in water, not just on land.

And the wish was granted! The Cape Craft and Design Institute appointed Zizamele to make the sculpture.


Below is Toni Burton with a ceramic prototype which was specially made for the project. Toni:

I chose the Clanwilliam Yellowfish because it is endangered and because a concerted effort is being made to conserve it. It occurs in the Western Cape, in the Clanwilliam Dam and Bulshoek Rivers. I thought it would make a great shape, and as it's known to leap out of the water, it would be realistic jumping out of the lake.

A variety of artists from her studio were involved in making the mould and casting the yellowfish, firing, painting, glazing and refiring them at 1180 degrees.

And then someone was required to make the frame. Enter Glenn Adams into the story. After an initial meeting the plan for the stainless steel frame looked like this:



After structural input was given by OvP Associates we could press the green button, and 10 days later the heavy structure was lowered into the water...



Glenn made a pontoon to lighten the load while taking it to the middle of the lake. Clever thinking...



And voila! here they are in habitat. Thank you Glenn and Zizamele!
(and the pea soup water? Needs circulation, in progress)

Wildlife in the Biodiversity Garden

On Friday the animals pulled in. So exciting!
We now have a Steenbok in the renosterveld...


A spotted genet and caracal slipping into the thicket...


And two Cape hares near the Khoikhoi Food garden...


Roddy McGuffog (of Ferroclassics) has been the artist & co-ordinator for all the cut-out steel sculptures, including the animals and threats to biodiversity. Jesse Breytenbach did all the artwork - she has captured the essence of each animal perfectly.


Since the focus of the Biodiversity Showcase Garden is greater Cape Town, we included only local Cape animals. It took me ages to find a spot for the Cape Fox and grey mongoose in the veld types display because they are very closely planted. And I can't stand moving plants, hole digging and wheelbarrows of concrete in planted areas - major stress!





This balustrade is for the Knock-on effect display - more about it in a later post.


The spiral balustrade below is for the Make a Difference display. The fibonacci spiral is used as a logo on the storyboards and repeated here as a design element. The spiral shape looks beautiful and creates a wonderful space to be in - geometry is like that.

On the balustrade we envisage a few signs about people and organisations who are helping to promote biodiversity in their communities. Leaves hanging off the balustrade will offer more ideas on how to help conserve biodiversity.

Under the balustrade we've planned a detailed pebble band echoing the spiral above. However time is running out (the official opening is on Friday, 10 Sept) - so we've decided to place the pebbles temporarily.

Making the garden come alive

Throughout the garden storyboards help to interpret the displays and convey the main messages. In total there are 60 interpretive signs and 200 plant labels. Here is an example of a storyboard introducing the People & Plants theme area:


For the Medicinal Plants collection:





And a storyboard for the Create Habitats display:



Text by John Roff and Marijke Honig.
Graphic design by Tanja Truscott.