Walk with me - Lily's Cottage Durban, South Africa
We are blessed with lush greenery in subtropical Durban. A guest remarked that even a broomstick would grow if you were to push it into the ground anywhere in Kwazulu Natal :) One can almost believe that!
Stunning evergeen Crotons give a wonderful display throughout the year. We live in a frost-free climate so are blessed with foliage all the time, but miss the golden autumn leaves of the colder regions.
I will take you on a walk through Lily's Cottage garden that we and our guests enjoy; as do all the wild creatures that inhabit our little piece of paradise.
We've lived here for yonks, but never tire of watching the antics of the mischievous vervet monkeys that troop through our garden most mornings and evenings, foraging for food. There are tons of babies at the moment and the entire family take turns in babysitting them, sometimes even the younger ones grab a baby if they spot any of us making a move, so we keep our distance and watch with much giggling as they really are so funny:)
We had many fragrant shrubs a while back; but our Gardenia not wanting to be outshone, waited and is now showing off with its' wonderful sweet scent outside our dining room window. The fragrance wafts into the house in the evening.
I did a post with a twist back then: What fragrance do you leave behind? - https://steemit.com/teamsouthafrica/@lizelle/what-fragrance-do-you-leave-behind
Walking down to the cottage, we pass the pigeonwood tree; the birds love this tree!
The best sight is when the Turaco (Knysna Loerie) flies to and fro this and the papaya tree.
Hubby managed to capture the Turaco in flight a while back, have to show it off again:)
We can see Lily's Cottage below as we walk down the pathway.
View from cottage entrance of the stunning purple Bougainvillea that flowers throughout the year. This magnificent thorny plant is at it's best in August; has lost a number of flowers by now, many of them landing in the pool, a never-ending task!
Going back up to the main house, we are greeted by a beautiful purple Duranta which the butterflies love!
Walking up the the top level of our garden, we see the dry-stack retaining wall with various ground cover hiding the concrete blocks.
We have a couple of Cycads flourishing up here.
Two lizards sunning on the brick wall - one lost it's tail in War of the Lizards:)
Hubby's veggie box is starting to yield some fresh produce, but the monkeys help themselves from time to time! They actually know there's something edible under the ground:)
Walking toward the courtyard.
Turning around we see the lady, her plants looking a bit sad as well as the lollipops peeping out behind her needing a grooming;)
Beyond the courtyard, we have some stunning orchids hanging under our eaves. They do extremely well here in our humid climate.
Phalaenopsis or Moth Orchid
Not sure what this beauty is called.
Thank you to @lyndsaybowes for #walkwithme, hope you enjoyed it:)
Will take you on a more exciting walk next time!
Original content by @lizelle
Please comment, upvote and resteem if you enjoyed walking through our Lily's Cottage garden.
Love the idea for herb garden @lizelle have tried a variety of places and spaces but this looks like one that has survived the test of humidity and heat we have here.
Hi @joanstewart, it is nice having herbs outside the kitchen door! I battled to get stuff to grow in that spot, but the herbs seem to love it. Had lavender growing nicely here as well. Gets afternoon sun and does get extremely hot there but the herbs thrive. Just the poor carrots grow weirdly, will add a pic of them, real funny carrots:):) Perhaps the heat??
Only one 'determined to be normal' carrot in this bunch
💓
↑Upvoted↑ and ←Resteemed→
From several weeks ago, while sitting with a sick friend,
I crafted this post after I took a morning walk thru
His Garden, which has been relatively
Untended, since he's been sick
https://steemit.com/photography/@jerrytsuseer/a-morning-walk-in-the-garden-preparing-for-the-day
Thank you @jerrytsuseer! & I really don't see your valued comment & link as spam, am definitely taking a look at that garden! Hope your friend gets better soon :)
Sad when we get sick everything around us starts looking 'sick' as well, as we can't take care of it :(
Your garden is beautiful. I love the herbs and flowers! Some of my favourites. Do you have a problem with the birds eating your papaya? I was fine up until this year. The birds are eating the before they are even ripe!
Thanks @cecicastor! Fortunately we have 2 gigantic papayas so the birds and those naughty monkeys eat the ones we can't reach, we manage to get enough from the lower branches, they're super sweet, delicious in fruit salad. Thanks for stopping by :):)
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Oooh wow, what a lush paradise!!! So wonderful to see the world through your eyes, it's exquisite!!!
I especially loved the orchids, Monkeys and the Turaco in flight! Thank you so much <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Hey @lyndsaybowes, thanks for taking a walk through our garden. We really are blessed to live in this beautiful green valley, thank you for initiating #walkwithme :) Will take you on a more exciting walk next time!
What a beautiful place you have! Someone is a dedicated gardener! I just love all the tropical plants, especially the orchids, gardenia, crotons....all of them. But I'm not so sure about the monkeys....
The monkeys really are cute, but naughty too! This morning they got hold of the bin bags, so it was a huge mess! Hubby, myself and our young gardener all get stuck into the garden, so rewarding. Thanks for stopping by @anise :)
It seems every time I see videos of monkeys they are stealing something...hats, glasses, food! I think I would not like having them around, but I guess you get used to it! They are kinda cute though...especially the babies.
They keep their distance and so do we, their area is being habitated by us humans so I suppose they are merely adapting to the new source of food. Thankfully they're not like the baboons that cause havoc in some towns in the Western Cape, so desperate that they break into homes! Our monkeys only pass through our valley briefly in the morning and evenings :)
So true. Humans tend to forget that the animals were here first, thus it is 'we' who are invading their territory. Sometimes it's hard to accept that though!
Oooh wow lol, I never thought of that aspect before haha! So they're kind of like our raccoons and bears here then.
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