Praying Mantis

It’s always sad to lose a friend after a period of suffering.  As an onlooker, you are subjected to a feeling of helplessness.  I experienced this, albeit on a small scale, when I discovered that our beloved praying mantis was reaching the end of his life.

I found this giant praying mantis (he measured 16cm) in the garden on 5 April and subsequently saw him on a regular basis.  He disappeared for a while and then returned to our garden two weeks ago.

Last Friday I found him lying upside down next to the garage.  He was still alive but looked weak.  We moved him to the Indigofera jacunda (River Indigo) which always teems with insects, thinking that being closer to a food source, would give him the strength to bounce back to vitality.

Sadly, he was confirmed dead 2 days later.

I’ve recently learnt more about these fascinating creatures which, in memory of our garden guest, I’ll now share with you.

This insect got its common name because of its prominent front legs, which are bent and held together at an angle, suggesting a prayer position. The prayer mantis has a triangular head that can turn 180 degrees to scan their surroundings with two large eyes.  Being a master of camouflage, it blends into the plants on which it lives, lying in ambush or patiently stalking prey.  It feeds on a host of insects which includes moths, crickets, grasshoppers and flies, so is very useful to have in an ecological garden.

The female is notorious for her reputation as a fearsome mate as she will sometimes eat her mate just after (or even during) mating.  Yet, this behaviour does not seem to deter males from reproduction.  Their lifespan is between 10-12 months, so I hope our friend lived to this ripe old age.

Farewell...

Water Feature Installation

Last Wednesday was a national public holiday – Voting Day.  Yes, one whole day was set aside so that the country’s citizens could exercise their right to vote.  This was also an opportunity for the gardener in me to also make use of the day to exercise my right to garden!  Which is precisely what I did.  I made use of the additional labour –my dear husband – and scheduled the installation of our water feature.

I purchased a ready-made feature - a waterfall made up in a concrete mould – and a submersible pump.  I used to think that these fake rock water features bordered on kitsch, but when considering the weight of some of the rocks which we’ve unearthed, I now consider these features very practical because you don’t need excessive manpower to install it.  That’s not saying that the feature is feather weight.  Between the two of us we just managed to lift the two pieces.

I’ve used a lot of unearthed rocks from the garden to edge the flowerbeds so I asked the supplier to match my water feature to the rock colour.  This may sound a little pedantic but, in retrospect, it was definitely worth it so the feature now looks more natural.

We dug the hole, buried the base and completed the installation of the feature in a total of 5 hours (well 6 after correcting a slight error in positioning!).

I’ve planted a Freylinia tropica ‘White’ (White Honeybell Bush) at the back to provide some height and shade for the feature.  As the feature is in our orange section of the garden, I’ve chosen some orange flowering plants – Strelitzia reginae (Bird-of-Paradise), Gazania krebsiana, and Tecomaria capensis ‘Salmon’ (Cape Honeysuckle) which is broken with some finely textured Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyersii’ (Asparagus Ferns) and Hermannia pinnata.  I interspersed some Dietes grandiflora (Wild Iris) and Crocosmia aurea (Falling Stars) as their strappy-leaves fan out to provide some softness.  I’ve also planted some Zantedeschia aethiopica (Arum Lily) to add a splash of white.

Here’s what it looks like:-

The plants still need to grow to fill up the space, but the birds are already visiting to investigate.  Just 30 minutes ago, we had an Olive Thrush perched and drinking from one of the pools.

Barleria obtusa Leaf Variation

My Barleria obtusa shrubs are doing some strange things. I bought three plants on the same day from one supplier and they looked identical. It’s now about 6 weeks since I planted them and I’ve noticed that one of the three plants looks different. The leaves are darker and bigger. Here’s a comparison with the leaves of the plants.

The odd one’s average leaf size is 8cm whilst the others are 3cm.  I initially thought that the nursery had mislabelled the sleeve, but it has the same flowers as the others. In fact, this odd one seems to have more flower buds than the other plants.  The only difference here could be the positioning of the plants. They are planted adjacent to each other with a 50cm gap between them. The odd one is ever so slightly in a more protected position and receives less direct sunshine.

This is something new to me as the books talk about Barleria obtusa being suitable for both semi-shade and full sun. It is going to be interesting to see how they grow. The shrub grows up to 75cm tall and mine are just 25cm at the moment.

Cat Scare Failed?

If you read the blog on the cat scare, I'm proud to announce that no animals were harmed during this exercise. We set the trap for 5 consecutive nights and it did not go off; and, most importantly, we did not see any evidence of the cat. So, I can only assume that he got the message that he was not welcome and has found a new place to deposit his products.

Radish (Raphanus sativus)

Radish (Raphanus sativus) is by far one of the easiest and most rewarding vegetables to grow – it germinates quickly, is a fast grower, is not fussy and adds a little colour and flavour to a salad.

We had our first radish crop this week.  Here’s a picture of one:

Oh, and pests hardly attack them, so they make a wonderful crop for the vegetable garden.  Also, because of the fast germination rate (2-3 days), they are an ideal plant for involving children (of all ages!) when trying to encourage them to develop a green finger.

Hornet Home

We found a hornet nest in an overhanging branch of our neighbour's Polygala myrtifolia.

It was big and looked very threatening especially as we walked past this brach quite regularly.  We were very tempted to destroy it before we got attacked by, but I did some research and discovered that hornets are useful in the garden as they are predators of harmful insect pests including caterpillars.

So, we decided to live with the hornets, but if they stung us, we'd take action.

We had no incidents, but watched as the nest grew weekly.  Fortunately, nature has its way of sorting things  out and the branch hosting the nest was blown down during a storm, with its occupants abandoning their home, leaving us able to work in the garden with one less threat to worry about.

How To Kill A Cat

What do you do when your wildlife friendly garden is attracting the neighbour's cat?


Yes, the neighbour's cat doesn't quite qualify as wildlife especially when I have to deal with cleaning up after it's used a spot in my vegetable patch as a litter box.  This unwanted visitor makes his appearance in the early hours of the morning so I have not been able to catch him in the act.  All I see is the lovely 'package' waiting for me to dispose of every morning.


I've tried sprinkling white pepper over my boundary wall and that didn't work.
I sprinkled Citronella oil on the wall and around the favourite spot of this feline foe and that didn't work either.


Realising my frustration with the situation, my dear husband spent the better part of this afternoon creating a cat scare.  We don't want to make an enemy of the neighbour by maiming her beloved beast, so this has been tested extensively to ensure that no (visible) physical damage occurs.


This is the scene:-

How it works:
We've buried a rat trap on the left - the cat's favourite spot.  (Relax, kitty-lovers - we've modified it so that it will not snap shut and squash the cat's paw or other body part).
Once the trap is set off, the string will pull the balloon toward the acacia thorns, bursting the balloon.  This should scare the living daylights out of the cat, guaranteeing that it never returns to my garden.


Tonight is our first attempt at this so I'll keep you posted on the results.


In the meantime, if there are any other suggestions, please let me know.