My building experience and ‘saving some of the fynbos bulbs’
ThalleonAdmin
05/04/2024
My building experience in PB has started on a good note! When the builder visited my property to check it out before quoting for the building of a garage, one of his first remarks was, “Don’t you want to save some of these fynbos plants?”
Although the fynbos is quite old and senescent, there are still lovely things in the space in which the building will take place. I had wished that I could move them even though it is the wrong time of year to transplant. He said that I should just show the team what to dig out and they would ensure that the roots were not disturbed, taking a large sod of soil around them.
Although the fynbos is quite old and senescent, there are still lovely things in the space in which the building will take place. I had wished that I could move them even though it is the wrong time of year to transplant. He said that I should just show the team what to dig out and they would ensure that the roots were not disturbed, taking a large sod of soil around them.
Today it happened! The men not only did what they were asked to do but helped me to replant too. One of them said to me “I can see that you love nature”. A Searsia which must have been planted a long time ago and seemed to be deceased, suddenly resprouted last spring. This was also in the way, so they dug it out but discovered that the tap root was a meter long. This has duly been replanted to give it a sporting chance.
My best part though was the rescue of my favourite little geophyte, Gladiolus brevifolius. When I first viewed my house as a prospective buyer, I was charmed by a colony of these exquisite little flowers which grew mostly in the Buffalo grass at the entrance. They emerge and bloom in late summer. I showed the men photos of the flowers and as one had already emerged, I was able to show them what the bulbs looked like. They duly sifted through the top layer of soil in that area as they dug it out and presented me with a small pile of bulbs. Many Wachendorfia bulbs, which the porcupines have spared, were also saved.
P.S. What a team! I had bought watermelon and cooldrink for them on their first day, but then thought that they deserved it every day!
In the eighties I joined the Kirstenbosch branch of the Botanical Society. My enjoyment of outdoor exercise as well as a lifelong interest in nature led to my participation in their programme of guided walks on the mountains. These were led by Prof W.P.U. Jackson who had an entertaining way of imparting his extensive knowledge of the plants and their lives. He encouraged me to buy my first guidebook and next thing I was hooked on fynbos!
In the Spring of 2021, I retired from a 42-year teaching career in Cape Town and became a permanent resident of Pringle Bay. It is the fulfillment of a dream to have a property with my own patch of fynbos, populated by the birds and other creatures that I previously had to go to the mountains to see. Although the Orchidaceae is so interesting I think that it is the Iridaceae, especially the delicate Gladioli, that delight me the most.
Living in this beautiful environment with its rich diversity of flora and all the creatures that form part of the Kogelberg Biosphere is something that I will never take for granted. I have now joined the Kogelberg branch of the Botanical Society, the CREW programme and Birdlife Overberg. I hope to have many years in which to learn about nature here and to help to conserve it.
Kathleen Garrity
For more information on the plant species mentioned please click on the links below:
Searsia crenata – https://pza.sanbi.org/searsia-crenata
Gladiolus brevifolius – https://www.phillipskop.co.za/tag/gladiolus-brevifolius
Wachendorfia – https://www.phillipskop.co.za/flora/wachendorfia
