This is Charlie.
Charlie is a parrot. He is an African Grey. This type of parrot is approx. the size of a large pigeon and has a red tail. They are mostly attached to only one person of the household and should be kept solitary. They are very jealous of every other member in the household, be it a person or another pet. They are omnivorous, but generally live from fruits and seeds. They are very tame and unless frightened do not fly off. Nevertheless, they are easily startled and their wings should therefore be clipped regularly. They do not fly very far, however. When lost, one should first search close by.

They originally come from the tropical forests of Africa and are threatened by logging of the tropical forests. African Grey's are now successfully bred in captivity.

They need a loving family environment and lots of attention. They readily learn languages and I am under the impression that they can understand the meaning of some words. He knows my nickname and the name of my cat. He is able to express likes and dislikes vocally. He has a very good hearing and is able to detect the car of my husband long before it has reached the gate. He then barks like our electronic security dog, that comes into action once the motion detector senses movement in front of the gate. He associates frequent occurances with sounds that correlated with the occurences.

This is an Orange River Lily, Crinum bulbispermum. It belongs to the genus of Amyrillidaceae. Colours range from white to whitish-pink. The leaves are very long and strap-shaped. the flowers appear from September to November and are borne at the end of a long stalk in umbels. Pollinators not known, but propably moths. The capsule is very large and bears egglets that root spntaneously when falling to the ground, where a cotyledon appears shortly thereafter, which is feed by the egglet, until the roots ae sufficiently developed. The flowers could be used for commercial purposes, because they are showy. The drawback is, that a butterfly uses the plant as host for its eggs, which develop inside the bulb into caterpillars and turn the plants into a pulpy mess in a very short time. Luckily, the plant recovers later in summer, but new flowers will only appear the following spring.

This is one of my spring flowers that grow in my garden. It is an Albuca species and indigenous to South Africa. The Albuca belongs to the genus of the Amyrillidaceae. The flower stalks are about 60 to 80 cm long. this ist just one of about a few dozen species that occour in South Africa. They range from about 6 cm to about 1m in size. The flowers are mainly white, but there is also a yellow species that flowers from November to December. It developes a woody capsule after fertilisation. I have not yet discovered which insect polinates the plant. I think it must be polinated by moths during night time, because I could not observe any polinators during day time. The plant is very hardy to drought and occurs mainly in dry grasslands. In cultivation when watered, it can also tolerate some encroachment from trees, but it prefers well-drained organic compost. The leaves exude a sticky sap when broken and could be used as an adhesive. The plant is not used commercially.

My principal hobby is the gardening with indigenous plants. South Africa has a great variety of plants. There are altogether 24.000 species. Only the Amazonas region has a greater variety of indigenous or endemic plants to offer. I have studied the South African flora to some degree and come to the conclusion that, if every person in urban South Africa would plant indigenous plants in their garden and the fences would come down again, we would have the largest combined nature reserve of all nature reserves in South Africa. This would have a great potential for the protection of the species diversity of South Africa. I can prove this, since I have counted my garden birds and my last species count was 37 different species of birds in my garden alone. Of course, I have developed a feeding scheme, that suits most birds. The food combines protein, fruit and other sources of carbo hydrate. I discovered, that, when the food is dispensed in one place only, the birds become very used to the feeding scheme and devour almost everything that is offered to them. The biggest fear, that birds seem to have from dispensed food is, that a trap is set up for them, or, that the food source may be poisoned. Once, the feeding site is trusted, the birds eat almost everything that comes from the kitchen. This has the great advantage, that there is no food wastage and that the rats do not have such a big disposal of waste food, because the feeding sites differ. Whereas wasted food lands in the bin or in the toilet, where rats have easy access, the feeding places for the birds do not offer easy access for rats for 2 reasons. The first reason is, that the feeding site is more exposed, which is then avoided by rats, because of the open air space, the second reason is, that once, the birds are used to the feeding site, they will come immediately and devour the food, leaving nothing behind juast only after a few minutes later. One must, of course, avoid to feed too many seeds or bread crumbs, because this attracts pigeons, who are also not desired. To avoid wastage of bread, cut the bread up in slices and deep freeze it immediately. When you want bread, take the desired amount of slices from the freezer and defrost it. In this way, you will have no wasted bread, thus saving money and keeping the pigeons and the rats away. To my big surprise, I also discovered that the birds are eating cheese, even when it is mouldy. So, why not feed the birds with the cheese off-cuts, instead of the rats. The birds are also partial to all types of fat and love meat off-cuts, raw and cooked. A real hit amongst all birds, are marrow bones. By attracting many birds to your garden during winter you can be sure, that they keep many garden pests under ctontrol throughout the summer. By attracting birds to your garden and offer them indigenous or wild plants for forage and cover, you will only have advantages. In addition, your garden, when it has a natural appearance will give you solace and you will not have to spend so much money for a vacation in a nature reserve, because you will have it literally on your doorstep. So, instead of wasting your money by combatting those lovely creatures, why not attract them to your home to keep the invironment balanced and healthy.

In the following, I will download pictures of South African indigenous plants, that I grow in my garden and give some instructions on how to grow and propagate them. Whoever reads my blog and is interested, can confidently post me any questions the may have. I will gladly give them any advice they may need.

About me: October 2006

enjoying breakfast in my garden