h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What are bonsai "tacky" plants Willem? Did you bonsai them yourself?

I wish I had the energy to do that again. !!

Do your have a borehole or are you on water mains. Does anyone have a windmill in Pietersberg?

go well

Christiane.
AR80

Hi AR80! Pietersburg is very close to the tropic of Capricorn so we were almost tropical. But the heat is moderated somewhat because we're on a plateau, about 1 300 m (over 4 000 ft) above sea level. In Summer, the temperature goes up to 30 degrees quite frequently, but only rarely above 35. Summer evenings are usually cool, seldom oppressively hot.

Mashonaland is, I believe, also on a plateau and thus a bit cooled. Matebeleland is, I think, lower and also further inland, both factors which lead to higher summer temperatures.

The 'Bonsai Tackies' are succulent plants that look very much like tiny trees! Click on the link below for a photo of one:

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2313639370103203115wEJkhJ

There is no need to 'bonsai' them, they do it themselves! They grow to about 60 cm/2 ft tall, but they have very nice thick fat little trunks with smooth greyish bark, and neat crowns of small succulent leaves. They also bear small white flowers except for mine, which haven't flowered yet! Mine are all the 'offspring' of a single detached half-dry branch I picked up in the 'veld'. I planted it, and it struck root and grew! Subsequently I made new cuttings from it and today I have lots of them!

No we don't have a borehole! We use municipal water. We have a water purifier for the house, the garden gets 'regular' water. Since most of my plants are drought-resistant, water is not much of an issue. The lawn needs much more water than the plant nursery or the garden beds do!

There's at least one windmill inside Pietersburg, and on the farms around here quite a few. But most farmers use motor-driven water pumps these days.

Any more questions AR80? I'm happy to answer any and all - if I can!

Thank you dear Willem,

I love windmills. I love the noise they make. they should go back to using them now that there is such a world shortage of fuel. ""

I am going to look at your link for the tacky bonsai. I have an idea of what they are - possibly spekboom?

CME AR80

Have just looked at your link. they are NOT spekboom.. You call them crassulas. But you obviously have other photos in there because I recohgnised one of your -oh dear you know those anicent animals which you drew...bother Incannot remember the name. !1

CNEAR80

Willem, thank you for the Bonsai Tackies, we were very curious about those.

Should you need any water w are getting it in buckets at the moment. Positively tropical in force!

Websailor

Thanks for looking at the photos! I am going to slowly upload my photos to my webshots site, trying to do a few every day, so you might check it out again from time to time! I will ad some more extinct creatures as well, I've indeed finished a few more paintings of those.

Today was my day of watering and inspecting my plants. I also treated a few of my more vulnerable specimens with insecticide: some of my tackies - I don't know the names of these ones, they're similar to the bonsai tackies but have much smaller leaves and stems ... perhaps 'heath-leaved tackies' might be a good name for them. They're *very* susceptible to white woolly lice. Also, some of my more delicate carrion flowers ... Duvalia polita, Orbea carnosa, and Orbea rogersii. I don't like using poisons but sometimes I do it to save a rare plant from being totally destroyed. When I can multiply these species into a few healthy robust specimens, I will cease using the poison and simply brush the lice off with an old toothbrush when I re-bag the plants. I don't use poison on the plants in the open garden beds, only on plants growing in a few small bags or pots. In the garden itself, I don't want to kill off the insects but I want a healthy and complete ecology.

Also watered many of my plants.

Tomorrow I'll plant out some cuttings again, and probably make some more as well.

Now I'm going to prepare my lunch!

Today I planted out some cuttings of Haworthia glabrata. This plant was in a single bag, now it's in 28 bags!

Also did a bit of watering.

Tomorrow I'll probably not do much, there's an art event on that I'm attending.

Willem I do enjoy reading your posts here even if I don't post so much but If you don't mind I have a few questions 1) how big are the bags you are planting in ?
2) You have a pic of a Collared Dove ,is that the one that lives on the roof just outside your back door? I think you talked about it elsewhere.
3)You always say that you are going to enjoy your lunch,Now until recently I imagined someone making it for you but then the other day you said you were going to make lunch, so Do you always make lunch yourself ?

While I'm here I think I should say that we have a very warm summer here in fact anywhere west of Tokyo is hot in summer and the south coast is only cool in winter, the farther north of Tokyo you go the colder the winter is , Hokkaido will have at least four months of snow.

Hello Anoldgreymoonraker and thanks for looking at the pictures! Like I said I am frequently uploading more and I think there are many you would enjoy.

OK now for the answers:

1. I have bags of different sizes for different plants. The largest trees such as baobabs go in bags that are about the size of a ten-litre bucket. (Of course the idea is to sell them at some point after which they will be planted in a place large enough to accommodate them as adults ... they can reach a trunk girth of over 10 m! - But only after several centuries!) Then for my small succulents I use small bags, I would say about a litre or half a litre. Nice specimens, I plant into small pots and we have a few such potted plants in the house. I also have a few large puts with large plants such as 'semi-bonsai' trees and large succulents, standing in front of the north side (in our hemisphere this is the sunny side) of the house.

I will put some pictures of my plants - in bags, in pots, and in the garden - onto my webshots photo site.

2. No, the collared dove is a different one. This one lives close to my friend professor Gigi Gottwald, my old german professor. She also sets out food for birds, and this dove is a tame collared dove that hangs around over there. It is not a native South African species, but one of those sold as pets that must have escaped from someone. We also have several species of collared dove here, but they are mostly darker grey, not the light creamy colour of this one.

The white dove I spoke about, is actually not a dove but a pure white domestic pigeon ... again, one that escaped from its owner and now hangs around our house. I will try to get a photo of it!

3. I always make my own lunch! I usually post here in this 'preparing for spring' thread, right after having finished the garden work, and just before lunchtime. When I say I'm going to enjoy my lunch, it might be that I'd already made it or am about to make it, but in any case, I would be enjoying it! It's nice to have a hearty meal after a bit of hard work.

So you're west of Tokio? But not north? I know Hokkaido gets quite cold ... where you are, what would be the minimum temperaturs in Winter?

Thank's Willum , I am on the outskirts of Nara city itself which is below Kyoto and Osaka . Nara is about 20 min's by car and Osaka about 45 min's away from my home , We are warmer than both of them , in the winter Kyoto can have snow , we don't really get any snow certainly nothing to stay about , most winter days are quite dry with blue skies ,day time just a sweater is OK you don't need a jacket I can't really put my finger on an exact temp but I think 10 c daytime sounds about right , and it doesn't often go below freezing at night.

I am on the hootoo map

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A5076614

Hello Anoldgreymoonraker! Thank you very much for the link to the hootoo map! I checked it out and now know pretty much exactly where you live: east of Osaka, south of Kyoto! You're about at 35 degrees latitude North; I am at about 24 degrees South. We pretty much never get snow in Polokwane, but there is snow in some of the higher, and/or more southern, parts of South Africa. But I've never seen snow myself.

I put myself on the hootoo map as well ... northern South Africa, the 'cat' icon!

I'm glad your on the mapI will look for the cat you tomorrow

I have put myself there too. Look for Birmingham and the butterfly just below it.

Websailor

I found you both on the map, Willem you are there but the zoom is not so good in your area , WS I got a feeling your butterfly is on the wrong side of your semi but the zoom is good, I know on my house It's very difficult to get the mark exact, for me it's out in the road (my house has a pink roof with three skylights and a deck )and there are ten houses not shown on the map it must be last years map, I am glad that I was able to introduce you both to it, I didn't realize you weren't there before.

One question If I may, when you look at Japan is everything written in Japanese or english?for me it's in Japanese

Moonraker, really - how did you figure that one out? Of course you are right. It was because I didn't zoom in far enough before putting my mark!!! It's near enough anyway, slap between the two halves of our semis.

I must look again in close up at yours and Willem's. I didn't have time last night. Bright ideas come late in the day to me

Catch you later.

Websailor

PS It is in English, until (I think) we zoom in close then it change to Japanese. As with China it changes! Clever isn' it? I will check again today though.

Websailor

WS Remember I have seen the pic's of your garden plus the shed gave it away+the gap in the hedge half way down on your left

That's spooky !!! You are very observant too! I looked again and Japan is in English till I close in then it shows Japanese and English but the English is very hard to read.

Small world isn't it?



Websailor

Hello again Websailor and Anoldgreymoonraker! That map is amazing! Websailor I can now see where all the animals are coming from, to your diner!

I've also been spending a lot of time looking up the various 'places' over here in South Africa that I've explored already! Places like our municipal game reserve; the patch of 'wild' land to the east of the suburb where I live; the Potgietersrus game reserve ... this map also shows me lots of places I really, really want to explore as well!

Anoldgreymoonraker, when I look at Japan, also at 'low zoom' the names are in Japanese as well as English, then when I zoom in closer they're just in Japanese.

Willem, I am glad you can see that. Did you see the string of feeders hanging up They come along the railway line at the bottom of the garden. The other side of that is fields and a river, so it is good habitat, and I still don't think I have seen everything. I know there are muntjac deer and rabbits around, so you never know!!

I have had a busy day, and I must be off, but thanks for the comments both. It makes our world seem smaller. I could not get to your 'abode' in detail. It said it couldn't zoom closer in that area. What a shame.

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Moonraker, did you put a marker up because I lost you on the second attempt

Websailor