Nature gifts us with miracles but we need to keep our eyes wide open!
All of life starts with a seed so no wonder someone coined the phrase 'planting a seed' when talking about new ideas or new ventures.
It still amazes me when I see how tiny some seeds are, and how they turn into beautiful flowers, shrubs, magnificent trees, herbs, vegetables, and fruit.
I'm really looking forward to planting these seeds and having gorgeous edible flowers, just in time for summertime salads.
The image further below is from a previous season's nasturtiums; the leaves as well as the flowers can be eaten, and have a really nice peppery flavour. This plant is also known as nature's antibiotic.
It's really difficult growing vegetables here as we have pesky monkeys that even pull out root crops, but they leave my herbs alone. I have Thyme, Rosemary, and Sweet Basil, as well as hot Devil Chillis and Cherry Tomatoes, something the monkeys also leave alone. Oh, and they also don't fancy Lettuce!
You can see the life cycle - flowers, the crop, and some seed pods exploding to scatter more seeds for new plants to grow, another of nature's wonders!
We also need beauty in the garden with #alwaysaflower; see how they evolve from a shy little bud, opening up to reveal a beautiful flower, and as they start dying, another miracle occurs; seeds form to continue the life cycle of the flower.
Senecio is a very hardy succulent type of ground-cover with pretty flowers that makes a show throughout the year. See how some of the seed pods have exploded to make new plants.
Our stunning Camelia shrub is an old gal, already over 40 years old, but is still flourishing.
The Portulaca is totally bare of any flowers, but will very soon be bursting with colour again. The flowers enjoy the sunlight when they open up fully, but they go to sleep at night with the flowers closing up tightly.
The Gazania flowers also close up at night but are stunning when the flowers spread their petals to face the sun.
Our French Hydrangea has quickly turned into a bright pink flower.
I've left the best for last, our gorgeous roses, always surprising me when they start opening up.
In the busyness of this week, I had forgotten about the Early November Garden Journal Challenge: Win Hive! until I popped back to the Hive Gardening Community to see what would be suitable tags, so here is my entry, if one could call it such!
Hope you enjoyed my mishmash of gardening!
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What a lovely garden! We have opposite seasons, of course, so I will look forward to fresh and colorful garden photos from my SA friends as we head into a long cold winter!
I see that you are from Minnesota, USA. I am from Hungary. Currently we are in the autumn/fall, and we are also heading to winter. Hopefully it will not be cold and long, but usually it is. Seeing a beautiful garden is always a delight. Anytime in the year.
Thank you @jayna, it's a wonderful world we live in not so! We're heading for a hot summer and you're preparing for the cold winter! Maybe winter is a way of giving some of the plants a rest, almost like going into hibernation, in the cold regions that is! Here in our mild climate, everything stays green throughout the year, except for the lawn that's not as lush.
Enjoy your Sunday @jayna 🤗
Beautiful garden @lizelle I've been keeping the seeds from the vegetables I've bought and propagating them, I don't know when last I've bought seeds. I have green peppers,chilli, pumpkin and tomatoes.
Seeds are so expensive now. I also have a lemon tree growing from a rotten lemon.
Lovely post my friend.thanks for sharing.
Your garden is lovely too my friend, I'm sure your seeds produce much better crops than the commercial ones.
Vegetables straight from the garden tastes way better than the fresh produce that's been refrigerated to death, not so!
I just wish we didn't have those pesky monkeys as they eat everything before it's ready for harvesting!
Have a great Sunday my friend!
You too. Those little pests can be very destructive, they get into my kitchen and steal my fruit. Lol, can't really blame them, we took over their habitats, I know we aren't suppose to feed them, I leave over ripe fruit on the wall for them.
Have a great sunday my friend.
What a beautiful garden @lizelle. I am also amazed how one little seed can grow into such big plants, then flower. I plant most of my annuals from seeds that we start indoors in early spring. Some flowers like the giant sunflowers I grow, go right in the soil once all the frost is gone and the earth warms. One seed and man, it's awesome to see it grow so big, produce a giant flower then turn to seed to feed the birds. Gosh I am missing the growing season already, but it's wonderful to see what's growing in your summer garden in SA.
LOVE YOUR ROSES!!!
Sunflowers are my absolute favourite yet I've never tried growing them here, you've just convinced me that I need to try and grow them. They are farmed very successfully in other provinces in SA.
I don't have many roses but the few that I do have, really are lovely.
Have a wonderful Sunday dear @farm-mom xxx
❤️
@lizelle Nature gives us some miracles but we have to keep our eyes open! Your words touched my heart. Looking at your beautiful garden, it feels like entering a colorful world. And I like your photography a lot. Many prayers and best wishes for you. I hope you will continue to give us more such beautiful blogs.
Indeed, we tend to rush around way too much, need to slow down at times and breathe in the beauty!
Thank you for the sincere good wishes @dream-sky !
@lizelle Thanks for your nice comment. I think you are a very happy person. Stay well always, lots of good wishes and prayers for you.
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Hellllo @lizelle! I'm terribly sorry for taking so lnog to get to this. I won't lie - the surf's been awesome for days so I've hardly had chance to tidy the kitchen let alone HIVE ! You know how it is, right? I'm busy trying to get this done before hubs gets home....
Monkeys! goodness. I would have thought they'd like tomatoes! That's so strange. I guess they're equivalent to our marauding possums. At least there's plenty of things that do grow and bring you joy, like roses! Fabulous - so nice to see some flowers pop out of HIve this week via South Africa!
That sounds like heaven, make the most of it @riverflows!
It is weird how they won't eat tomatoes, they even don't touch the tamarillos (tree tomatoes) which is more of a fruit, really delicious. It may be because green tomatoes can cause discomfort for some people, maybe for monkeys as well, who knows.
Happy surfing💖
So sorry for the monkey that do destroy your flowers. Truly flower are nice plants that needs to be plated around the house, talk more of edible ones😀
Thanks @herculeand I hope to plant some edibles soon😊
Alright, you really will enjoy it if you do