FAST GROWING GROUND COVER FOR SHADE – FAST GROWING GROUND

Staked Star Jasmine Five Gallon

Definitely a winner on various uses in the landscape. Makes a great vine, twining to about 12 to 15 tall. Its ability to take full sun or part shade makes it a great choice for screening in patios, porches, or carports. Take away the support and it makes a fabulous ground cover. Blooms in the spring with very fragrant, star like white flowers. Consider it to cover fences or equipment near pools as it is pretty clean, not dropping a whole lot of plant debris. Overall a very tough, worthwhile plant in any yard. Hardy to the low 20′s or upper teens.

Creating a Garden from Scratch on the Cheap in Cape Agulhas,
The Southernmost Tip of Africa

For those of you who know me well, you will understand I cannot live in a place for longer than a few weeks without feeling the need to garden. Even when Graham and I have been in the bush camping in order to get the proverbial perfect photo or sketch for our paintings, I end up with a collection of “wonderful finds” carefully arranged in a corner of our camp and insist on carting them home for my garden. In fact, I have become rather suspicious of my family over the years, as when I suggest a walk, they seem to insist on finding out exactly where I intend going…just in case it is in the direction of a large piece of driftwood, unusually shaped rock or something equally fascinating that they would be enlisted on hauling back in the direction of home grounds. They have also gained the ability to look the other way when I see a plant that I do not possess, as I have a slight tendency to nip off a small piece and pop it in my pocket, bag and sometimes even my bra. In fact one of their favourite stories they enjoy retelling with great mirth is when we were having tea in Meikles Hotel and I saw a lush green creeper growing in a large pot which was cascading over a cleverly wrought frame in the lobby. As I had noticed that the plant had numerous babies nestling up closely to the mother plant just crying out to come home with me, I decided that I just had to adopt one of them and take it with me in my handbag…Kerry and Taryn looked at their Dad and whispered, “Oh no, guess what The Mother is thinking of doing…” They had read my mind well. My hand had already darted into the pot and salvaged the biggest baby plant I could find and with a quick flick of wrist it was in my bag in an instant. Pretending to not know me in the slightest, my family had fallen back behind me in a close-knit group as I walked innocently out the lobby, totally unaware that my newly acquired plant was not as small as I had thought and there was a long and healthy vine undulating slowly over the carpet out of my bag like an exotic leafy tail behind me. The doorman smiled and stopped me saying, “Oh Madam, it appears you have something falling out of your handbag,” and with that he most courteously rolled up my plant and helped me to carefully tuck it into the cavernous depths of my bag. Thinking of how absolutely charming and polite the smiling doorman had been, I happily walked towards our car. Looking around for my family I saw them standing on the hotel steps doubled up with laughter and pointing at me…I wondered what on earth was so funny.

Now that those of you who do not know me so well have some insight on my passion for plants, I shall now proceed to tell you of my wonderful day spent gardening this Wednesday:

Chris-Jon, the local gardener was highly recommended to me last week by the lady who runs a popular Bed and Breakfast establishment across the road from our house. She said, “Hire Chris-Jon to work for you once a week. He’s not clever and does not ask too many questions, does not always turn up at work drunk and I think is younger than he looks. Besides, he has a bicycle, so you do not have to fetch and carry him to and from his house on the other side of town.” I thought he sounded like an ideal candidate for my employ, so arranged to interview him that evening. At five thirty Chris-Jon banged loudly on my front door shouting, “Missus, Missus…I am here!” The thing I noticed when I first set eyes on Chris-Jon was that he had no front teeth and a great deal of exposed pink gums on show as he smiled at me over the open stable door. He also had a rasping cough that didn’t sound too healthy, but he seemed willing and very keen to work for me, on the condition that I pay him in cash, provide early morning sandwiches and coffee, lunch and coffee and definitely not to forget he liked to have afternoon coffee at three o’clock. As this is more or less the norm in South Africa, I agreed to his conditions of employment. Promising he would be at my house by 8 am Wednesdays, he clambered onto his bicycle and wobbled off into the wind as it was a blustery day. I watched him disappear down the road and wondered how such a skinny little guy with a possible touch of T.B. and large exposed gums with a gap in them where his front teeth should have been lodged was going to cope with what I had in mind for my newly planned garden.

As promised, Chris-Jon arrived on this last Wednesday. Later than 8 am, as he explained his bicycle had a puncture on his way to work. Disregarding his excuse, I set him to work digging a new flower bed. Grateful that he had arrived, as the last gardener had run away saying I gave him too much work digging holes. He just liked to mow, weed the lawn and drink coffee by the gallon. Much to my surprise, Chris-Jon completed his task in good time and then asked me, “En nou…die blomme Missus…where are they?” I told him

Meadowview is a women owned and run small business that has grown and
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Growing Up Fast tells the life stories of Shayla, Jessica, Amy, Colleen, Liz, and Sheri–six teen mothers whom Joanna Lipper first met in 1999 when they were enrolled at the Teen Parent Program in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Less than a decade older than these teen parents, she was able to blend into the fabric of their lives and make a short documentary film about them. Over the course of the next four years she continued to earn their trust as they shared with her the daily reality of their lives and their experiences growing up in the economically depressed post-industrial landscape of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.