Romantic Bed and Breakfast Magaliesburg
Spring in Magaliesburg at our Magaliesburg bed and breakfast is slightly special! For one thing – it doesn’t value dates. That’s right – 1 September is official Springtime Day in South Africa, but the willows next to our stream have already had leaves for a fortnight and peach blossoms have come and gone! That doesn’t mean we didn’t have a hard winter – we did. The frost was grueling from May and a tardy black chill in August messed up moderately a quantity of plants that then had to be thinned right back or removed fully. But on the plus side, the dawn temperatures have been above zero for whole of August and the lawn that we dressed and watered as an experimentation in the beginning week of August had to be mown by the 31st because the supergrass was so tall and dense. This morning I saw a dormouse pulling out grass and eating the roots that were watered yesterday. Only a few metres away, a duo of orioles was pecking at the grass. Hopefully they were finding insects and not threatening the grass. I tried to tell myself they were nature’s way of scarifying the lawn for new development, but I don’t feel too certain. Since early August we have watered the Magaliesburg accommodation gardens using stream water full-bodied in natural nutrients and this has paid off in a host of iris and magnolia buds just waiting to flare-up into bloom during the next week. That’s if the mousebirds and bulbuls don’t lunch them all up first. The birds need the buds nutrients to get them into quality breeding shape and regard our garden as a handy health bar! The mousebirds descended in a flock just a week ago and demolished hundreds of succulent rock roses that had survived the coldness and were just passing into flower. The debate now is whether or not to leave the stems to recuperate or just to draw out and toss the rest. Ah, the joys of Spring. After the first thrill of beholding new progress comes the impression that we are about to fight lush growth and the battle to keep our parkland-like Magaliesburg garden from turning into an African jungle! Bring it on!