Hello all Weekenders
Lory and I recently needed an outing and we visited the Penhill Plant Nursery which is just a few kms drive away from our cabin. It is in a very lush suburb of Knysna and is run by two retirees, from their home. They have been running the business for many years and have lovingly landscaped their entire front garden into a green oasis of plants in pots, bags and neat rows.
It was lovely weather for a stroll around and we soaked in the sights. I was astounded by the variety of plants that they managed to keep in the allocated space - so many of which I had never seen at a nursery before.
This place was immaculately well cared for and I could feel the love that goes into running it. It took me back to the days when I propagated about 10 000 plants for dune rehabilitation, that was such a lovely job and what I learned in those months was phenomenal - mostly by trial and error but also from the people in the industry. Things that the average person wouldn't think of - like Restio seeds need to be passed through smoke before sowing as they rely on chemicals in the smoke to unlock their germination capabilities - they are a fire dependent species. I would love to work at a nursery again. What joy!
Our trip had a specific objective - we were on a mission to find Lory a new pot for her apple tree. The owners were very knowledgeable and helpful and we got everything that we needed (plus some additions to our garden that were not intended).
I ended up choosing two lovely bulbs called ?Crocosmia (that could be totally wrong, I'm working totally off memory now) which look very similar to Watsonia but the flowers are bright orange and surreptiously whispered "Take me home with you" - so I did.
While I was admiring the orange bulbs, Lory found a stream and a few fountains that house fish. Trying to convince a 5 year old that the fishies in the fountain don't need saving and that they are perfectly happy there distracted her me from the pink Fuschias that I was eyeing behind her...They probably also would have come home with us if I hadn't started to wrap up the visit now that we had achieved our goal. It was really pleasant to just be out and about in such a peaceful setting.
Of course, on the way out this happened...
Lory attracts and befriends all the neighbourhood cats. This one was actually being a bit silly and lying meowling in the middle of the road when we valiantly went to it's "rescue" - stopping traffic (one car - but still) to move it to the curb for cuddles. It obviously lives there somewhere and scrounges snuggles from all the visitors because the driver of the car stopped alongside us and laughingly told us that she always does that, he's used to having to drive around her. Even though I felt a bit silly, I think it was still awesome to have saved this little "kitty in distress".
When we left, I was harrangued into driving to town for Padkos lunch which ended up being chicken burgers. KFC is opposite the Post Office and Lory very excitedly asked if we had anything to post - she loves it and gets a little kick out of sticking the stamps on the envelope. I try to instill some of the old school magical things in her like sending snail mail. Everyone loves receiving something hand written in an age of keyboards and text messages.
After we finished our Padkos lunch, we headed home to get our hands full of soil and welcome our new plants to our garden. It was a wonderful way to spend the day and after all the activity, we had a nap.
Manually added to Pinmapple
[//]:# (!pinmapple -34.062621 lat 23.088261 long Penhill Plant Nursery Knysna d3scr)
