Van Stadens

Today we concentrated on the Cycad patch in the arboretum. Most of them are burnt but, as they are resprouters there are already some small leaves emerging on some of them. There is further not much we can do apart from clrearing out the burnt branches, Behind the arboretum it looks like the sign can […]

We will have our hands full for a good while to come to sort the arboretum out and still maintain the nursery and the hacking program. We can already see plenty of aliens and other unwanted plants coming up. There will be millions of keurbooms, Podalyrias, Chrysanthemoides in a few months time. We took a

We are making a big effort to clear a lot of bunt branches, shrubs and trees in the arboretum to make place for some new trees. Cathy is busy clearing away some of the Erica remains. while I busy myself with the chainsaw and Widdringtonias for Ellie to clean up and Rob gets rid of

We are a bit over the initial dismay about the fire and are making plans to turn it into an opportunity to make some changes to the arboretum. First priority is still to secure the water supply. It must have been quite a blaze with all the grass in the rondavel to burn the buried

We were forewarned as we were notified through social media that a section of the Reserve had burned on Friday but we were not prepared to see the devastation it had caused to all our hard work with the Arboretum, the pipe line, newly planted trees and various signage. It may be a case of

Testing after computer crash.

The Van Stadens Forum met at the Reserve today. It eats into our working time but well worth it to keep contact with our neighbours and interested parties. We delivered the refurbished benches to the school. It took a while because all the pupils in the class insisted on shaking my hand and giving Ellie

Our fist meeting of the year midway February. As turnouts go it was quite good but a new worrying trend is developing. Some people are quite happy to attend but are not working so the few willing horses are rather overburdened. On top of that little interest in what has so far been done nor

The usual trailer full of plants got taken but before we could organize the shade house we first needed to install an extra irrigation pipe in the “lean-to” section. This was duly done, complete with 180 degree nozzles so now we can utilize the full shade house and, more importantly, group like plants together. It

…and a bit of singing as well to keep the spirits up. We knew there was a 100% chance of rain but we decided to brave it anyway as it was the only opportunity to go out this week. Had a chat to Goodman and Speelman, good to see they are enthusiastic again, the tractor