Today is #MarketFriday, a project initiated by @dswigle, and this post is my contribution to this project for this week.
To learn more about this project and participate, visit this post by @dswigle.
We lived in Kloof, in the Upper Highway area, which is located in the outer-west area of Durban, Kwazulu-Natal until March 2020.
On February 1, 2019, we had some uninvited visitors in the early morning hours, 03h00 to be exact. The communication/encounter between these visitors and myself wasn't all that pleasant and had some bad consequences.
But that is not the topic of this post.
The fact is, we didn't feel all that comfortable staying on that property any longer, and both our daughters also insisted on us moving closer to them.
So, we decided to move.
We moved into a smaller place for the time being and we now have the safety of living in a complex. Well, I suppose safety is a relative concept, but it feels safer...
We still have our own space with our own garden, although it is much smaller than what we had before.
Our long-term plan is to move closer to the ocean eventually. It will also involve both our daughters and their families as we all want to live close to one another. We are currently all working together on our long-term plan, which should manifest over the next couple of years.
Currently, we are literally 1 KM away from our youngest daughter and 18 KM from our oldest daughter.
It has always been a dream of ours to live by the sea. Yes, I suppose that you know by now that we do live on the east coast of South Africa. But the closest beach is still 23 KM away from where we stay. We would love to be within walking distance of the beach...lol.
At first, with all of this in mind, I decided to maintain the garden here until we move on again. But knowing that we will at least spend another two or three years here, I decided that we can just as well do something to get the place more to our own personal liking...lol.
We already have one of our favorite plants scattered over the garden. In Afrikaans, we know this plant as "Spekboom". According to plantify.co.za, it is also known as Bacon Tree, Pork Bush, Elephant’s Food, Elephant Bush, or Dwarf Jade Plant.
Last weekend, we decided to pay a visit to one of the local nurseries in our area to buy one or two more of these nice little plants. Well, it is actually known as a shrub or small tree.
Let's be off to the nursery first...
We decided to go to Kloof Florist.
We found that they also have a new little restaurant here. We will definitely come around to visit the STEAM & CREAM Restaurant in the near future. The name is quite fitting as the nursery, and therefore also the restaurant is right next to the railway line where the fun train of the Umgeni Steam Railway passes by. Although the train is not currently passing that area, seeing that they are still busy with repairs to the railway line in the area after the floods of last year.
Moving into the nursery area, this lovely display immediately got my attention.
While wheelbarrows are a theme here... I also quite liked these little ornamental wheelbarrows.
Let's get some color in our lives...
Taking a closer look.
It was a wet, rainy day. And if you look closely, you can still see the wetness on the flowers...
Moving on to a brighter red...
We also found something that we definitely want to add to our garden...
Grenadilla plants...
And some strawberry plants...
Before we buy these, we need to do some planning as to exactly where we will plant them. So, they weren't exactly on the "shopping list" for the day.
But let's start looking at some prices.
With the current exchange rate at the time of writing, it will cost us R17.81 for $1.00. Yes, we had an increase in interest rates yesterday, so the ZAR has gained a bit since yesterday. We do expect it to be back over R18.00 again in the near future...most likely by next week sometime.
Okay, the grenadilla plants are currently going at R100.00 ($5.61) per plant.
The strawberry plants are going at R35.00 ($1.96) per plant.
From here we started moving into the area where we could find what we were looking for.
And there they were...
The Spekboom. Selling at R100.00 ($5.61) per plant.
Interesting Facts About the Spekboom.
Here are some interesting facts about the Spekboom, according to shamwari.com.
Leaves Are Edible.
The taste of spekboom leaves is pleasant but changes throughout as the sun rises and sets. During the day leaves have an acidic flavor and they become less acidic in the evening. The delicious greenery is heavily browsed by game and firm favorite of several wild animals, especially elephants!
SPEKBOOM AKA ELEPHANT BUSH, DWARF JADE, AND PORKBUSH
The plant is also referred to as elephant’s food (and hence its name elephant bush) as it is what elephants love most and forms part of their vast diet. The Afrikaans word spekboom directly translates to ‘bacon tree’, which is how the name ‘pork bush’ came into being. Spekboom is an exceptional, fresh addition to salads and a small sprig will add a delicious flavor to a stew.
Communities Use Spekboom Leaves for Their Medicinal Values.
The leaves are used medicinally and in traditional home construction. Here are the most popular traditional and contemporary uses of spekboom leaves:
- Sucking a leaf to quench thirst, and treat exhaustion, dehydration, and heatstroke.
- Using crushed leaves to provide relief for blisters.
- Chewing leaves can treat sore throat and mouth infections.
- Juiced leaves are used as an antiseptic and to soothe skin ailments such as pimples, rashes, insect stings, and sunburn.
- In certain areas, the stems are used to help build huts/homes. The stems are dried and used as thatch for rooves of the huts/homes.
- In Mozambique, breastfeeding mothers eat spekboom leaves to increase their milk supply.
- During the famine, the Zulus eat the leaves raw.
The spekboom flowers are nectar-rich and provide food for many insects – endangered bees love them! This, in turn, attract insectivorous birds. Larvae of the Duadem butterfly also feed on the Portulacaria species.
What Makes Spekboom Such a Special Plant?
According to the same website, shamwari.com, the Spekboom is a very special plant indeed (and this is what got us interested in this plant from the beginning).
It Helps to Fight Climate Change and Air Pollution
This plant helps to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by acting like a carbon sponge, improving the quality of the air we breathe. More specifically, spekboom can absorb between four to ten tonnes of carbon per hectare. This incredible tree uses carbon to make plant tissue and produce oxygen. According to The Spekboom Foundation, spekboom’s “capacity to offset harmful carbon emissions is compared to that of moist, subtropical forests. This remarkable plant is unique in that it stores solar energy to perform photosynthesis at night. This makes a spekboom thicket 10 times more effective per hectare at carbon fixing than any tropical rainforest.”
Excess carbon in the air is responsible for global warming so plant more spekboom to fight climate change!
More points as pointed out by the same website:
It is a proudly South African plant and easy to grow.
It is water-wise and super resilient.
A Spekboom can live up to 200 years old.
It is high in basic nutrients.
For more information and a description of each of the points mentioned above, visit shamwari.com
In Our Own Garden.
As mentioned, we already have some of these plants in our garden.
Here are two of the three we already have.
...and this one...
And with the latest addition now planted next to the driveway.
Back at the nursery, we also loved these little fellows, selling at R60.00 ($3.37) per plant.
And also now proudly next to the driveway, just a little further down...
And that was our #MarketFriday on a Saturday.
Thank you for reading my post! I do appreciate it!