Our plane landed in some of the worst winds I have ever experienced. The last time the winds blew this badly, according to the people who have lived here their whole lives, was about 50 years ago. I instantly knew that things would be bad. We call this wind the "black South Easter". The South Eastern wind brings rain to other parts of the country, but we in this area experience the South Easter only as wind. In 2011, we experienced a similar event where almost 100 trees were knocked over on our local golf course.
Other South Africans have already shared their experience of this event, with some of them sharing some incredible photographs of the destruction. Luck was on our side, as we did not experience that much damage. Some people lost their rooves, some lost trees more than 300 years old, and others had so much damage to their property.
Walking through the garden, I saw the effects of these winds, especially in the corners where all the debris collected.
Various branches got broken off by the wind, new growth, seeds, fruits, everything got ripped off from the trees. Again, the damage in my garden was minimal compared to the rest. I only suffered one badly damaged plant/shrub, one that always brought happiness to my garden. But more on this below.
The amaranth (photograph on the right) that I planted at the beginning of the year, almost got blown away in its entirety. I was getting myself ready to harvest the seeds, but when I opened the door almost nothing remained. The seed heads all snapped, and the leaved were blown off. This is really not that bad, as the plants were on their way to die in any case. But it makes harvesting the seeds almost impossible. I will see if I can salvage any.
The gooseberries (photograph below left) saddens me because of their amazing growth. I have never grown such happy-looking gooseberries, and I really got excited for the harvest. But the wind destroyed most of the beautiful growth that greeted me every morning. But luckily most of the berries are still on the plant, so there might still be some hope.
But the basil suffered the most. Unfortunately, most of the plants suffered the same fate as the ones in the photograph (below right). I will prune back the plant very hard, removing most of the growth. Maybe this will encourage some of the plants to regrow. But I am not sure if this will help. In my experience, with such drastic pruning, the basil never really yields good growth again. I should just replant some seeds...
Even though we were spared, we suffered no loss of property or anything comparable, I lost half of one of my favorite plants...
The honey euryops bush (Euryops virgineus) have coloured my garden in bright yellow every spring for the last 7 or so years now. Its growth has amazed me. But in the wind, half of the plant/shrub suffered the ultimate fate of the wind. Half of it got blown over and snapped off at the base of the plant.
In my hand (left photograph), I hold the base of a shrub that I planted sever years ago. I feel like I lost something very close to me. (Again, the damage that I have is nothing in comparison to others' losses.) All of the plants in my garden have a special connection, and this shrub always signalled spring.
I would listen for the calls of the double-collared sunbird (Cinnyris chalybeus) who always feasted on the insects that the yellow flowers attracted. So many sunbirds visited this particular tree, and I would always watch them play for hours on end, zooming almost in circles around me as I also worked in the compost close by.
But with all things in life, death is just around the corner. Seven years of growth were wiped away in less than 24 hours. Now, there is only a massive gaping hole where this beautiful shrub used to stand almost 2.5 meters high (photograph below right). The mystery of the wind is that we cannot see it, we can only see and experience the effects of the wind.
But as with everything in life, death brings new life. Most of the shrub will be composted or turned into firewood. This will feed the remaining part of the shrub, and the new ones that have begun growing at the foot of the old one. But it will also give the other plants a chance to grow in its place. With the death of one, life will spring back into action.
The garden is an ever-changing art piece, one that we can rarely dictate; nature creates her own boundaries which she fills as she deems appropriate.
We can only be the spectators of this growing piece of art.
Alas...
All the loss around me saddens me. So many old trees got blown over. So many beautiful homes were damaged. So many lives were impacted. Our family suffered almost nothing, which makes us one of the lucky few. My heart goes out to those who suffered so much loss.
For now, we can only help where we can.
Happy gardening and keep safe.
All of the writing in this post is my own, albeit inspired by some of the damage suffered in my garden. All of the photographs are my own, taken with either my Nikon D300 or iPhone.