Winter offerings

These late autumn days and nights are decidedly chilly, and soon, perhaps even tonight, we’ll make our first indoor fire of the year. The garden obliges with an abundant offering of wood that will likely be more than enough to warm us through the winter months.

First, on a particularly windy day – there’s a howling south-westerly – an entire tree crashes down, narrowly missing V’s car. It’s an ngwenya tree, a wild plum (Harpephyllum caffrum), the smaller of the two: the other is at least 12m high, and probably as wide.

An entire tree crashes down, just in time for winter fires

The car is trapped. With the help of Phillip’s bakkie (pick-up), a lot of small handsaws, sore muscles and sweat, we manage to move most of it out of the way to free the car. A few days later, Cousin D arrives with his chainsaw – I’m looking for one in pink – and then Alex, the gardener, dispatches it into neat piles of firewood, drying in the sun.

Useful ash

Some of that wood has already made its way into the fire pit, and the ash has been spread through the garden. Wood ash is a great source of potassium, which plants need for growth, disease resistance and fruit formation. It’s also needed to maintain crucial functions, like photosynthesis. Sandy soils, like mine, are most susceptible to potassium deficiencies.

A large branch of the allophylus tree breaks off

Ash also apparently helps keeps snails away. In fact, I can’t imagine any goggas (bugs) being partial to ash, so I have also scattered it onto plants that have been attacked by real nasties, like amaryllis worms. It seems to help.

Ash is not good for acid-lovers, like camellias and azaleas, and there is some caution that some wood may contain heavy metals. So, as with most things, moderation is the key.

In my face

Then, I stumble to the kitchen to make coffee early one morning and open the door to the garden. And I see … a tree! Close-up, right in my face. Talk about not being able to see the wood for the trees.

A very large branch of the allophylus tree (smile, Kathy) has rotted off, right at the base. It’s quite a job to hack it up and drag it out of the way, and now it, too, is awaiting Alex’s attention.

We’ll be giving Cousin D a call soon to beg his muscle and chainsaw power: the guava, naartjie and lemon trees, among others, need some serious trimming.