ON SPEK…the whole story

SPEKBOOM, ‘pork bush’ or Portulacaria afra is a small-leaved succulent South African plant. Like a sponge, it absorbs and removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere improving air quality. Show it some soil and it grows happily and prolifically. Big attributes for a humble shrub. I have a huge bush of it in my garden grown from a cutting stolen from its true home, the Eastern Cape.

Just prior to the Covid-19 Lockdown late March 2020, I read that Communitree SA were looking for people to nurture small indigenous plants to help establish fynbos corridors connecting under-greened areas of Cape Town for the benefit of bugs, birds and small beasts. Good call.

With 21 Locked-down days ahead, growing small plants from the mother-bush, so to speak, seemed like a worthwhile project. And so, the Personal Lockdown Spekboom Challenge began…

I started, giving each pot a number in case I lost count. A request from a facebook friend asked for the how-to, which was not rocket science,  this was all there was to it really..,

….and very soon the collection, um – grew…

….with it a selection of garden finds….

….that included a small heart hand painted by Tracy Prosalendis, a shell, an airplant, a twig, a marble, stone, a late snail and a variety of feathers, amongst other things….

…including an egg on Easter Sunday. A challenge however, was finding containers and towards the close of the 21 Days….

…beer cans (those few that were left on account of the booze ban), became the only option. And so it was….

…that we reached the end of the line. But then….

….blow me down if Cyril didn’t go and extend Lockdown for another two weeks!

So manpower was recruited. John-Clive hand-numbered some recycled poly cups, while  Biksegn took on the task of making drainage holes…

…and so we continued, snipping and planting, till finally reaching the grand total.

At this point, I was ever so slightly over the Personal Lockdown Spekboom Challenge.

I won’t pretend there wasn’t a certain sense of achievement, but what now….?

Then, with liberty hours declared between 6am and 9am, out running one morning I came across a man planting in a spare patch of grass….who are you and where are you from? I inquired. ‘Paul’, he replied ‘from Communitree’ . Eureka! Cut to the chase, we made a date….

…the spekbabies were packed up and ready to go….

….so here we were, (from left below) Frances Taylor, founder of Communitree-SA ecologist and environmentalist, me, little Cheslyn and his mum who stopped by to help,  Daphne the neighbouring gardener and (above, standing) Paul the plantsman Hoekman. It should be noted that spekboom is NOT indigenous to the Western Cape (eish!), but their tenacity and wind resilience make them useful for protection purposes. Phew!

….a happy ending to the Lockdown Spekboom Story thanks to Communitree – with spekbabies planted halfway round the windswept spare patch….

….so now to get started on the other half….

….with cuttings from Frances of some proper indigenous plants to nurture. Watch this space!