night gardening

Night Daisy by Simon Verrall

Puleng has just been complaining. “It’s so cold! What kind of chicken are you?” All because I have been doing a spot of night time gardening.

I love to experience the garden at all different times of the day. Night time is cool with the slightest echo of the humming day. The eyes are forced to take a step back into colourless shadows and the nose steps forward. The angles, textures and shapes of plants are more pronounced. Even now when winter has decimated or forced to sleep the abundance that roots itself to my backyard, the night air is scented with buddleja and jasmine.

In summer after the torment of a hot day, watering into the cool evening not only is a very good way to save water but releases all the glory of garden aromas. It’s like those scratch-and-sniff stickers. Do they still exist? The smell of damp earth, mingled with minty pelagronium, spicy sage leaves and the sweet nectar of all manner of flowers. The wisps of an evening breeze are as if the garden heaves a sigh of relief as it drinks in the cool, moist drops.

To compensate for the lack of colour, night plants should be textured and/or brightly coloured in whites, greys and yellows. I have seen there is a trend to light up the garden with solar powered lights but I would suggest that you resist this trend. If a garden must be lit, make that in areas near the house such as the outside porch but leave some areas to their natural night lighting. Restricting artificial lighting will encourage all those night creatures that are otherwise confused by artificial lighting. They are the modest worker bees of the night.

In Johannesburg there is enough light pollution as it is, casting a perpetual hazy orange into the sky. When there is a full moon, step into those dark areas and absorb the still beauty that light reflects. Call it an exercise in negative-space appreciation. Contemplate the emptiness. Night shadows are so much more dramatic!