During the memorial day weekend we had the good fortune of visiting our friends Irene and Joe whose blog some of you may have seen already; They took us to the Botanical gardens of St. Louis, which we enjoyed alot (Thank you!!). While there, amongst the other cool garden sculptures and plants, what jumped out at me was the manicured english garden with concentric maze like rows of Boxwood. A very versatile plant that i saw again and again not only there, but also at the Golden Gate Park in San Fran. I liked how neat it looked, it has small leaves such that when the hedge is trimmed it doesnt clearly show where the trimming occurred, so its quitely seamless…so to speak.

So lets check out alittle more about this plant. From Wikipedia -

Boxes are commonly used for hedges and topiary, and the dense wood (called “boxwood” in all countries) is valued for wood carving. The inconspicuous flowers mean that boxes are usually only grown for their foliage. They are particularly favoured for hedges and topiary in formal gardens. Given time, neat low hedging can grow to enormous size, as at Powis Castle in north Wales. Often, however, they are kept dwarfed, as in the famous gardens at Château Villandry in France.

I was slightly overwhelmed by the search on wikipedia, as there are 15 different types of boxwood that can be found throughout Africa, from Congo, Zaire, SA, Madagascar to Somalia. I was wondering which species would work in Kenya. Buxus Hildebrantii seems to be close since it grows in Somalia and Ethiopia.

According to this draft paper by Mr. Kiambi, writing about bio-diversity in Djibouti;

Buxus hildebrandtii has been described in Bouankouale as the species with the best wood for handicrafts especially for the tourist market.

I could not find a picture of the east african boxwood, i do not have a mental picture of what it looks like. I am wondering whether someone could do something like this for a garden.

or the hedge like this at the Behringer Vineyards

The internet being what it is am sure i will find a pic soon.

Here are a few interesting links to resources (that point to many other articles and books) i came across over the past months.
First up? The enterprising Emeka Okafor of Timbuktu Chronicles, with an excellent series on the importance of trees to local economies. The first post on trees of change, and the follow up on Sahelian fruit trees.

World changing on Edible forests (which is just a win win situation – edible groundcover), and also on ‘Eco- literacy and America’s Nature-Disorder’.

AOB – The test of the solar ipod charger is set for tomorrow, i hope its sunny.