Refreshing the garden pathways with broken apricot pips

With most of the recent improvements to the interior of the house complete, the focus has shifted to the garden. We have a planned sequence of work that needs completion along with when we hope to achieve each task. When I received an email message informing me that it was my turn to receive broken apricot pips, our plans had to change a bit. I had been on a waiting list for broken apricot pips since August last year.

The plan was to refresh all the garden pathways and parking area with the broken apricot pips for the spring garden. However, due to the pips having been sold out, we went onto a waiting list. I arranged for the five cubic meters of pips to be delivered. The delivery of the pips brought with it the excitement of renewal.

The fresh pips have a soft brown colour that lightens the pathways and surfaces where we use them. They bring with them the experience of crunchy walkways with a feint fragrance of apricot kernels. The bits of broken apricot kernels, which are stuck to the pips, are a feast for the doves. Walking around a corner often results in a flight of laughing- and turtle doves flying off into the trees where they wait till it is safe to return to the feast on offer in the pathways.

It is quite something to see these flocks of doves walking up the pathways in the garden. Like tourists enjoying a package tour of sightseeing and eating as much as you can. I am sure the doves know how much they may safely eat of the arsenic tainted kernels, because I have not seen any related fatalities in the garden.

The irregular availability of the broken pips means that from now on, we will have to plan the refreshing of the pathways well in advance. In June 2022, we discovered that we might have to find an alternative supplier of broken pips to the one that we are using in Montagu, in the near future.

On 9 June 2022, Tiger Brands gave notice of their intention to close the canning factory in Ashton. The closing of the largest canning factory in South Africa, will impact our country’s standing as one of the top seven fruit canning countries in the world. But closer to home, it will impact negatively on more than 4500 seasonal jobs, 2250 permanent farm worker jobs, and approximately 300 farmers.

The loss of jobs will have a devasting effect on the Ashton community and the valley as a whole. Farmers will face the prospect of having to remove orchards and investing in other crops. The wider impact will be felt by ink suppliers and printers for packaging and labels, can manufacturers and the manufacturers of broken pips to mention but a few of the downstream implications.

We can only hope for the best possible solution for all the affected stakeholders in the Agro-processing sector. For now, we can enjoy the fresh and clean feel of the pathways while the elements will soon turn them into their seasoned greyish brown colour. 

It is always amazing to see the effect on the garden when one uses organic material. We could possibly have used broken stone and gravel for the pathways and parking area. That would last longer, but the benefits to the ecosystem in the garden would have been far less.

The pips will deteriorate over time and need constant refreshing but the benefit to the garden and the diversity of the ecosystem far outweighs the effort of keeping up the practice of using broken apricot pips as a surface cover. As much as the doves enjoy feeding in the pathways, I enjoy watching them in the morning where I sit at the breakfast table. We are all starting our day with a healthy meal at Towerwater, thanks to the providence of the garden, pathways included.