Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2016 i The Gardener Magazine

IN BRIEF Location: Knysna Age: 7 years Size: 660m2 Soils: Sandy Designer: Sustra Jacobs Photographed: November 2015 When Sustra and Johan Jacobs decided to call it quits on their busy lives in Gauteng and retire to beautiful Knysna in 2009, they set about creating their own little bit of heaven on Thesen Islands, a waterfront development in the lagoon. The plots are small and the housing is quite dense, yet the abundance of lagoon views and waterways gives the development a spaciousness that is unique, as well as plenty of privacy for each home. Sustra, an accomplished designer who holds a diploma from the Lifestyle College of Landscape Design in Johannesburg, knew just how to capitalise on this and transform her small garden into a place that seems bigger than…

A courtyard can become your secret hideaway from the hustle and bustle of the world outside, and you would be surprised at how much garden you can fit into a small space. Courtyards need to have a sense of ‘enclosure, be it with actual walls or implied ‘walls’ created by a fence, hedge, lattice with pretty climbers, or a row of plants. The walls provide a canvas for decor items or can be softened with plants, and the floor can also be made into a decorative feature with pavers and plants. Consider these points when designing your courtyard garden: Make it practical • Think of the area as an extension of your home. Create an outdoor room and design it as you would the interior, making the indoor-outdoor flow seamless.…

Before you start Gardening in overdrive can cause injury, muscle spasm and stiffness. Before starting your garden gym session, warm up those cold muscles by stretching a bit – it gives you time to decide what you’re going to tackle first. Vary your garden workout with different actions like pruning, raking, sweeping, mowing, digging and weeding, and spend about 15 minutes on each activity to work out different muscles. Do some stretching and limbering exercises before moving on to the next action. If you stick to this regime regularly, everything that has to be done in the garden will be done, and you will feel much better! Getting fit and healthy can be an expensive affair if you consider the cost of gym membership – sweaty and dreary institutions with…

ACTION 1 DRAW UP A GARDEN PLAN Drawing a garden design plan for a new section you might want to install or an old one that needs revamping is a piece of cake, and mid-winter is the ideal time to try it. Page through books and magazines for ideas, take photographs of your garden, grab some graph paper to help you plan for scale, pour a glass of sweet sherry and start sketching. ACTION 2 SURF ONTHE INTERNET Gardening websites abound these days, so spend some time on gardening blogs to read about the gardening woes and pleasures of other gardeners, as you can sometimes learn a lot this way. Remember that your favourite magazine, The Gardener, also has an interesting website: www.thegardener.co.za. If you feel terribly cold and down,…

• Cover the compost heap in cold weather with an old carpet or underfelt to keep in the heat. It will hasten the breaking-down process. • Air circulation is important – use an old broomstick or pipe to pierce the heap from above. • A compost heap should be kept just moist and should never dry out completely. Sprinkle a little water over the heap regularly but remember that too much water can cause it to rot. • Turn the whole heap every 3-4 weeks to aerate. It would take about eight weeks to three months to break down, depending on weather conditions. When the material has turned dark brown and smells fresh like soil, the composting process is completed. It can be left for another month or two, to…

Cold-weather composting Cold weather can slow the decomposition process, but you can maintain an essential core of heat in your compost heap, which indicates that crucial microbial activity is still taking place. • Help chilly, sluggish microbes by doing some of the work for them – chop or shred both browns and greens before adding them to the heap. • Take time to add layers of brown ingredients to your green materials. The layers help insulate the heap, trapping heat and gases inside. • Add manure from chickens or rabbits for heat-generating nitrogen. • Small amounts of ashes from your fireplace will enhance the calcium, phosphorus and potassium content of your finished compost. • Winter winds and low humidity can dry out the compost, so moisten the compost heap once…

In most regions the cold mid winter months are not ideal for seed germination or planting annuals, with root veg and late spring/early summer bulbs the exception in frost-free areas. Lunar gardeners tune into the rhythm of the moon's cycle for a host of gardening activities. So take the time to plan and prepare for spring planting. Also to maintain lawns, hedges and edges. Note that the harvest' days before the New Moon and after Full Moon are perfect for clearing beds and removing unwanted shrubs, trees and bushes.…

“You are a sour soul if you get cross when somebody picks a few lemons from your huge lemon tree’s branches” Working from home has temptations that constantly test your self-discipline, apart from the many distractions that you have to deal with. In the first place, everybody who is doing nothing during the day can see that you are sitting there at your desk, firmly tapping away at a keyboard (even if you are still dressed in your pyjamas at midday). They don’t realise that you are actually thinking and working, not just sitting idle waiting to chat. So should I slam my office door in peoples’ faces, or hang a rude sign on the garden gate telling people to sod off, or is that just not done? One day,…

Every garden has ‘gaps’, bits of bare soil between plants where something may have died or full coverage has not been achieved. Whatever the cause, these areas need to be filled with suitable little plants that can be tucked into the gaps. These charming winter-flowering plants fit the bill perfectly. Armeria maritima (sea thrift) Sea thrift is a low, clump-forming perennial with a dense base of slender, dark green leaves that can grow to 12cm in length. During winter and spring, upright flower stems emerge from the centre of the plant carrying rounded clusters of small flowers that look like little drum sticks well above the foliage. Colours range from white to pink and reddish pink or cerise. It is ideal for full sun positions with well-drained soils, and…

As South Africans we love being outdoors, and a little cold isn’t going to stop us from enjoying our gardens or patios. There are, however, some new heating products that make our patios a bit cosier and allow us to enjoy them when the temperatures drop. Earthfire has these great fire pits that provide warmth and a cooking surface in one. The hard-wearing glazed surface, both inside and out, stores heat and radiates warmth even after the fire has burnt out. A closed, two-piece ash container makes it clean and completely safe to use on a wooden deck, and it and the stand are powder-coated for a long-lasting finish. www.earthfire.co.za The fire pits from Megamaster come in a range of funky designs, such as this one called ‘London Boma. The…

Pruning is the procedure of cutting out or removing parts of plants for the express purposes of enhancing or manipulating the growth and performance of the plant, especially on woody plants. In nature, plants are often pruned naturally by winds and other weather phenomena where weak growth and branches are ripped off. The primary reason for pruning in gardens is to rid plants of dead or diseased wood or unsightly, unproductive growth. This enhances the shape and appearance of trees, shrubs and climbers, and in many cases improves flower and fruit quality. By getting rid of all the negative growth, further positive growth is greatly encouraged. In essence, that is why pruning is such an important part of good gardening. Much has been written about the fundamentals of pruning, including…

• Allow for a miniature landscape like a fairy garden, pirate garden or toy dinosaur garden. • Think of a raised bed filled with friable soil for digging and ‘planting cuttings’ – this will keep the youngsters out of your prized flowerbeds. • Add interesting play features like a doll’s house and a hopscotch pathway. With the use of artificial lawn, you can also create a putting green for adult and young golfers. • Kids (and adults) love places to hide – you can easily plan for a little ‘secret garden’ with judicious pruning of existing vegetation or the planting of a circular hedge to hide away in. If you are more adventurous you can also consider a labyrinth or maze – both can be done with pavers or with…

• Phalaenopsis or moth orchids must be protected from cold weather. Anything below 12°C can cause harm to these tropical plants. Ideally, temperatures should not go below 15°C, but this is not always possible unless you have a heated greenhouse. Keep your moth orchids indoors, and in very cold weather and refrain from watering them. If the soil is wet during a cold period there could be more damage than if the soil was dry. • Cymbidiums are either in flower now or the buds are busy developing. Make sure your plants get enough water to support the buds and flowers for a longer flowering period. Although tough plants, in very cold areas cymbidiums in bud or flowering should be taken indoors to prevent the buds or flowers from dropping.…

What you need Scaffolding planks cut to: 4 x 1600mm x 235mm x 50mm 2 x 1240mm x 235mm x 50mm 28 x 18mm x 230mm dowels Wood glue Wood sealer Tools Planer, belt sander, electric drill and 19mm drill bit, saw, sash clamps, chisel What you do 1 Plane all the long edges of the planks to be sure that they are all dead straight. 2 Join two 1600mm planks together on their planed edges by drilling 19mm holes 120mm deep in each joining face at 160mm intervals. Make sure that the holes line up with one another on the joining faces. 3 Liberally apply wood glue in the holes and along each joining face. Insert the dowels and join the two faces. Use a rubber mallet to bring…

Manchester, proud birthplace of the industrial revolution some 200 years ago, is today famed for its edgy, northern English spirit, having maintained its position as a leading centre of innovation and creativity. It’s no surprise then that the city should also be home to the world’s first urban gardening festival, ‘Dig the City’. Always on the lookout for new gardening trends, I decided to check it out last year. Running over seven days and exposing an average of 100 000 people a day to gardening, the 2015 show was launched by leading garden designer and Chelsea veteran, Diarmuid Gavin, and he pulled no punches when praising it for being different from the “po-faced garden festivals” elsewhere. This festival is all about making gardening fun and accessible to everyone, and inspiring…

GET THE LOOK No rose garden looks like this in July, but with pruning and soil regeneration the roses can be in peak condition for the first rose flush in October. The soft pink of ‘Towering Rose Magic’ on the pillars is echoed in complementary pinks in the hybrid roses ‘Bewitched’ in front and ‘Roberto Capucci’ towards the back. In July most gardeners have a date with their roses – the much-anticipated winter pruning ritual that ends one season and prepares the roses for the next. Winter rose pruning gives roses a fresh start. Old, diseased or twiggy growth is cut out to encourage the remaining healthy stems to sprout and the centre is opened up to allow in light for better growth. Cutting back also shapes and neatens the…

First layer: A 25cm layer of rough garden refuse like prunings and twigs. (A garden chipper is a handy tool to break these down into smaller pieces.) Second layer: A 5cm layer of kraal manure, chicken manure and finer refuse like grass clippings, leaves, spent annuals and kitchen waste. Third layer: A layer of about 5cm of garden soil or old potting soil. Fourth layer: Sprinkle some compost activator over the whole surface. Commercial compost activators are available at garden centres. Kraal and chicken manure are also natural activators that help to quickly break down raw organic material into a rich and wholesome humus. Repeat these four layers until your compost heap is about 1m high.…

The Orchid Lovers’ Fair will be held at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens, Roodepoort, this month and will have many orchids on show and for sale. Join us at the show for the talks and demonstrations to learn more about orchids, or ask the orchid experts and growers for advice on getting your plants to grow and flower better. Saturday 30 – Sunday 31 July, 10:00 – 16:00 daily Normal garden entrance fees apply Enquiries: Tinus 084 458 1199, info@plantae.co.za www.saoc.co.za…

Microgreens These are leafy green veggies like Asian greens, beetroot, baby spinach, cabbage, radish, rocket and wheatgrass that are sown densely in seed trays and ‘harvested’ within 10-14 days after germination, when they have developed 4-6 true leaves. Seed trays can be started indoors in a warm, well-lit room, using a heat pad if needed, and after germinating can be grown on in a sunny room or outside in a sunny but protected area. A sunny windowsill is fine, but move the trays away from the window in the evening because the temperature generally drops too low overnight and in the early morning. How to make your own sprouter All you need is a wide-mouthed glass jar, cheesecloth and a rubber band. Place the seeds in the jar, cover them…

Gauteng Saturday 16 Clivias: Interspecific show Clivia interspecifics will be on show, advice will be available from experts and there will be demos throughout the day. Laerskool Rooihuiskraal, c/o Panorama and Maraboe Streets, Rooihuiskraal Entrance is free. Enquiries: Martin 083 937 5216 or 012 656 1904 Friday 22 and Saturday 23 Workshop: Making dream catchers Prepaid booking essential. R300 per event. Enquiries: Patsy Vergeer, The Herb and Indigenous Plant Guild, 011 393 3427, 076 265 4948, patsyspotions@vergeer.co.za, www.patsyspotions.co.za Saturday 23 Orchid sale and open day A wide variety of flowering orchids and collectible plants will be available. Plantae Orchids, Brits Enquiries: Nollie 084 752 6823, Tinus 084 458 1199, info@plantae.co.za, www.plantae.co.za KwaZulu-Natal Saturday 23 – Sunday 24 Queensburgh Annual Orchid Show Plants will be on sale. Kloof Town Hall, Old…

What you need PVC pipe: 6 x 110mm x 68mm 40 x 50mm x 68mm 50 x 40mm x 68mm Pine for the frame: 2 x 600mm x 68mm x 20mm 2 x 438mm x 68mm x 20mm 8 x 4mm x 30mm full-thread cut screws PVC Weld Rustoleum black spray paint and hammered copper spray paint Contact adhesive Tools Tape measure, hacksaw, wood saw, cordless drill/screwdriver, counter-sink bit What you do 1 Cut all the timber and PVC pipe as per the cutting list. 2 Assemble the 600mm x 478mm frame by countersinking holes and screwing the pieces together. 3 Randomly place all the PVC circles inside the frame to form an attractive pattern and use PVC Weld to glue them together where they touch. You might have to…