Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2015 i The Gardener Magazine

Blue skies and crisp evenings invigorate me! I am fully exhilarated and raring to go this May! This is not the time to slumber and wrap yourself up in warm blankies and dream – it is the time for doing. First up, get your winter garden pharmacy beefed up to ward off those flu bugs and get you feeling energised and healthy – we all need a bit of green super juice at this time of year. Teetering on the edge of winter, we know that the aloes in our gardens are about to start their annual fireworks display. This is when we really start paying attention to them, and of course add more of them to our gardens. We often receive queries and question about aloes – which ones…

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” – Broken pieces of lovely old porcelain were stuck on a wall mirror and basin, turning the functional into a slightly peculiar focal point. The bizarre-looking plant in the round pot next to it is Euphorbia tirucalli. Let the river run – All sorts of rustic (rusted) bits and pieces, and even a ‘bokkoppie’, were used here as spouts to guide running water into a narrow trough. Till the cows come home – It wasn’t the cow that caught our eye (although it is a lovely piece of art!), but rather how the wide niche in the wall has been decorated with paint, an old garden gate, containers with aloes on either side, and a layer of ornamental…

You will need One large cylinder vase, approximately 60 cm high and 15 cm wide Floral scissors or secateurs 7-10 leaves of orsimilarliriopeplants 3-5 medium-sized proteas 2-3 stems of agapanthus leaves, approximately 50 cm long WHAT TO DO • Turn half of the liriope leaves around so that you have a mix of leaf tips and stem ends at each end. Twist the stems into a loop that is slightly smaller in diameter than the width of the vase and drop them into the vase. Don’t try to control this process – simply leave them where they fall. • Make a loop with one agapanthus leaf. Place this loop in the vase just above the liriope leaves. Make another agapanthus loop and position it near the top of the vase.…

QUESTION: Is there a difference between hybrid aloes and species aloes? Answer: Technically the difference is that species are found growing wild in their natural habitat, while hybrids are bred by the hand of man in a garden or nursery environment. Occasionally natural hybrids are found growing wild where two similar species overlap in distribution. Aloes hybridise or cross readily, allowing plant breeders great opportunities to produce new hybrids with improved garden performance. This is the major benefit of planting hybrid aloes as opposed to species – they put on a superior display in the garden, are brighter and more colourful, have longer flowering periods and essentially offer more value for money. Purists may argue that species should be kept as pure as possible. However, most garden plants propagated today…

Some stalwart perennials, like Michaelmas daisies, obedience plants, penstemons, yarrow (achillea), gaillardia (blanket flower) and chrysanthemums will stop flowering at the end of this month, and it will be time to neaten them up by cutting them back. If the clumps have become too thick, you can divide and replant them too. If you prefer to wait until spring, simply add a layer of compost around their root areas. Prune back plectranthus after flowering and use the clippings as cutting material from which to grow more plants. They root very easily if kept in a lightly shaded spot protected from cold.…

Winter herbs Calendula (Calendula officinalis) is grown for its petals, which are infused for drinking as an anti-viral tonic to help clear infections and to detox and balance the digestive system, liver and gall bladder. Remedy: Infuse 2 teaspoons of petals in 750 ml of just-boiled water for 10 minutes. Strain, and drink up to five cups a day. Sage (Salvia officinalis) has aromatic leaves that are strongly antiseptic. Make sure to never overwater, especially in winter. Remedy: An infusion can be used as a gargle for throat and mouth infections, as well as for coughs, colds and influenza. Infuse 3 teaspoons of fresh leaves in a cup of boiling water for 15 minutes, strain and cool. Gargle three times a day. Caution: Avoid heavy dosages or prolonged use of…

WHAT YOU WILL NEED 2 x 30 mm wood (200 mm x 180 mm – ends) 4 x 12 mm dowel sticks (420 mm in length) Piece of fencing wire with a 25 x 25 mm mesh (410 mm x 555 mm) Branch or wooden handle (see how to make one below) Wood glue Block of wood to help with shaping the wire mesh (about 15 mm x 15 mm x 410 mm) 2 x 4 mm x 50 mm wood screws Tools Tape measure, jigsaw, sandpaper or sander, drill and 12 mm drill bit, carpenter’s square, pencil, metal snips, pliers, circular plastic lid 1 Round off the corners of the two end pieces with a jigsaw. A good stencil to use for the rounded corners is a circular plastic…

1 COPROX COBOND Coprox Cobond is an easy-to-use copolymer latex liquid designed as a general-purpose bonding and keying agent for excellent adhesion on dense and smooth surfaces like bricks, cement and pool plasters. It can also be used as an additive to other Coprox products to waterproof surfaces that expand and contract, like balconies and copings, and is ideal for fixing pitted or stained swimming pools, ponds and water features. www.coprox.co.za 2 SPROUTING MADE EASY The Livingseeds Sprouting System is an attractive, simple-to-use home-growing kit that enables you to produce your own healthy sprouts at a fraction of the cost of store-bought sprouts. The Sprouting System is designed to screw onto most standard 750 ml bottles, so you can do your bit for the environment by upcycling your jars. Seed…

Sedums are grown as much for their colourful foliage as for the tiny, star-shaped flowers that appear in summer. Also known as stonecrops, these tough little plants are rewarding and easy to grow. Flat, low-growing succulent groundcovers, they cope with a fair amount of winter cold and are invaluable for covering odd bits of bare soil in the garden. While they are perfect in succulent gardens, they’re equally as acceptable in cottage gardens. Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’ has vibrant foliage in shades of lime, chartreuse and yellow, and gold and orange in winter. The slender little leaves are tightly arranged on short, fleshy stems, and yellow flowers top the foliage during summer. Plants spread steadily, forming a dense carpet of fleshy leaves. It is a great little plant for…

Simply nice Collect some flowers and stems of pretty foliage plants from your garden to display in your jars. Doing this keeps your garden close to you in all seasons. My fascination with windowsill gardening started when I bought a second-hand book by Jack Kramer, called Flowers at your Window, published in London. At first I chose this book more out of sympathy for gardeners in the cold northern hemisphere (who have no choice but to grow random stuff like hibiscus and plumbago indoors) than because I had a budding interest in indoor gardening per se. I just could not believe that life could be so cruel! But being a housewife I spend as much time in my kitchen as I do grafting in my garden, so the sunny (east-facing)…

Ornamental kale, the pretty cousins of all the cabbages and kales, is edible and can be used in cooking, just like the rest of the cabbage family. But will you have the courage to harvest and munch these pretty, cold-hardy annuals with their jewel-like colours? What differentiates ornamental kale from other kales are the short internodes on its stems, which create dense rosettes of leaves containing colourful pigments that intensify with low temperatures, even responding to light to moderate frost. It has taken a lot of cross-pollination and hybridising between different cabbages to create these unusual annual plants with their fancy, ruffled foliage. IDEA 1: BORDER ME BEAUTIFUL Use ornamental kale with white Lobularia (alyssum) as lovely border decoration for shrubs and in flowerbeds. The lobularia, just like the kale,…

GET THE LOOK This massed planting of ‘My Granny’ shows off this super-performing rose in all its glory. The same effect will be produced by any of the ‘Granny’ roses, as well as other Colourscape roses like ‘Fiery Sunsation’, ‘Deloitte and Touche’, ‘Adele Searll’, ‘ Lesotho Royal’, ‘Water Wise Blush’ and our new rose, ‘Kinders van die Wind’. The beauty of these roses is that they grow from the centre to form a mound, and flower all over so that the centre never becomes bare with blooms only at the ends of the stems. If used as a border, plants can be trimmed with hedge clippers to keep them neat. When planted in containers or on a wall, the cascading stems produce the effect of flowers tumbling down. 5 Reasons…

1. Protect young trees and shrubs – before the cold arrives, use frost cover (available from most nurseries and hardware stores) to cover all tender and especially newly planted specimens. The cloth can be left on the plants as it allows air, light and water through and protects against the wind. Most young plants in cold areas that can be damaged by frost need this protection for at least 3-4 years before you can relax. 2. Keep them healthy – preventative and timely treatment against pests and disease will keep your plants healthy and stress-free, with a better chance of surviving winter. 3. Fertilise correctly and regularly – feed the garden in spring and summer and do not use nitrogen-rich fertiliser, which stimulates soft new growth, after March. 4. Hold…

Space saving idea Plant peas in a circle and grow them up a cane tepee. Surrounding the tepee with chicken wire mesh or plastic mesh makes it easier for the plants to climb. Another option is to tie twine between the canes as a support. ‘Two for the price of one’ is how sugar snap peas could be described. They can either be harvested as young pods when they are crisp and sweet to eat, or they can be left on the vine and picked as shelled peas, with a much sweeter taste than normal garden peas. This successful crossing of mangetout (also known as snow peas) and garden peas is a quick grower and suitable also for large containers, as long as they are kept well watered. In warmer,…

If you can’t find a suitable branch to use as a handle for your basket then you can make one like we did. Measure the length of the basket (it should be 410 mm, which is the length of the dowels minus the depth they are recessed). Tie a pencil to a nail, making sure the length of the string is exactly half the length of the basket (205 mm in this case). Fix the nail into the centre of a 30 mm piece of wood and, using the pencil, draw a semicircle. Shorten the string by about 25 mm and draw a parallel semi-circle. Cut out the handle with a jigsaw and file down the edges. Keep the ends of the handle where it will attach to the basket…

We all love spending time on our deck or patio, but sometimes the wind or rain makes it unpleasant. When we were confronted with this problem we looked around for a practical, cost-effective solution that wouldn’t ruin the view, and came upon Coolaroo Outdoor Patio Blinds. These easy-to-install clear PVC patio blinds protect your patio furniture and flooring against wind and rain, and make the patio more comfortable in adverse weather conditions. By installing wall anchors to create a sealed patio ‘room’ with a view, you can also use the blinds to reduce heat loss. The standard height of the blinds is 2.4 m, and they are available in panels 0.9 m, 1.5 m and 2.4 m wide. Extra 5 cm and 15 cm extending panels are also available, as…

Friday 1 – Sunday 3 Celebrate Autumn in the Magoebaskloof Enjoy the annual Haenertsburg Food, Wine and Beer Festival, complete with cooking workshops and food demonstrations and a delicious country market. Enquiries: 082 370 8567 www.foodandwinefestival.co.za Saturday 9 – Monday 11 East Rand Orchid Show Edenvale Community Centre, corner of Van Riebeeck Avenue and Second Street, Edenvale Enquiries: Andre 011 453 6888 (office hours) www.eastrandorchids.co.za Monday 11, Sunday 17 Organic vegetable gardening courses in Sandton Enquiries: gilda@soughtafterseedlings.co.za www.soughtafterseedlings.co.za Saturday 30 Orchid Sale and Open Day in Brits A wide variety of flowering orchids and collectible plants will be on display and available for sale. Plantae Orchids, Brits Enquiries: Nollie 084 752 6823 or Tinus 084 458 1199 www.plantae.co.za Saturday 30 – Sunday 31 Wild Mushroom Hunts at Delheim Wine…

IN BRIEF Location: Franschhoek, Western Cape Climate: Hot, dry summers, cold, wet winters Size: 1500 m2 including the large house Soil: Sandy Aspect: North-east Age: 12 years Designer: Aliki Starke Photographed: October Aliki Starke’s passion is to renovate older homes, opening up cramped rooms and improving flow to create light and airy spaces that are welcoming and restful. This spatial literacy, or ‘architectural’ talent, is fully expressed in the gardens she designs, too. When she acquired her current home in Franschhoek in 2003, the garden consisted of little more than a boring patch of kikuyu lawn. Now it is a delightful complex of interleading garden rooms that invite you to explore them, one at a time. Aliki ‘s starting point was to…

Sansevierias are tough, drought-tolerant succulents with leathery leaves held in rosettes. They produce offsets (suckers) around the parent rosette, forming large clumps over a period of time. Each rosette dies off slowly after flowering, but this is not noticeable due to the proliferation of younger plantlets. These extremely versatile plants grow in sun or shade, indoors and outdoors, in the garden or in pots, and withstand neglect better than most. They are cold and frost sensitive and need to be kept indoors in these climates. Some sansevieria species are indigenous to South Africa, while others originate from tropical Africa, Madagascar, India and Indonesia. They propagate easily from seed, suckers and even from leaf cuttings. Some leaves are flat and sheath-like, while others are round or cylindrical, and it is from…

GREEN TOMATO SAUCE Place the tomatoes, onion, wine, rosemary and chicken stock in a saucepan. Simmer for about half an hour until the tomatoes and onions are soft. Add the cream and reduce the sauce by half. Remove the rosemary and use a stick blender to blend the sauce until smooth. Add the butter a bit at a time and continue blending until thick and glossy.…

A reader asked about fast-growing trees that could be planted as a screen around a braai area in an exposed corner with no privacy. Autumn is the perfect season to plant new trees, and in this case we highly recommend Tarchonanthus camphoratus (camphor bush). This fast-growing indigenous tree grows all over the country, is wind resistant, waterwise and tolerates a fair amount of heavy frost. It is simply perfect for coastal gardens. The natural growth habit is multi-stemmed and bushy, which makes it ideal for hedging or as a windbreak in an exposed place. With judicious pruning it can be trained into a single stemmed, medium-sized shade tree. It is evergreen, with leathery, greyish-green elliptical leaves that give off a fresh camphor-like aroma when crushed. Dainty sprays of cream flowers…

Make the most of our last lovely autumn days to sow the final winter crops (except in subtropical areas), transplant and nourish seedlings for the winter ahead, harvest tail-end summer crops and tuck up the garden against the cold. Tips for using frost cloth 1. When laying frost cloth, make sure that it doesn’t touch the plants, or the plants will burn where it touches. 2. Lift the frost cloth each day. 3. Protect taller plants by placing tall sticks or poles around the plant and wrapping the frost cloth around the sticks. The top can be left open but the frost cloth at the top should extend higher than the plant. This protection can be left throughout winter as long as the leaves receive enough sunlight. Cold weather strategies…

Keep the winter chill at bay with a choice of a gas or wood fireplace, or go with a trusty heater ALWAYS IN FASHION If you choose a traditional wood-burning fireplace, remember to make space nearby for firewood. A shelf or firewood container can be made into a decor item and will also make tending to your fire that much easier. Gas fireplace The reasons to opt for a gas fireplace are fairly obvious. They are a cinch to light, they don’t need ongoing attention while alight, and they don’t make a mess that needs to be cleaned up. They do require occasional servicing and cleaning, but how often depends on how regularly they are used. Gas fireplaces are said to be more efficient at heating rooms and homes, and…

Make the most of the fertile full moon phase on the first weekend to plant /sow flower annuals and perennials; especially if you missed the previous best dates for sowing fragrant sweet peas. Also plant flowering spring bulbs, just after full moon, and during the waning phase on the days marked for'root' Note the'hot veg' days in mid-month - ideal for planting garlic and onion sets. Take cuttings of shrubs before the New Moon, which encourages rooting in friable soil, and put these at month end on'flower'days.…

Sometimes I feel like a rough diamond tightly clamped in the vice of a relentless artisan who is slowly chipping away slivers of me to lay bare the shiny facets of my true character. But just when I think the job is done, I get roughed up by myself or other rough diamonds, and my facets go ‘milky’ again. Here are some everyday things that cause a grinding effect, rather than the ‘clean cuts’ of a polished gem. As a mature old chick, I don’t care if somebody gossips about me behind my back – I have lived long enough not to care what he or she thinks. But please, don’t upset me by shouting a gardening question behind me when I’m standing in a line at the ATM, or…