Innholdsfortegnelse for March / April 2025 i The Gardener Magazine

Welcome to my favourite months in the gardening calendar. These cooler, more temperate months are full of abundance. The perennials in the border flower beds are a riot of colours, and my trees tell me that autumn is here. My planning kicks into top gear at this time of year, and so should yours. It is a time for decisions and dreaming about what bulbs will be planted where. Are they all going in pots this year, or what is the colour scheme for the front garden, and what is going indoors? I can tell you right now that on my ‘must-have list, no matter what’, I must have the salmon and yellow hyacinths for starters. And wait for it, we can now get English bluebells! Oh, my word, I…

It’s time to sow sweet peas Add some sweetness to your garden with MayFord Seeds’ sweet peas. They are easy to grow, thrive on trellises or in pots, and will transform your garden into a colourful paradise with a delightful fragrance. Choose between climber and dwarf mixed-coloured varieties, which will not only look beautiful but also attract pollinators to your garden. www.mayford.co.za https://mayford.co.za/ https://www.kirchhoffs.co.za/ The new Gusta Range Increase your outdoor space with the crafted Gusta Range practical planters, which fit perfectly in any area. They are ideal for smaller gardens, balconies, and terraces, or why not have your own indoor garden solution? This weather-resistant, sophisticated, uniquely designed planter range is decorative, easy to use, and suitable for all crops, especially climbers. www.kirchhoffs.co.za…

Feed with Talborne Nourish Buds, Flowers & Fruit 4:1:6 (11) liquid organic plant food or Vita Fruit & Flower 3:1:5 (18) certified organic granular fertiliser to boost and enhance the vibrancy of your autumn blooms, late summer colour and the last of your abundant, summer edible harvests. These products boost all flowers, including roses and aloes, fruiting vegetables, fruit and flowering trees, shrubs, and container plants, with a little going a long way. www.talborne.co.za https://talborne.co.za/…

I planted up this combination of pink cleomes (spider flower), Celosia ‘Flamingo Feather’ and Zinnia ‘Profusion White’ in my flower border. It gave me much pleasure. Now, I am going to harvest the cleome’s seed to keep and sow again. Do this ● Cleomes produce seed pods that turn brown and start to crack open. Cut off the seed pods before they do and allow them to dry out completely on a sheet of paper. ● Gently crush the pod to release the seed. ● Place in an envelope or airtight container and keep in a cool place until they can be sown again in spring. Planting position: Morning sun, afternoon shade. Planting method: The neck of the bulb should be at the soil’s surface. More nerine Many plants remind…

Camellias do not like soil or an organic mulching layer building up or ‘burying’ their stems and can then refuse to flower properly. Make sure that the fertiliser and mulch cover the root zone and at least 10 cm away from the stem. Camellias do not like dusty conditions either. Before their flowers open, give them some overhead watering to clean them up, but ensure that enough water also reaches the roots. Azaleas hate any disturbance around their shallow root systems – many are killed off by forking around them. As they also enjoy humidity, you can give them a regular overhead sprinkling too.…

It’s time to take stock of your garden, with your pruning tools at the ready, as there will be plenty to neaten, shape, tame, and encourage to flower again. Keep topiaries in shape Allowing plants with formal shapes to lose it removes their quality and desired denseness. Trim your topiaries like standard trees, ball shapes or squares, neatly. Shaping existing topiaries or even creating new forms can be very therapeutic. Study large shrubs like hibiscus, eugenias, durantas or viburnums. Cutting away some of their side stems and identifying some main trunks can stimulate you into creating a new multi-headed or multi-stemmed topiary shape to add interest to your garden. It can also free up space to plant more perennials or grasses around and below them. Care for the damaged Hail…

Silver lilac ‘Berdine’ Silver-lilac is an unusual but sought-after rose colour, loved for its subtle shades. The stately ‘Berdine’ grows up to 2 m in a single season and produces lightly fragrant blooms in these elusive colours, which change as the blooms mature. The elegant, pointed buds are a soft silver lilac, and as the blooms open to the sun, they take on a muted magenta sheen, which deepens as the bloom matures. Finally, the mature bloom has a deep lilac centre framed by silvery outer petals. This disease-resistant rose grows vigorously but neatly upright. Rose care checklist • The heavier dew can make roses susceptible to black spot. Prevent it by spraying twice a month with Chronos or Odeon or alternate with Garden Protector. • Cut off dead flowers…

If you struggle to keep up with plant maintenance, try these tips. Only a few minutes every other day will turn your house into a plant paradise. Tuesday: Turn plants and wipe leaves while checking for pests. Turning your plants regularly and removing the dust from the leaves promotes healthy photosynthesis and even growth. Sunday: It’s a spa day for you and your plants! Water and feed while you have a relaxing cup of tea. This is a good time to see which plants need a top-up of potting soil or a new pot. Clean pot covers as these can harbour pests and disease if the soil has spilt into them. Remove dead leaves.…

Black bird-berry Psychotria capensis is an extremely attractive shrub or even small tree with a size of about 2 x 4 m, with pale brown bark and many slender, horizontal stems dressed in leathery and glossy dark green elliptical leaves. One can call this the perfect foliage plant for shade, as it will grow happily under the shady canopy of deciduous trees. If you have enough space, plant groups of them in your woodland garden. If only a pot is available, plant one in it and place it where the morning sun will reach it. Rich, yellow flowers cover the plant from August to January, which attracts many pollinators. The flowers are followed by bunches of multi-coloured berry-like fruit (they ripen from yellow, red, to black from January to July),…

Cannas are hungry plants and love a feed of old manure. They will award you with more blooms until winter strikes. Also, deadhead them when all the flowers on the stems have died. Do not cut it off; simply hold it firmly near the base and twist it sharply. It will come away easily. White arum lilies are hungry, too, and must be mulched with old manure or a fresh layer of compost. Remember to keep on watering these plants.…

Hyacinths Beautiful hyacinths are getting new colours this season. Look out for salmon, yellow, pink and red as well as the usual white and blue. Hyacinths are very easy to grow outdoors, massed together for a glorious display, and are often used as indoor plants due to their fragrance. They are best planted in autumn and early winter to give them the cold they need to flower well in spring. They prefer some shade or morning sun. An investment in bulbs will add charm and colour to gardens or pots, and you can get many years of pleasure from one bulb. This year, we explore a few new and old bulbs that will be ready to plant this season. Ideal conditions • Plant in well-draining, rich soil with compost added.…

1. Catch the falling leaves A leaf skimmer is an essential tool for removing insects, falling autumn leaves, and other debris from the surface of the water. It keeps your pool looking clean and reduces the workload on its filtration system. You can use a flat net attached to a long pole if you want to keep fit, but an automatic leaf skimmer connected to your filtration system and pump works very well. 2. Clean the filter sand Pool water is pumped through the system, and the sand in the filter catches dirt and debris, purifying and cleaning it before returning it to the pool. Regularly check the system’s filter sand, which can become clogged and need replacing. Swimming pool filter sand is available at most hardware stores. 3. Is…

Join Freddie to find out what’s new and trending in the world of bedding plants. These Flowering Favourites are available this month at garden centres countrywide ready to be planted in your garden or in a pot. Local and dazzling Gazanias The ultimate daisy flower in shades of orange, yellow, rose, red, pink, bronze, and gold in stripy variations must be sun-loving gazanias. These indigenous plants can withstand the salty conditions at the coast, making them excellent bedding plants for hot areas of the garden, in flower beds, containers, or hanging baskets. Flowers will close at night when the sun sets and on cloudy days. To grow gazanias • Plant in full sun to get the best blooms. • Soil can be almost anything as long as it’s well-draining. Add…

These three houseplants don’t mind a little drop in light and temperature during autumn and winter. Hoya carnosa is a plant that will look good in the cooler months. Able to tolerate low light as the winter sun sets in, this plant, with its thick, waxy leaves, can endure temperatures as low as 10°C if it is not placed close to a chilly window. Water and fertilise less frequently, as the growth will slow down during this time. Aglaonema, or Chinese evergreens, are the perfect houseplants for autumn with their fiery foliage. This plant is a tough contender when it comes to beating the cold. Just a few things to keep in mind: These plants are true tropical heroes, so mist them regularly and decrease your watering to every two…

Dear Tanya… Winning letter We moved into a new house on the South Coast. I need good advice on how to get rid of this weed please. It’s driving me nuts. Kind regards, Yvonne Syffert Hi Yvonne, This looks like a Richardia plant (a pest/weed in our lawns). This broad-leafed perennial needs to be either physically removed, which is a seriously long game, or it can be treated with a selective herbicide. There are many to choose from: Lawnweeder, Pure Lawn, Turfweeder or Kombat Weeds. Please follow the instructions carefully and apply the right coverage – rather under-apply and have to repeat than overapply, you risk damaging the lawn. Apply on a sunny, windless day, keep the dogs and cats off the lawn for an hour or two and repeat…

Graptophyllum pictum ‘Chocolate’ This is a very striking evergreen with brightly coloured foliage at home in hot, subtropical climates and tropical-style gardens. The leaves are large and leathery, burgundy bronze, centred with pink and cream splashes – a magnificent shrub to use as a striking contrast. It matures to about 1,2-1,8 m. Creating a tropical look is easy to achieve with the right plants. Pseuderanthemum reticulatum ‘Atropurpureum’ This tropical evergreen from Polynesia is the perfect companion for crotons in a tropical-style border. The leaves are ovate, leathery, and plum-coloured, with rose, grey-green, and cream markings in no set pattern. Lovely, lightly fragranced little five-petalled flowers, rosy purple with red markings, appear on terminal spikes in summer and autumn. Mature height is about 1-1,2 m. Plant together with Pseuderanthemum reticulatum ‘Aureum’, which…

✶ STAR OF THE SHOW ✶ I will always pause along a pathway or next to a border to admire how perfectly certain plants fill a gap. My favourite at the moment is the Leucophyta brownii commonly known as Grey Samphire or Cushion or silver bush, a small, hardy shrub. I love its striking silvery-grey, fleshy leaves that give the plant its distinctive appearance. The plants strange leaves help it conserve water and withstand high levels of salt, so for coastal gardens in poor soil, it’s a great option. It produces small, yellow flower heads that attract pollinators like bees and butterflies, typically blooming in spring and summer. This striking small shrub found a spot in a pot in my garden but will work well in garden beds in full…

● Clean out old pots, window boxes, and hanging baskets, and refill them with good potting soil, ready for planting winter- and summer-flowering seedlings. ● Continue cleaning out clumps of perennials if you are not planning on dividing them. Work some fine compost into the clumps. ● Feed winter-flowering aloes with a slow-releasing organic fertiliser and mulch with a thin layer of compost. ● Prepare your selected areas for direct sowing by digging the patches over, removing old roots and rocks, spreading out compost and a general-purpose fertiliser, watering the soil lightly to allow it to settle, and raking to a fine tilth.…

As ground temperatures cool down, you can begin your autumn sowing in earnest. All members of the daisy family, like the Namaqualand daisy, Livingstone daisy, ursinia and bokbaaivygies, can now be sown directly. Remember to sow Virginian stocks and linaria seeds as well. Keep the soil just moist until germination and protect the sprouting seeds with bird netting. Colour for later Plan your winter and spring colour displays. It is a perfect time to start planting out seedlings, and the choice is endless: poppies, pansies, nemesias, bellis perennis, snapdragons, foxgloves, stocks for sun, and Primula malacoides and Pericallis x hybrida (cineraria) for shady areas. Tips ● Stocks like a light dressing of lime. ● Iceland poppies hate lime and should not be planted near stocks. ● Pot up some extra…

Feeding is now a top priority! Autumn feeding is highly recommended during the last sunny and temperate days before winter to encourage photosynthesis, ensure enough storage of reserve materials, strengthen new shoots, and harden the plant cells to give them better stamina and resistance to frost throughout winter. Lawns If summer and lots of activity on the lawn have given it a tired and lacklustre look, cut it neatly with blades set higher, de-thatch it if needed with a lawn rake, aerate with a garden fork, and remove persistent weeds. Then, use a slow-releasing organic fertilizer formulated for lawns with higher rates of potassium and phosphates than nitrogen. Water the fertiliser in well afterwards. All existing shrub beds and trees Feed with an all-purpose slow-releasing organic fertiliser, water well afterwards,…

Scale A layer of white, immobile small insects on aloe leaves and other succulents can be aloe scale, which can cause a plant to deteriorate quickly. Scale can be present all year round on other plants, too, and is often a problem in shady, stuffy, and sheltered areas. It is easy to see on infested plants, but another sign of their presence is ants running up and down stems or ant nests close by. Your first line of defence could be to curb ant activity, as they will only spread the infestation further. If it is handleable, try crushing the scale with your fingers or rubbing or brushing it off. You can also try pruning away infested parts. Control can be achieved on most plants by spraying with organic insecticides…

1. Prepare a seed tray about 5 cm deep in a protected spot in your garden. Put a layer of coarse river sand in the bottom and water it. 2. Take cuttings from the current season’s mature growth with a 20-30 cm length. 3. Remove the leaves from the bottom two-thirds of the cuttings. 4. Dip cutting into water and then hormone powder. 5. Make a hole in the sand and then place the cutting into it and firm down around it. 6. Fill the tray with cuttings and firm around stems. Tip Plants that could be propagated this way include nandinas, viburnums, and frangipani. Step by step Water wisely ● Check your irrigation system regularly and adjust the sprinklers so that only your lawn and plant beds are watered, not the house,…

The border If you love the look of lavender flowers but have too much shade, there’s a solution in the grassy department. Planted along a shady border, the purple flowering lilyturf (Liriope muscari) makes an easy border. I can be a bit of a lazy gardener sometimes, but this is one perennial that I won’t mind. They like soil with loads of compost to retain moisture and look good all year. Just as the new leaves show late spring, a heavy cutback will clean them up, and then it’s plain sailing until they put on their spectacular flower show in autumn. INSPIRATION IS ALL AROUND What season is it? This is always a hot debate in our household. Just because it’s hot doesn’t mean it’s summer, as we move into…

Last summer flowers from the garden Tip Use pot covers as vases to add an extra element of style. As autumn fast approaches, it is time to make space in the garden for the new season and new flowering plants. So, bring the last of summer indoors with cut flowers. In our garden, I love mixing it up, and if it has a stem, it can go in a vase! Let your creativity flow, mixing in large branches, tall grass stems, and a mix of blooms. There are no rules, just sheer enjoyment! Flowers I used: Dahlias, astroemerias, sunflowers, echinaceas, salvias, zinnias and cleomies. It’s time to make the best of our summer gardening. Here are some exciting ideas that may help you, as they did me! Green glamour Pot covers…

FROM SEED TO SAUTÉ Contain a calamondin It’s that time of year when citrus is at its best. The calamondin orange, which fits perfectly into a large terracotta pot, is a wonderful addition to any garden. The pretty trees are evergreen and will produce a slightly sweet and sour fruit, which is good for marmalades, sauces, cakes, and savoury dishes. Plant and care ● Choose a large container with drainage holes and fill it with good-quality potting soil, extra drainage materials like palm peat or perlite, and a few handfuls of compost. ● Plant the calamondin at the same level as it is in the nursery bag, leaving a few centimetres below the rim for an organic mulch. ● Once established, calamondins are relatively drought-tolerant so avoid overwatering. ● Feed…

WHAT YOU NEED 1 x 2100 x 610 x 21 mm Pine shelving, cut into 3 lengths as below: 1 x 1400 x 200 x 21 mm 1 x 1600 x 200 x 21 mm 1 x 1800 x 200 x 21 mm 3 x 1400 mm fencing standards (dropper) 6 x galvanized conduit saddles. Screws (4 x 20 mm) Woodoc 50 Marine Exterior Sealer (Clear Matt) Woodoc StainConcentrate(Teak) Mineral Turpentine Woodoc SteelWool (Fine) Tools Drill driver, sander, jigsaw, hole saw kit, pencil, paintbrushes, screwdriver Step by step 1. On the front side of each wood panel, place a fencing standard in the centre, allowing a 400 mm overhang at one end, which will be staked into the ground. Trace the outline of the fencing standard to avoid getting holes…

There is an indoor tree to make a striking focal point in any room in the home and for any space and style. Whether you need a touch of greenery or a bold statement, indoor trees are excellent choices for your interior design. These are just some of the impressive specimens you will find now: Dracaena Several varieties of dracaena are available on the market, each with a special feature that makes it stand out. ‘Green Jewel’, for instance, has tufts of green leaves upon tall, thick stems. Varying heights make this an attractive all-round houseplant that can reach 1 – 1.3 m tall. Dracaena ‘Lemon Lime’ has arching leaves that feature stunning bright green with lemon and lime stripes. They can reach 3 m tall. Dracaena marginata ‘Magenta’ has…

The Full Moon closest to the Equinox is called the"Harvest Moon’, the marker for the last grape harvest. Fruit edibles picked on "harvest" days between 1 st quarter and Full are sweet, so ideal for pickling, making jams, chutneys. and relishes. Produce picked after Full Moon is easily dried, especially leaf herbs. Note the very barren "harvest’days after the last Quarter, so perfect for long lasting storage of onions and chillies. On "vines*’days before 1 st quarter plant pea varieties; after Full Moon, squash, pumpkins and marrows.…

The waxing crescent moon reaches 1 st Quarter on the first weekend. It’s ideal to use these fertile days to plant out seedlings or sow seeds of cool loving veg like cabbage and Asian greens. The following Full Moon weekend is the ideal all round planting period and especially suits flower type veg like cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussel sprouts. Also, all vine varieties like peas, beans, marrows, and sweet pea flowers. The "fruit" days before last quarter are best to transplant fruit shrubs and trees, but not fruiting annual veg.…

ANNA CELLIERS Ownership can be a burden! Dopamine, the feel-good neurotransmitter in the brain that influences want, desire and reward, can lead one astray. Collectors of objects and bargain hunters will tell you that! Since having less space becomes a reality later in one’s life, our book club girls were discussing how and where to dispose of things, as our offspring are not necessarily interested in old furniture, broken electrical appliances, portraits of unsmiling ancestors, cracked porcelain bowls or the ancient bone China tea sets of our great grandmothers. And they are definitely not keen on claiming ownership of the dusty books filling our bookshelves. One unlucky book club member (quite a hoarder!) recently had to vacate an old farm cottage in the Great Karoo hundreds of kilometres away from…