CATEGORIES

Beautiful white ironwood for medium to large gardens - Vepris lanceolata

The white ironwood is a tall or spreading evergreen tree, usually 7 – 20m high. It has smooth, light greyish-white bark and a rounded crown covered with shiny, trifoliate, lance-shaped leaves with wavy edges.

Basic Styling The Triangle

Most bonsai trees are styled to have a triangular silhouette. This is more obvious with traditional bonsai styles, i.e. Northern hemisphere trees, but is still relevant with our African styles like the baobab and the flat crown. However, sometimes you need a fair bit of imagination to see this triangular shape – it is a bit like seeing the constellations in the stars. Sometimes the shape seems invisible until somebody points it out, and after that you can’t help but see the triangle.

Impressive Quinine Tree For Large Gardens

Tree Of The Month

Make Your Own Garden Gold

The greenest thing a food gardener can do (apart from planting the green stuff) is to make compost. It ticks each box for all the four ‘R’s’: Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose and Reduce.

How To Sow Garden Fairies

This year if you plant only one annual that flowers in late winter and spring, make it a colour cloud of lots of Primula malacoides (fairy primrose).

Herbs For Chicken Take The Herb Path Less Travelled

Is there any culinary herb that doesn’t go well with chicken? Some of the all-time favourites are rosemary, lemon thyme, sage, oregano and garlic. But why not try something different?

The autumn clean up

Just as April is a month for planting, it is also a month for clearing away garden debris to put it to good use in the future, making your garden ready for winter and keeping it free of overwintering pests.

STRONG on structure

The difference between mere vegetation and a space called a garden is structure …

Peppy little peperomias

GROW INDOORS

Meandering palettes

As befits one of the oldest homes in Westcliff, the gracious 3-acre (1.2ha) gardens echo the era of the early 1900’s with their flower-filled borders, dovecote and rolling lawns. But that only tells half the story.

LIVELY LEAVES

Often referred to as zebra plants or peacock plants, calatheas are known for their bold rounded leaves.

Layer your bulbs

BULB NEWS

Plant Your Own Bog Garden

If out of the ordinary is what you’re looking for, look no further than bog gardens and the endless list of quirky, offbeat plants.

Vibrant (and rustic) autumn shades

At this time of year every gardener can enjoy the shapes, rich foliage colours and colourful flowers of these reliable plants.

Good bed-mates!

What you plant together in a bed should look like they were born for each other.

The War of the Roses

The ‘Iceberg’ roses in this marvellous garden have a story to tell.

COVER CROPS FOR THE SOIL

Timeless remedies

HERBS for VEGGIES

Herbs and vegetables that are good companions in the garden often complement one another in flavour when cooked together or used in salads.

A QUICK GUIDE to keeping your ferns alive

‘Pteridomania’ (Fern Fever) is the term coined in 1855 to describe the fern craze that was sweeping across Victorian England at the time.

Superb Boetabessie For Coastal And Water-Wise Gardens

Known by many common names, including bietou, boneseed, tick berry, brother berry, bush-tick berry, boetabessie, bosluisbessie, bokbessie and skilpadkos, this member of the daisy family (Asteraceae) with bright yellow flowers is very well known by its old name, Chrysanthemoides monilifera.

The Great Indoors

HOW TO ENHANCE YOUR INTERIOR WITH PLANTS

Selectively Targeting Caterpillars

Using beneficial bacteria as an efective solution to caterpillar outbreaks.

Three Eye-Catching Mixers

Modern varieties of small plants growing no taller than shin high can add a powerful punch to your summer beds or pots.

Same Same, But Different...

Some begonia hybrids are made for pots, and because they go with just about anything we added some beautiful foliage contrast.

Tuscan Treasure

Two years ago Nolan and Lillian Antonie and their young son, Luke, moved into their dream house in Muldersdrift.

Dazzle With Begonias

If you really want to know how to make a splash with begonias, visit parks and gardens in summer and be inspired by dazzling displays of massed begonias along with other summer bedding annuals.

The Lily Of The Incas

All there is to know about alstroemerias.

The Dangers Of Polyphagous - Shot Hole Borer

Although these pests may be tiny, the presence of Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer (PSHB) in South Africa is a massive cause for concern.

Indigenous Spring Beauty Nemesias

Spring flowers the world over have a softness and beauty that captures the spirit of the season itself. Our indigenous spring flowers are no exception, especially the trio of nemesia, diascia and bacopa, which are still wild at heart.

Indigenous Orange Poppies For Small Gardens

PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN.