Sunbird on Leonotis
kitchen and bath or shower so that
your plants get watered automatically without having to use clean
water, and plant your trickier choices in a limited area near your house
so you can monitor them easily.
Ideally, most of your garden should
consist of low maintenance shrubs,
perennials and ground covers, and
there are plenty of attractive options among our indigenous plants.
Do a little homework to find out
where they choose to grow in a
natural setting, and try to find places in your garden that match.
For example, many Fynbos plants
grow in mountainous areas and
Gazania splendens pink
Hypoestes aristata Purple Ribbon
most of them prefer well-drained
soils. By creating a raised berm in
your garden, you can emulate those
conditions quite nicely.
How much can you manage and
when?
Newly planted gardens are high
maintenance, and unless you stick
to very hardy succulents, you will
need to provide aftercare no matter
what plants you choose. If you have
a large area to landscape, irrigation
can help you to pull through this
early phase, but later on, you may
find that you seldom if ever need to
irrigate.
Consider tackling one particular
area at a time and phase your gar-
Hypoestes forskaolii mass
den planting project in three-month
intervals so that you never have a
large area needing a lot of attention
all at once. If you have a reliable
rainy season, you may find it easiest
to plant just after the first rains.
“Mulch, mulch, mulch”.
No matter what plants you choose,
weeds are a problem, especially in
soils that have recently been dug
over. The weed seeds get the exact
soil temperatures they like, and
they’re quite capable of coming up
like hair on a dog’s back as soon as
there’s available water. A layer of
mulch (grass clipping will do) keeps
most of the weeds that would oth-
Felicia amelloides
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