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Winter is on our doorstep and the theme for this year’s World Environment Day on June 5 is ‘Many species. One planet. One future.’ We asked Earth Landscapes owner Ross Nevette, who has been in the industry for more than 20 years, to give us some tips for winter and ‘green’ gardening and tell us what’s trendy in the gardening world.
The winter chills might be leaving you feeling less than inspired to get out and give your garden some tender loving care but, according to Ross, this is when your garden needs you most.
Although we are lucky in KwaZulu-Natal, not to have the bitter winters that our up-country friends have, we still don’t get much rain during this time of year and Ross says watering your garden is an absolute necessity.
Ross started his company Earth Landscapes 11 years ago. Although they are based in Morningside, Earth Landscapes does a lot of work on the North Coast and around South Africa. Their focus is on landscaping and garden maintenance.
Having grown up with huge gardens around him all his life, Ross says he’s always loved gardening. “I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing. I love being outside all the time. It’s so rewarding to see a garden you’ve planted years before finally take shape.”
Ross says it’s important that people realize that planting a garden is a long-term project and it usually takes two to three years to really appreciate the garden. “A garden is never finished and your work is never done. You should always be changing, adding to and looking after your garden.”
What’s hot? Check out these gardening trends
• Water-wise gardening. This is basically building your garden around the fact that water is a scarce commodity. It entails choosing the right plants, especially indigenous plants, as they are already adapted to the environment.
• Indigenous gardens. There are many benefits to having an indigenous garden. Not only would you not have to give it as much attention, but it will also be a great draw card for birdlife.
• Move away from rolling lawns. They generally need a lot of water and are hard to maintain (constant mowing etc). The international trend is to move towards wild grass and plants and ground covers that occur naturally. A lawn is like a crop in that it’s an expanse of one type of plant and although it may look great, it’s not natural and is therefore high maintenance.
• Rim-flow pools. These are still very fashionable, although they are quite difficult to maintain. They only really work when there is a sea view and the pool blends into the horizon. They are just not as effective inland.
• Dark swimming pools. This shows there is a general trend towards the more ‘natural’ look.
• Aloes are very popular. People are starting to see how beautiful and low maintenance they are. They are bold and make quite a statement, they are great for winter and the flowers are really spectacular.
• Rocks, boulders and stones. These are being used more frequently and people are more open to this than they have been. Stones work well as a natural edging and blend well with stone cladding on houses.
• Wild grass. It not only looks amazing, but there are so many benefits to having this in your garden. It will bring lots of birds and is also one of the most threatened eco systems at the moment.
Winter gardening tips:
• Winter in KwaZulu-Natal is generally quite dry so the key is to choose plants that don’t need much water. Also choose plants that you know will flower in winter. Some examples include Aloes, Wild Dagga (Leonotis), Red Hot Poker, Gladiolus, Watsonia, Strelitzia and Tecomaria (Cape Honeysuckle).
• You can have nice foliage throughout winter and don’t necessarily need flowers to make a garden look beautiful. Sometimes just the stalks without the flowers can look good. A good tip is to use different textures, shapes and heights in your garden. Don’t be one-dimensional.
• Look around you now and take note of what looks good in your neighbourhood. Get ideas of what to plant for next winter.
• Often all a plant needs in winter is just an extra bit of water. Irrigation systems work well for this, as you won’t need to keep remembering to water your plants.
• The North Coast soil can be quite sandy, which is both a good and a bad thing. Water tends to leech through the sand quickly, which means you need to water more often. But, on the upside you don’t have problems with clay soils, where many plants struggle to grow.
• Make sure you mulch your garden throughout the year. This keeps the moisture in, and is especially good with our sandy North Coast soil. Don’t rake up all your leaves and ‘turn’ your soil.
• Remember that your garden is a living, breathing thing and it won’t necessarily always do what you want it to. You need to work with nature, rather than against it. Why try and get a perfect English garden with rolling lawns, which is going to take a lot of time and hard work, when you can enjoy the beauty of a natural garden?
