by Izolda | Jun 20, 2017 | DIY, Gardening, Gardening Trends & Inspiration
A retired old chair can be refashioned into a great planter with some easy steps and a love of succulents.
What you need:
- An old wooden chair, with the seat removed
- Organic fertiliser pellets
- Palm peat block (reconstituted in water)
- Potting soil
- Bonemeal or superphosphate
- A selection of succulents from large to small
- Weed-control fabric
- Staple gun
- Scissors
- Paintbrush
What to do:
- Make a soil mix with ½ potting soil, ½ palm peat, a handful of organic fertiliser pellets and a handful of bonemeal or superphosphate.
- Cut a piece of fabric bigger than the cavity of the seat and press it into the cavity, to create a planting hole.
- Don’t trim the fabric, but first staple it to the inside of the frame. Cut away the excess once you are sure it’s secure.
- Fill the cavity halfway with the enriched soil mix.
- Start planting the succulents, placing the larger ones towards the back and flowing off the sides.
- Mould the soil as you go, so the design you create is not flat.
- When all the spaces are filled, dust off the plants with a dry paintbrush and water well.
by Izolda | Jun 20, 2017 | Gardening, Tips
Young, bored puppies don’t mix well with new gardens in which plants and the lawn are not yet established. Wait to get your garden fairly established before you get a new pet, especially if it’s in the form of a large dog. If you’re moving to a new home with no established garden, and Rover the watchdog is already part of the family, it’s a good idea to lay instant lawn instead of planting lawn plugs or seeding a lawn.
• Buying large backbone plants in bigger nursery bags can curb some digging up damage, especially if you can create a simple, temporary teepee structure out of poles or long sticks around them. Instead of using smelly bonemeal in the planting holes (which will attract dogs immediately) rather use superphosphate as a root-growth fertiliser.
• Dense swathes of ornamental grass in the foreground of a plant bed, and layers of coarse mulch between plants, normally keep dogs out. Dogs in general love open patches of sandy soil to dig in. Mulching a mixed succulent bed with a thick layer of coarse gravel also discourages a dog from lounging in there.
• Create ‘garden rooms’ and fence them off with a cheap wire fence covered in pretty creepers– I have often saved the lives of dainty annuals, bulbs, veggies and other plant collections by planting them in a part of my garden to which only I had access, via a sturdy garden gate. With a stern ‘stay!’ from you, your pet will soon realise that its human has moved into an area where dog company is not welcome. The ‘watcher’ will simply lie down and wait until you come out again.
• If you’ve planted a dense low hedge, take a more relaxed approach by leaving a few openings in the hedge for the dog to jump through if he needs a quick, direct run towards a boundary fence. With time you’ll get used to these ‘hedge gates’, as long as you keep the rest of the hedge lush and neatly pruned. I have learned that a dog will go all out to jump a garden fence, but seldom jumps over a low hedge into the dense shrubs behind it.
• When sowing seed or planting little annuals in a vulnerable spot, place a piece of wire mesh attached to short steel droppers horizontally and just above soil level, to give the young plants time to grow. Old burglar proofing panels also work well, as the dog won’t be able to walk over it. Some folks protect their plantings with thorny branches or spray their plants with home-made concoctions containing chillies. These are not kind solutions at all, as both can be a danger to the animal’s eyes (chillies) and paws (thorns).
by Izolda | Jun 20, 2017 | Gardening
We truly are spoilt for choice when planting in small areas or narrow garden beds. Within our indigenous palette of plants, there are many small trees from which to choose: river indigo (Indigofera jucundum), wild pomegranate (Burchellia bubalina), wild laburnum (Calpurnia aurea), white pear (Dombeya rotundifolia) and Croton gratissimus, to name a few.
Perennials such as Agapanthus africanus, Clivia miniata, Tulbaghia violacae and daylilies (Hemerocallis spp.) are ideal for restricted areas, with ornamental grasses (Carex, Melinus, Eragrostis) adding texture to any planting scheme. Small shrubs such as hebe, salvia, Guara lindheimerii and several of the smaller Plectranthus species are ideal, as are rosemary, comfrey, borage, dill, fennel and some of the smaller lavenders.
There is no need to sacrifice interest simply because your planting areas may be restricted. Play with height, texture, colour and fragrance, and complete the picture with interesting groundcovers.
Avoid plants that you know will eventually outgrow their space. If there is a plant without which you simply cannot live – and we all have one of those – plant it into a large container in order to contain its eventual size.
by Izolda | Jun 13, 2017 | Recipes
To celebrate World Cucumber Day Tanya is sharing a fruity, floral and fizzy gin cocktail recipe with you – the Hendrick’s Summer Mule!
Ingredients:
- 50ml Hendrick’s Gin20ml Fresh Lime Juice
- 20ml Fresh Lime Juice
- 10ml Elderflower Cordial
- 8 Mint Leaves
- 1 Inch Cucumber
- Ginger Beer
Preparation:
Add cucumber to a glass and break with muddler. Add the other ingredients and build all together over cracked ice. Top with ginger beer and garnish.
For other Hendrick’s gin cocktail recipes, visit: https://www.hendricksgin.com/treasury-of-tipples
by Izolda | Jun 5, 2017 | Gardening, Grow Your Own, Herbs & Vegetables
In the spirit of World Cucumber Day on June 14, Tanya is going to show you how to grow these versatile vegetables successfully! If you follow these step-by-step instructions, hopefully, there will be some fresh cucumbers in your garden this spring to use in your favourite Hendrick’s gin cocktail!
Place either seedling mix or coconut husk in a small terracotta pot – anything from 12cm diameter upwards is perfect. Don’t fill the pot all the way to the top, leave a space of about 1-2 cm from the rim of the pot.
Gently firm down the planting medium with your fingers.
Now take about 7 seeds and space them evenly over the surface of the medium. Cover the seeds with a layer of 1cm of medium, place the pot in an area that gets loads of good light.
Now give them a good watering. Watering will need to be done daily until they germinate, after germination the watering can be cut back.
When your little guys have reached a height of a 5 – 7cm and produced leaves, you can successfully transplant them out into your garden in full sun.
by Izolda | Jun 2, 2017 | Gardening
A window box can be a whole lot of garden in a very confined space!
Did you know that some container gardening books are dedicated specifically to the rectangular container known as a window box? This is easy to understand, as there is something endearing and heart-warming about a window box spilling colourful flowers, or a window box containing complementing combinations of interesting foliage and textured grasses.
Planting up as many window boxes as you can in autumn is a real joy, as nurseries are filled with cold-season annuals in flower, cooking herbs, pretty ornamental grasses and the cutest succulents. And remember: a window box does not necessarily need a window as a backdrop. Custom-made window boxes can be fitted to balcony railings or simply displayed in a row on a patio floor. You can also fit a trellis panel to a large window box and include a dainty creeper into your planting recipe. The result can be a form of vertical gardening against a wall or a ‘room divider’.
Consider The Mechanics
- If the windowsills are too narrow to accommodate a box, attach strong brackets to the wall beneath the window to give them more support, keeping in mind that the windows might open sideways, which will confine you to using only low-growing, cascading plants.
- To avoid muddy dribbles, line window boxes with disposable kitchen cloths or weed-control fabric to allow drainage, but prevent the soil from washing out.
- Drip trays for window boxes can be used to prevent a mess but must be filled with gravel before positioning the window box (which must have drainage holes at the bottom). The container filled with plants should never stand in water accumulated in the drip tray – they will rot and die off.
- Window boxes must be very securely fitted to a balcony railing to stop them from falling onto the head of a passer-by. Also, think about watering and a muddy stream of water that might run from your balcony to the ground below. A better option would be to buy a window box fitted with a built-in drip tray.
- Use a lightweight commercial potting soil. If weight is a worry when large window boxes are planted up, the potting soil can be bulked up with lightweight materials such as perlite, peat or vermiculite – ask your local nurserymen for advice.
How to Plant a Window Box
First place a lining of water-permeable fabric over the drainage holes in the window box, then add a layer of potting soil. Arrange the plants, still in their nursery containers, until you are satisfied with a composition that pleases your eye. Turn them out of their nursery containers, loosen the roots gently and put them in place, while filling up around them with more potting medium. Fill up the window box to about 2cm below the rim of the box to allow room for watering. If there are large gaps between the plants you have chosen, fill them with instant colour in the form of annuals or low-growing groundcovers with contrasting foliage colours, which are always available in trays.
Try ‘Trick Planting’
You can ‘plant’ seasonal flowering plants without removing them from their nursery pots and fill in the spaces between them with bark nuggets – the hassle-free way to change the look of your window boxes seasonally without having to dismantle anything.
Pretty Choices
- It’s not too late to plant some cheerful yellow daffodils teamed up with dainty Primula malacoides in a mix of white and soft lilac – an uncomplicated combination for a window box that receives morning sun and afternoon shade.
- Wintertime is pansy and viola time, and seedling tables will be filled with trays of these plants, already in full flower – their happy flower faces are made for window boxes in full sun or semi-shade.
- Modern petunias, like the cascading Supertunias or the many hybrids of the petunia-like Calibrachoa, with its sprawling habit and an abundance of small flowers, are fantastic for sunny winter boxes in summer-rainfall areas.
- Ask for Osteospermum (Cape Daisy) – there are many varieties in a wide range of colours that will create a fantastic display in a sunny window box. They flower from late winter and well into spring. Other indigenous plants like Nemesia ‘Nesia’ and diascias are equally spectacular!
- If shade is a problem, plant your window box full of bronze- or green-leaved waxy begonias. The flower colours range from pure white, two-tone pink and white to bright pink and post-box red. These annuals or biannuals are value for money as they flower for months on end!
- For fresh salad greens ‘on tap’, combine different pick-a-leaf-and-come-again salad varieties in a sunny window box.
- If you just need some basic fresh herbs, plant chives, parsley, thyme and rosemary together. The window box will need some sun occasionally, but will also flourish at a window on the southern side of a building.
- Pack compact evergreens like Euonymus japonicus ‘Microphyllus Gold Dust’ or dwarf Coprosma hybrids like ‘Pacific Sunrise’ tightly together in a large window box for gorgeous winter foliage.
- Spreading groundcover conifers like Juniperus horizontalis ‘Prince of Wales’ have a calming effect with their coarse but beautiful foliage textures and spreading growth habits. They are extremely winter-tough if there is enough sun to keep them happy.
Aftercare
A window box is a confined space imprisoning plant roots and keeping them from seeking moisture and nutrients on a wider front, such as in open garden soil.
- Never allow any plant combination to dry out completely. Water every day if the top soil layer feels dry to the touch.
- Ask at your local nursery about water-retaining products and how to use them at your local nursery. In densely planted containers they can go a long way to keeping your window box garden alive.
- Invest in a water-soluble foliar fertiliser and feed your plants at least once a month.
- Dead-head flowering plants to encourage more flowers, and if you have anything ready to harvest for eating or cooking, don’t be shy to do it.
by Izolda | Jun 2, 2017 | Recipes
Recipe:
1. 7-8 tomatoes
2. Olive oil
3. 10 cloves garlic
4. 750 g lamb knuckles
5. 3 leeks or 2 onions
6. 3 stalks celery
7. 3 carrots
8. 2 tablespoons flour
9. ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
10. Salt and pepper
11. ½ cup red wine
12. 750 ml good beef stock
13. 5 sprigs oregano
14. 5 sprigs thyme
15. 5 sprigs parsley
16. ½ cup brown lentils
Cut the tomatoes in half and place on an oiled baking tray cut side down with the unpeeled garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Bake at 200°C for 30 minutes. Chop the vegetables roughly and add to a pan to soften for a few minutes. Place these in a casserole dish or slow cooker. Place the flour, nutmeg and plenty of salt and pepper in a bag and shake it around to mix. Add the lamb knuckles and shake to coat. Place in hot oil in a pan and brown a layer at a time on all sides. Add to casserole. Once the tomatoes and garlic are cooked, peel the tomatoes and squeeze the garlic out their skins into to the casserole. Deglaze the pan with wine and stock and add to the casserole with the herbs and lentils. Cook for 1 ½ hours on a medium heat until the meat is tender.
by Izolda | Jun 2, 2017 | Gardening, Gardening Trends & Inspiration
During the course of the last two or three decades, aloes have become popular garden plants for a number of different reasons. Many of them are indigenous to South Africa and are able to cope with dry growing conditions and the water shortages that have become a regular challenge. Most of them bloom in winter when flowers are scarce in the garden, and the vibrant inflorescences are rich in nectar, creating a winter feast for birds and insects when food is scarce. There are many other good reasons for growing aloes in modern gardens in a wide and diverse range of climatic conditions.
Today, smaller aloe species and numerous hybrids are sought after for growing in the limited space afforded by apartment and town house living. Aloes generally need full sun, well-drained soil and occasional watering, along with feeding in the spring and summer growing season to keep them in good health. Some can withstand winter cold while others are damaged by frost, so make sure that you plant cold hardy aloes in areas with extreme winter climates.
Here are some of the most popular small or low-growing aloes to consider for use in the modern day garden. Use them in pots and containers where space is limited. They last for a good many flowering seasons in these contained growing conditions. Please use well-drained potting soil with grit, sand or gravel added to the mixture for extra weight and porosity.
Aloe species
Species refers to a basic category in plant classification below genus (in this case aloe) that consists of similar characteristics that all breed true in the wild. In other words, plants referred to as aloe species are found growing in their pure form in nature. Today garden plants tend to be mostly hybrids bred for superior performance. However, many purists still enjoy cultivating plants in the form that Mother Nature provided. Check these out:
1. Aloe aristata (guinea fowl aloe) grows in low clumps comprising rosettes of tightly packed, spotted leaves. Dull pink or reddish flowers are held above the foliage in November.
2. Aloe suprafoliata (book aloe) has two-ranked leaves arranged in rows or opposite pairs when the plant is still young. Later they form a spiral of foliage from a single basal stem. Slender spikes of pinkish red flowers appear from May to July.
3. Aloe microstigma (spotted aloe) has single rosettes of finely speckled leaves up to 300mm long. Bicolored flowers in long slender racemes appear in June.
4. Aloe chabaudii (Chabaud’s aloe) grows in neat rosettes of grey foliage. Small red to pinkish flowers are borne in large multi-branched inflorescences during June and July. This is a great garden aloe.
5. Aloe peglerae (red-hot poker) has a distinctive growth habit with inward curving leaves forming a rounded ball. Densely packed flowers on short stubby racemes appear above the foliage in July and August, and the orange-red buds open a greenish yellow.
6. Aloe striata (coral aloe) produces rosettes of smooth, grey, strap-shaped leaves that grow at ground level. Branched flower spikes are packed with hanging tubular flowers in variable shades of red, orange or yellow during winter.
7. Aloe variegata’s (kanniedood) speckled or mottled, thick, stubby leaves arranged in three ranks make this a sought-after succulent. Flowers in solitary spikes in reds or dull pink shades appear from July to September.
Aloe hybrids
Hybrids are created either naturally or by the hand of man by crossing either two different species or a species with an hybrid or two different hybrids to create a new hybrid. Hybrids are seldom found growing naturally in the wild and are usually developed through elaborate breeding programmes that are carefully controlled and monitored. Look out for these compact aloe hybrids on the local market:
1. Aloe ‘Bushwhacker’ produces masses of pink to cream flowers in upright spikes from May to June. It is a real beauty, especially planted in large groupings.
2. Aloe ‘Lemon Drops’ forms small clumps of speckled leaves and produces small yellow flowers for most of the year if well watered.
3. Aloe ‘Little Joker’ has multiple rosettes of neat, grey leaves with elegant spikes of salmon orange flowers from April to June.
4. Aloe ‘Peri Peri’ produces neat, compact rosettes of grey foliage and slender spikes of pink orange flowers from late April to June. It is ideal for pots.
5. Aloe ‘Porcupine’ has green foliage and an abundance of bicolored flowers with orange buds opening to a pale cream shade from March to August.
6. Aloe ‘Saffron’ forms low clumps and multiplies rapidly, with pale lime-yellow flowers in April and May.
7. Aloe ‘Sea Urchin’ is similar to the well-known A. ‘Hedgehog’, with a neat habit and an abundance of orangey-red flowers later in the season.
Exciting times lie ahead in terms of new aloe hybrids appearing on the market. Aloes that bloom more than once a year will be the norm rather than the exception, and aloes with attractive leaves and spines will add to their overall good looks and permanent appeal. New hybrids with greater disease resistance and more drought tolerance will also grace our gardens. Even with all these exciting new improvements, aloes will always purvey the special aura of the African bushveld in our gardens. Perhaps these new hybrids will do this with a little more intensity?
New Book – Tree Aloes of Africa
A new book, Tree Aloes of Africa by Ernst van Jaarsveld and Eric Judd, was published in 2015. This was brought about by the reshuffling of the aloe group of plants through new classification systems using plant DNA as the main tool. This has led to the change of name for tree aloes to Aloidendron, and Kumara in the case of Aloe plicatilis. The book has extensive coverage of the subject matter from historical information to natural distribution and garden cultivation. It’s a must-have publication for botanists, horticulturists, naturalists and gardeners alike. Keeping abreast of changes in the botanical world is part and parcel of modern-day advancement in the realms of science.
Ernst and Eric are experts in their respective fields of botany and botanical art and have combined magnificently in compiling this special book for the benefit of all plant enthusiasts.
Published by Penrock Publications Cape Town 2015.
by Izolda | Apr 26, 2017 | Gardening, Grow Your Own, Herbs & Vegetables
Most of us have at some stage in our lives been urged to ‘eat our greens.’ And our parents were right all along – ongoing research into brassicas has found that no other vegetable group is as high in terms of vitamin A carotenoids, vitamin C, folic acid and fibre. Even more impressive, their growing reputation as an antioxidant vegetable group means that eating your greens can lower the risk of numerous forms of cancer.
As a food gardener, you are the custodian of your family’s health. The brassica family is bigger than one thinks as it includes Asian greens like Chinese cabbage, tatsoi, bok choy, pak choi and the various mustards.
What makes Asian greens so appealing is that they are an easy-to-grow, quick-to-harvest crop, generally untroubled by pests and diseases. The leaves are picked as they are needed, which means a constant supply through winter. Chinese cabbage can also be picked young or left to form a head.
3 things you need to know:
1. Grow Asian greens in full sun to semi-shade in rich, well-composted soil.
2. Water regularly and don’t allow the soil to dry out.
3. Feed once a month with a nitrogen-rich liquid fertiliser, especially if you are harvesting the leaves daily.
Winter greens to grow:
Mizuna grows 35-40cm high and wide, with serrated light green leaves that have a mild mustard flavour. Mizuna needs more moisture than other oriental vegetables. It tolerates frost and is ideal for really cold gardens.
Pak choi has broad white stems and dark green glossy leaves that look like paddles. The stems are like crunchy and the leaves have a pleasant mustard flavour. It tolerates a wide range of temperatures and doesn’t bolt easily.
Tatsoi is a variety of Chinese cabbage. It forms a compact, flat rosette close to the ground. The leaves have a buttery and slightly sweet mustard flavour. A light frost is said to improve the flavour. It has a long harvest period and is slow to bolt.
Chinese cabbage is cylindrical in shape, has green and white leaves and stems that are very tender and delicious. It grows faster than conventional cabbage, taking about 70 days to harvest. The leaves can be picked as soon as they are about 20cm long or can be left until the head is fully formed. It is good for coleslaw or stir-fried, sautéed or steamed.
Japanese ‘Red Giant’ mustard has large, reddish-green leaves that grow up to 30cm long and are slightly hairy, with an intense, hot-mustard flavour. The leaves are best eaten in winter because the taste becomes too pungent in summer.
‘Red Frills’ mustard has frilly red leaves with a hot mustard flavour. Eat newly germinated leaves as microgreens or let them grow larger for use as a baby leaf in salads. Mature leaves can be used in stir-fries. Plants grow 60cm high and 40cm wide and are very decorative
Chinese mustard ‘Green in Snow’ has frilly green leaves with white veins. It has a very mild mustard flavour that intensifies in older leaves. It is a hardy plant, tolerates a wide range of soil types and grows into a substantial plant, 1m high by 80cm wide.
Don’t forget lettuce – It may not have the same nutritional benefits, but lettuce can be sown, or seedlings transplanted, in most gardens that are sheltered from frost. Plant a range of differently coloured leaf lettuces – they take up less space than conventional head lettuces. In winter, lettuce needs full sun and consistently moist soil. Adding Epsom salts to the water improves the flavour.
