The monkey thorn (acacia galpinii) has been appointed as one of the trees of the year for 2009, by the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs.

This fast growing tree – with its lush, light green foliage – can grow up to 36 meters in height and has a wide, spreading crown.  It is a deciduous tree, which means that it loses its leaves during winter.  During spring, this lovely tree carries light yellow flowers and maroon-coloured seed pods during late summer and autumn.  The monkey thorn is ideal for large gardens and can be planted in your lawn – or along the edges of your lawn – as it provides mottled shade, which will allow enough sunlight through to the grass blades.

This indigenous tree is quite hardy and can survive in hot and dry weather conditions, as well as, frost to some degree.  Saplings should be properly protected from frost, however.  It also attracts insects, such as bees and wasps, and will also provide shelter for birds in your garden.

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping design and implement exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner and can provide the home owner with any exterior decorative feature.  We pride ourselves in providing our clients with excellent, efficient and comprehensive service.  We offer all the products and services associated with creating a peaceful, and aesthetically pleasing outdoor living space which will complement the style of your home and in which you can relax.

Having your own veggie garden is extremely rewarding.  Not only do you have fresh veggies on hand, but you will also find the entire process relaxing and rewarding. 

The first step to take when toying with the idea of starting your own veggie garden is to plan your garden.  Where will you lay it out?  How big do you want it to be?  Which veggies do you want to grow? You need to do your research!

You should draw up a design for your veggie garden layout; preferably to scale.  When deciding on where to situate your veggie garden you should consider an area that receives 5 to 8 hours of direct sunlight and which is protected from frost and wind.  The soil should be fertile and have proper draining.  Furthermore, your veggie garden should be close to your home, for easy access, and it should be close to a water source, such as a tap or even an irrigation system.

Your veggie garden beds should be accessible from all sides, so it is advisable to plant in beds measuring 2 meters in length and 1 meter in width.

Finally, you should carefully select the types of veggies you would like to plant.  For a beginner, these veggies should be hardy and resistant to pests and diseases.  Therefore, it would be wise initially not to plant veggies such as peppers (capsicums), eggfruit, potatoes and tomatoes.  A safer choice would be radishes, spinach, beans, peas and beetroot. 

Make sure you research each species properly, so that you will know when to sow or plant, when to harvest, and the like.

When planting your vegetable plants, you should water them thoroughly while they are still in their nursery trays to ensure that the roots are entirely wet.  You should also gently loosen the roots to ensure optimum growth potential.  Another helpful tip is to our a little bone meal into the holes, before planting your veggies. 

Veggie gardens are not just functional, but can be decorative too and form part of your over-all garden design and lay-out.  You can demarcate the various areas of your little veggie garden with stepping stones, cobble edging and strips of pebbles, gravel of quartzite rocks.  You can border the entire veggie garden with neatly trimmed hedges – such as a viburnum or buxus hedge – and you can construct a pergola over the area, which will still allow enough sunlight and rain water through.

Once you have planted your veggie seedlings or sown your seeds, you should water them properly during the first week or so.  After that time, you should only water them when the top layer of about 3cm’s of soil is dried out.

Applying a layer of mulch over your veggie beds, will retain moisture in the soil and protect your veggies against weeds, pests and the harsher elements.

If you want your veggie garden to produce optimally, you should mix organic fertilizer into the soil, once a month during summer.  During winter 2 or 3 times will suffice.

Pruning away dead leaves and flowers regularly will also ensure the most favourable growth for your veggies.

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping design and implement exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner and can provide the home owner with any exterior decorative feature.  We pride ourselves in providing our clients with excellent, efficient and comprehensive service.  We offer all the products and services associated with creating a peaceful, and aesthetically pleasing outdoor living space which will complement the style of your home and in which you can relax.

Spring is the season of regeneration.  You can get the best out of your garden by doing the following during this invigorating time of year.

First of all you should prune all the plants in your garden that have suffered frost damage.  This will promote new growth.

Remove dead leaves and branches from your plants and trees to stimulate growth.

You should divide your perennial plants in order to multiply them and fill your garden beds with more lush growth.

Apply mulch to your plant beds and feed your plants and lawn with fertilizer and compost.

Have your irrigation system checked out and maintained.

You can start to water your lawn and garden more regularly again – two or three times per week.

You can also plant bulbs, which flower in summer, such as arum lilies (zantedeschia species), sword lilies (gladiolus species), and dahlias.  Sow flower seeds and plant seedlings to add vibrant splashes of colour to your garden.

Once your spring flowering plants have finished blooming, you can prune them back to ensure strong growth during the next spring period.

Finally, you should check all of your plants for diseases and treat them accordingly.

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping design and implement exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner and can provide the home owner with any exterior decorative feature.  We pride ourselves in providing our clients with excellent, efficient and comprehensive service.  We offer all the products and services associated with creating a peaceful, and aesthetically pleasing outdoor living space which will complement the style of your home and in which you can relax.

The Tree Euphorbia (euphorbia ingens) is fleshy, prickly and has many branches, resembling candelabra.  10ℓ or 20ℓ tree euphorbias also make for beautiful, sculptural pot plants. 

These plants also require very little maintenance and will flourish both indoors and outdoors.  Tree euphorbias grow quickly but, are also easy to transplant.  Therefore, you can remove them from the pots and plant them in your garden, when they grow too big.  They are sensitive to frost, so it is best to put them in a sunny area and out of the wind, during winter. 

Pot – or container – gardening is a very low-maintenance way of creating a garden and is also ideal for small areas.  Another advantage to pot gardening is that you can bring the outdoors indoors. 

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping design and implement exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner.  We pride ourselves in providing our clients with excellent, efficient and comprehensive service.  We offer all the products and services associated with creating a peaceful, and aesthetically pleasing outdoor living space which will complement the style of your home and in which you can relax.

Young plants and frost-sensitive plants need to be protected from extreme cold. 

You can cover these plants with frost guard or Hessian, which you can buy at a garden centre, hardware store or nursery.  These materials allow air and water through, so it is safe to keep your plants covered until spring. 

Saplings can be protected from frost by wrapping straw bundles around the stems.

You can also protect your plants from frost, by not watering in the late afternoon, as the wet ground will make the frost even more severe.  It is best to water your garden in the mornings, to allow the excess water to dry during the day. 

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping design and implement exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner.  We pride ourselves in providing our clients with excellent, efficient and comprehensive service.  We offer all the products and services associated with creating a peaceful, and aesthetically pleasing outdoor living space which will complement the style of your home and in which you can relax.

After having gone through the time-consuming and often frustrating process of having your dream home built, the last thing you need is having to wait for your lawn to grow. The experts at Kingfisher Landscaping can avert this annoyance by planting instant lawn in your garden.   

Instant lawn can be planted any time of year, as opposed to seeded lawn, and is also more effective on sloping terrain.  It immediately looks appealing and can be utilized much quicker.  Instant lawn is available in 2 to 3 rolls per square meter. 

There are a few varieties of instant lawn to choose from:  Kikuyu grass, All Seasons Evergreen grass or LM grass.  Kikuyu is perfect for high-traffic areas; grows quickly and prefers sunny areas.  It will, however go dormant during winter.  All Seasons Evergreen stays bright green throughout the year and will flourish in full sun and light shade.  It can also handle a lot of pedestrian traffic, once it has been established fully.  LM grows slower than kikuyu and grows in both sunny and shady areas, and can handle a moderate amount of traffic.  It also goes dormant during winter; browning after experiencing frost. 

Before laying your instant lawn, the Kingfisher Landscaping professionals will clear the proposed area, by levelling and raking the soil and removing any obstacles, such as rocks and building rubble.  Next we will lightly water the area, after applying fertilizer with a high phosphorus content.  The rolls of grass need to be laid with the edges of each roll touching the next.  We will cut strips in the required size and shape to fill in any odd spots, ensuring that your lawn will be become a smooth, unbroken carpet of lush, green grass.  After laying the instant lawn, the Kingfisher Landscaping experts will soak the grass with water, and regularly water your new lawn in the following days to ensure it takes properly. 

Your lawn will be ready for its first mowing within approximately 7 to 10 days.  Initially it is best to use a lawn mower with a rotary blade, instead of a roll-blade mower.  Later on, you can mow with a roll-blade to obtain that green carpet effect.  The first time your lawn is mowed, it must be mowed at the highest possible mowing height, reducing the mowing height slightly with each subsequent mowing.