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.

The list of poisonous garden plants is unsettling in its extent.  You should, therefore, be very careful about the plants you choose to plant in your garden, if you have pets.

Some of the most common poisonous plants are arum lilies, daffodils, azaleas, cycads, clivias, day lilies, spider plants (hen-and-chickens), irises, kalanchoes, onions, strelitzia’s, tomato plants, yesterday-today-and-tomorrow plants, yuccas and wisterias.

The best option is to avoid planting these plants in your garden, or to remove them, if they are already there.  Do not let your dog or cat chew on any plant! 

You should also be very careful when applying bone meal to your garden beds, as it can cause gastro-intestinal disturbances in your pets.  Also make sure that your pets do not have access to your garden compost heap, as this is also harmful to them.  

Symptoms of plant poisoning include convulsions, trouble breathing, vomiting, extreme salivation, disorientation, paralysis, and tremors.  You should immediately take your pet to the veterinarian, if you suspect plant poisoning.

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.

We are all constantly waging war against weeds in our gardens…in our garden beds, in our paving, in our lawn…

This war increases in intensity during spring and summer.

Weeds are in direct competition with your plants for water, sunlight and soil nutrients. 

As with most things in life, prevention is better than cure.  In order to discourage the growth of weeds in your flower beds or between you paving, stepping stones and gravel strips, you should lay down sheets of weed guard (biddum cloth) before planting and before laying out your pavers or gravel.  This helpful product is available at most garden centres.

When you lay down weed guard in your garden beds, you can cut out holes for where you would like to plant your seedlings or other plants.  Then you can cover the area with mulch or decorative stone.

Preparing your soil properly before planting will also reduce the risk of weed infestations.  Till the soil properly and pick out all weeds, root systems and seeds that you can see.  Mix in a healthy blend of fertilizer and compost; making sure that it is a reputable product and will not introduce more weeds to your soil. 

To get rid of weeds, you will need to loosen the soil and pull the weeds out roots and all.  Ideally you should do so before the weeds have had the chance to produce seeds.  This process can be somewhat time-consuming and arduous, but if you look at it in a positive light, it will be great to be working outdoors with your hands.  You can even work on you suntan – provided you are wearing a hat and sunscreen. 

Finally, applying layers of mulch is also a good anti-weeding measure.  As we have informed you before, mulching has many benefits for your garden, such as retaining water and protecting the roots of your plants.

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.

By using organic fertilizers in your garden, you will be applying responsible measures to ensure that your plants are healthy and grow to their best potential.  You will also be contributing to the fight against soil and water table contamination. 

Organic fertilizers raise the nutrient content in your garden soil, which feeds your plants and assists the roots of your plants in getting optimal nutrition from the soil.  The three most important nutrients needed by your plants are phosphor, potassium and nitrogen.

Another advantage of using organic fertilizers is that it enhances your soil composition and improves water retention, which in turn does its part in combating drought.

Manure – especially chicken manure – is the main ingredient in organic fertilizers.  Additional ingredients, such as blood meal, plant shavings, bone meal and are used to complete the mixture.

When you think about it, organic gardening harks back to the original way of farming, before all of these artificial fertilizers were created and utilized.

In order to supplement your organic fertilizers in your garden, you can – and should – apply layers of mulch to your garden beds.  This will facilitate the virtuous qualities of your organic fertilizing efforts.

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.

Permaloc manufactures top quality aluminium landscape edging products, which were designed by landscape architects.  We utulize these trendy products as hardscape features to define flower beds and lawn areas.

Because these products are all very easy to install, we are currently experiencing that it will take a 10′th of the labour and time to install, as opposed to other edging materials. Another positive aspect is that it can be moved easily, as garden beds are changed or moved.

We will cover the entire range avaible over the next few days.