Posts Tagged ‘irrigation’

POLISHED PERFECTION

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

 

 

 

The ingenious specialists of Kingfisher Landscaping created this slick garden, reminiscent of a London apartment garden.  This stylish home is enclosed by the ethereal garden, which harmonizes perfectly with the fashionable architectural style. 

Kingfisher Landscaping utilized the beautiful established oak tree as a prominent feature, around which the rest of the garden was arranged.  Our experienced team of landscapers constructed an unpretentious square concrete water feature, which enhances the overall tranquil mood of this exterior refuge and surrounded it with variegated abelias (abelia grandiflora).  Neat concrete screed slabs, which were cast on site, function as both neat pathways, as well as clean, linear rows, which comprise the hardscaping features in this garden design.  All of the cement features were finished in an aged concrete look. 

Lush beds of sweet-smelling lavender were planted to soften the yellow walls.  Dwarf eugenias (syzygium paniculatum) were planted in gabion plant cages to act as points of focal interest on the perimeter of the garden.  The professional landscaping team also planted dwarf buxus into square pots and common orange jasmines (murraya exotica), which bear white, perfumed flowers, in linear plant beds.  Topiaried Indian laurel fig trees (ficus nitida) were planted against the boundary wall to grow into a dense top-hedge. 

 A neat balau wooden deck, with an aged appearance, was constructed around the swimming pool by the Kingfisher Landscaping connoisseurs.  Finally, we planted all seasons evergreen instant lawn, which will flourish in the ample shade cast by the giant old oak tree.

The end result is a serene landscape in which the homeowners can escape the hustle and bustle of everyday city living.

Whether it is landscaping, installations of Koi ponds, water features, wooden decking, garden illumination, swimming pools, irrigation or the inclusion of mosaics in the garden – Kingfisher Landscaping will always define your exterior lifestyle in a stylish fashion. 

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.

 Home Owner (7)

 

WORKING FOR WATER IN YOUR OWN GARDEN

Monday, November 30th, 2009

The Working for Water programme – introduced through the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry – is a staunch fighter against alien invasive plants in South Africa.  It is estimated that around 10% of our country is covered with approximately 9000 species of alien invasive plants, which steal water, nutrients and sunlight from our native flora.

The Working for Water programme was initiated in 1995 and has since then cleared out more than a million hectares of alien invasive plants.  It works in conjunction with the Departments of Agriculture, Trade and Industry, and Environmental Affairs and Tourism, as well as, local governments and communities.  Around 20 000 people are trained and provided with jobs every year, due to the Working for Water programme.

This programme uses four methods of clearing and controlling areas which have been invaded by alien plants, namely mechanical (felling, burning and removing), chemical (environmentally safe herbicides), biological (species-specific diseases and insects), and integrated methods, which combines all of the above.

You can do your share of working for water in your own garden, by planting only indigenous gardens and by employing environmentally friendly measures in dealing with pests and diseases on your plants. 

A water wise garden consists of plants that do not require a lot of watering.  These plants are normally indigenous plants, which can survive on rainfall and do not need additional watering.  Succulents are also very water wise plants and look beautiful when planted in masses. 

Hard landscaping features, such as sculptures, trellises, wooden decking, cobble lines, stepping stones, cement screed blocks, feature walls, garden benches and other exterior décor will decorate your garden and requires no water.  Different textures will add dimension to the garden lay-out.

By reducing your lawn area, you will also save on water.  Mulching – layering bark chips, hay, pebbles or grass cuttings – will keep the soil around your plants moist for longer periods and therefore require less watering.

When you have a drip-irrigation system installed, you will also save water.  You can set your irrigation system to water the garden at certain times of the day, such as early morning, when the sun will not just evaporate all the water.

Even weeding regularly will make your garden water wise, as all these unnecessary plants also use a lot of water. 

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, for instance 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.

By using organic pesticides in your garden, you will be applying responsible measures to ensure that garden animals, birds, insects, reptiles and amphibians will not suffer poisoning. You will also not harm your pets and you will be contributing to the prevention of soil and water table contamination. 

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.

VEGGIE GARDENS

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

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.

GARDENING IN SPRING

Monday, September 21st, 2009

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.

LAWN CARE IN SPRING

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Spring time is a good time to prepare your lawn for summer. Mowing, watering and feeding are all important aspects to lawn care during spring. Your lawn has probably started turning green again, after being dormant during winter.

You can mow your lawn at a height of between 2cm and 2½cm. You should mow your lawn once a week to stimulate blade growth. After the first mow of the season, you should feed your lawn. Lawn dressing or organic compost is ideal lawn food. Cover your entire lawn with either lawn dressing or organic compost, and make sure to water the lawn properly afterwards, to ensure that the compost goes down all the way to the roots and soil.

Lastly, you should water your lawn two to three times a week. Do not water it more often than that, as the lawn is likely to rot or attract weeds and diseases. Irrigation is the best option for watering your lawn, and the rest of your garden. Irrigation saves water and time.

Kingfisher Landscaping has been installing state of the art irrigation systems for many satisfied customers over the years. An irrigation system takes away the need to water your garden the old fashioned way with a hosepipe and sprinkler, which is time consuming and wastes water. It is a much more convenient and effective approach to ensure your garden stays alive and healthy.

You can choose between a manual or computerized system. The former being less expensive, with the latter being automatic and, therefore more convenient. Our irrigation specialists can install a watering system which would perfectly suit the spread of your garden, as well as, the varying water requirements of all the plants in your garden. Kingfisher Landscaping will take into account the amount of watering stations you would need on your irrigation system. Each station will cover a specific area in your overall garden layout. Should you prefer a computerized system, our irrigation experts can set the times of your watering according to the length of the watering period, as well as, the intervals between watering, depending on the water requirements of the plants in any specific area. This feature gives you peace of mind that your garden will be watered often enough, while you are away on holiday.

With a manual system, you will need to operate the system by hand. It is still, however, much more effective than watering your garden with a hosepipe and sprinkler, which needs to be moved continuously. Furthermore, you can choose between rotary and pop-up sprinklers. Pop-up sprinklers are the better choice, as they are concealed in your lawn or plant beds, and only “pop up”, when the watering period commences. Both types of sprinklers can be set to cover only a specific area, preventing water being wasted by having a sprinkler spray against a wall or onto a paved area. This element adds to the water saving benefit of an irrigation system.

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.

WATER WISE GARDENS

Friday, July 17th, 2009

A water wise garden consists of plants that do not require a lot of watering.  These plants are normally indigenous plants, which can survive on rainfall and do not need additional watering.  Succulents are also very water wise plants and look beautiful when planted in masses. 

Hard landscaping features, such as sculptures, trellises, wooden decking, cobble lines, stepping stones, cement screed blocks, feature walls, garden benches and other exterior décor will decorate your garden and requires no water.  Different textures will add dimension to the garden lay-out.

By reducing your lawn area, you will also save on water.  Mulching – layering bark chips, hay, pebbles or grass cuttings – will keep the soil around your plants moist for longer periods and therefore require less watering.

When you have a drip-irrigation system installed, you will also save water.  You can set your irrigation system to water the garden at certain times of the day, such as early morning, when the sun will not just evaporate all the water.

Even weeding regularly will make your garden water wise, as all these unnecessary plants also use a lot of water. 

Our in-house décor company, Badec Bros Deco, can manufacture any type of trendy exterior décor that your heart desires.  Badec Bros Wooden Decking, our in-house wooden decking company, is a highly professional and qualified company, fit to install your wooden decking in a variety of wood types with a range of stylish finishes.

Ultimately, the garden design of a water wise garden should harmonize with the architectural style of the home and with the tastes of the home owner.

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.

 

 

LANDSCAPING SERVICE

Monday, July 6th, 2009

What sort of benefits or assistance do you expect to get from a landscaping service. Well, that’s going to depend on the company you contact. There are some companies who claim to offer landscape services and when push comes to a shove, all they are actually offering is to cut your grass, tidy up leaves and weed the garden. There are, of course, plenty of services that a good professional company can offer. One of those landscaping services is consultancy. Often, property owners do not know exactly how they want their garden to look like. Sometimes, they do not even know what plants to grow! To solve these problems, one can hire landscape consultants to advise on what to do. Normally, the consultants arrange a visit to the property to observe. After a few days, they can visit the owner and submit to him some recommendations that may include a new garden layout design.

Other landscaping services include removing unwanted weeds, shrubs, trees and other vegetation, site clearance, removal of old fences, pathways, buildings and concrete. Hardscaping includes rockery works, pond excavation and construction, patio and terrace construction, pathway and driveway layout and fence layout. This service also aids in the construction of garden buildings such as pagodas, sheds and pump stations. Garden landscaping service also includes plant care. The contractor regularly visits a property to take care of the plants. Maintenance of the plants usually involves trimming and pruning, weed and pest control and irrigation. To find out how Kingfisher can help you, give us a call.

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.

 

 

LANDSCAPE COMPANY

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Many people may wonder what exactly a landscape company is and what it does. It does a combination of things. It designs, it constructs, it maintains and it advises. A good landscape company provides a one-stop shop for all areas of landscaping, including design, maintenance, construction, irrigation, stone walls, outdoor rooms, water features and lighting for residential and commercial clients. As each of our clients has different needs, all of our designs and concepts are customized to satisfy each customer in a unique way. Our designers work closely with each of our clients to maximize the use of space and to augment the natural beauty of their outdoor living environment, while at the same time taking into account their lifestyle needs. Our design plan will ensure that you will have a thorough understanding of the project before and during construction.

Construction requires a landscape company with the knowledge, expertise, skilled labour and specialized equipment to efficiently complete a garden project on time and to guarantee its structure and the integrity of its design. We provide a comprehensive and garden maintenance service, and our staff of skilled artisans collectively represent decades of experience in their trades. The maintenance service of a good landscape company includes:

  • A weekly or complete maintenance service
  • lawn maintenance and turf care
  • tree and shrub care, selective pruning
  • annual flowers and bulb planting
  • seasonal floral displays in containers
  • spring and autumn clean-ups

Don’t hesitate to contact us for further information about our services.

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.

 

 

MODERN GARDEN DESIGN

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

 

 

Our designing principles

Our designing principles

For the past few years South African interior decorating, fashions and lifestyles have changed dramatically. With the advent of the internet and the growth of the global village people from all over the world are learning from each other and it isn’t strange to see a Balinese garden in the middle of a Johannesburg suburb. Trends for gardens from all over the world have also changed and many people want a modern garden design when they are renovating their gardens.

One of the buzzwords, and also a very important lifestyle change many people have embraced is that of being ‘green’. The world is in grave danger if people don’t change their lifestyle to take the planet into account. One such way you can incorporate this into your lifestyle and in your modern garden design is by having an indigenous garden. By planting indigenous plants you contribute to the planet by reducing your water consumption as plants endemic to South Africa uses less water to flourish.

But going ‘green’ doesn’t mean you have to have a boring garden. Fusion is another buzzword that can bring about great designs to the man on the street. You can have a minimalist garden with a water feature while still only having indigenous plants.

At Kingfisher Landscaping (Badec Bros Landscaping) we will help you to bring all your designs to life, while still caring for the environment. Our team of experts will help you to design a garden that suits your lifestyle. Our services also include installing irrigation systems that are environmentally friendly. One of the most environmentally friendly methods of irrigation is drip irrigation. Through this you don’t waste any water as it goes straight into the soil.

For more information about your perfect modern garden design, contact us today and see how you can have a trendy garden while being environmentally conscious, contact us today.

IRRIGATION

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

Kingfisher Landscaping has been installing state of the art irrigation systems for many satisfied customers over the years.  An irrigation system takes away the need to water your garden the old fashioned way with a hosepipe and sprinkler, which is time consuming and wastes water.  It is a much more convenient and effective approach to ensure your garden stays alive and healthy.

You can choose between a manual or computerized system.  The former being less expensive, with the latter being automatic and, therefore more convenient.

Our irrigation specialists can install a watering system which would perfectly suit the spread of your garden, as well as, the varying water requirements of all the plants in your garden.

Kingfisher Landscaping will take into account the amount of watering stations you would need on your irrigation system.  Each station will cover a specific area in your overall garden layout.  Should you prefer a computerized system, our irrigation experts can set the times of your watering according to the length of the watering period, as well as, the intervals between watering, depending on the water requirements of the plants in any specific area.  This feature gives you peace of mind that your garden will be watered often enough, while you are away on holiday.

With a manual system, you will need to operate the system by hand.  It is still, however, much more effective than watering your garden with a hosepipe and sprinkler, which needs to be moved continuously.

Furthermore, you can choose between rotary and pop-up sprinklers.  Pop-up sprinklers are the better choice, as they are concealed in your lawn or plant beds, and only “pop up”, when the watering period commences.  Both types of sprinklers can be set to cover only a specific area, preventing water being wasted by having a sprinkler spray against a wall or onto a paved area.  This element adds to the water saving benefit of an irrigation system.