Appropriate drainage in a garden is of utmost importance; otherwise you will end up with muddy areas in your garden, rotting plants or even worse, damaged house and wall foundations.

Soil types, such as clay soil, will certainly cause drainage problems in your garden, as it tends to retain water.  A shallow water table on your property will also create drainage problems.  You can check for poor drainage on your property by looking out for wet patches or puddles of water on the ground.  

The first technique you can use to improve the drainage in your garden, entails removing the first 15cm of topsoil and replacing it with more soluble soil.

Another technique which can be used – and which is not as intensive – is to create different levels in your garden area.  You can either arrange a slightly sloped ground level in your garden, or you can shape your garden areas in such a way, as to create channels to carry the excess water away.

A third technique involves installing a French drain.  This entails creating a type of underground sieve, by digging a trench and filling it with loose debris, like excess building materials or pebbles.  This sieve should be covered by a strong steel grid and a layer of top soil of about 15cm thick.  The ideal place to create this sieve would be at the lowest part of the garden, where most of the water gathers.

You can also utilize a poorly drained area by having your landscaper design and create a large pond. 

Should you wish to have your very own Kingfisher garden, you can contact our office on (012) 460 7990 or send us an e-mail to edrich@badecbros.com and we will send one of our highly experienced and innovative landscaping designers out to create a unique garden design, tailored to your specific needs.  You will also be provided with a free, no-obligation quotation.

Our team of dedicated professionals has been designing and implementing exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner for the past 12 years.  We can also 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.

Linda Poultney ©

The black wattle tree is a dangerous alien invader.  It is an evergreen tree and can grow up to 30 meters in height.

These intruders were introduced into South Africa between 1858 and 1864.  it is not sure whether the first black wattle trees were planted in the Cape Town Botanical Gardens (1858) as decorative trees or in the present-day KwaZulu-Natal near Camperdown (1864) as commercial trees. 

Due to its high tannin content (around 30%), the black wattle was planted commercially to be used in tanning leather.  The wood was also used for firewood, building materials and as wood chips.

Unfortunately these exotic trees – native to South-East Australia – have started growing profusely outside commercial plantations, along water courses and roads.  They tend to grow in dense copses, especially after a fire has passed through the area.  Because these trees were planted outside of their natural habitat, they do not have to contend with their natural enemies, which control their numbers.  These trees steal water, nutrients and light from our indigenous plants and trees, and therefore replace our native flora.  Especially our fynbos areas are threatened by the black wattle.

The black wattle has been declared an invader plant throughout South Africa, except in areas where they are commercially planted.    These commercially planted trees should be monitored, however, and be prevented from spreading out of the plantations.

Black wattles reproduce by their seeds, which can remain dormant, yet fertile, for a period of 50 to 80 years.  These seeds do not germinate immediately, and can gather quite thickly under the trees.  Should a wild fire spread through the trees, all of the seeds will germinate simultaneously, which causes an even bigger problem.

These trees also re-sprout rather heartily, adding to the level of difficulty in getting rid of them.  Should you fell a wattle tree, you must ensure that you treat the stump with a herbicide, to prevent it from re-sprouting.  As these trees normally flourish along water courses, you need to ensure that you use a registered herbicide and definitely steer clear of diesel-based products, as this will contaminate the water course.

If the trees are still young – seedlings and saplings – you can pull them out by hand, when the soil is wet.  However, if there are very many of them, it is best to use chemical control measures, as extreme soil disturbance will also promote the germination of seeds.

The bottom line is that you should never plant a black wattle in your garden and you should do your share in terminating these plants responsibly to enhance the growth of our indigenous flora.

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.

Badec Bros Deco, our sister company, also manufactures stylish steel and wood benches.

Our benches can be customized to any size and shape and can be manufactured in a wide range of materials with a plethora of finishing options.

Optional extras available include Plexiglas (Perspex) tops or outdoor cushions.

We are continuously working on trend-setting and matchless bench designs.  Should you have an idea for an exclusive bench for your home, office or garden or any project you are working on, you can contact us and we will bring your ideas to life for you!

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping design and implement exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner and 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.

Should you wish to have your very own signature Badec Bros Deco customized Cubedec bench, or any other piece of trendy steel décor, please feel free to contact our energetic and knowledgeable sales representative, Mareleen van Zijl, on her cell phone at 078 800 5112, the office number at 012 460 7990, or via e-mail at mareleen@badecbros.com. 

She will gladly arrange an appointment with you to listen to your ideas and to stun you with our own creative ideas!  You dream it, we manufacture it!

We can deliver your unique Badec Bros Deco product(s) within 10 working days, upon acceptance of the design and quotation and the required 50% deposit.

We offer a 1 year guarantee on all our products. 

Garden pathways form part of the hard landscaping aspect of landscaping design and implementation.  You can also refer to it as garden architecture.

Pathways can function to demarcate certain areas of your garden, whilst also linking all these areas.  They can be purely functional – to be walked on – or can form part of the aesthetic whole of the garden.  Garden pathways lead the garden ambler on an exploration through the garden.

Pathways can be laid out in a number of ways and with a wide variety of materials, such as stepping stones (in various sizes, shapes and colours), cobbles (also available in various sizes, shapes and colours), old wooden railway sleepers, and concrete screed blocks, which we can cast on site in a variety of shapes, sizes and with many different coloured finishes.

Ultimately, the garden design of any 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.

With Badec Bros Landscaping, trading as Kingfisher Landscaping, being such a contemporary landscaping company, which continuously keeps up with international standards and trends, most of our garden designs are very modern.

A modern garden design incorporates trend-setting design ideas and state-of-the-art landscaping products.  Modern gardens tend to have clean lines running through the entire garden. 

Neatly demarcated “rooms” and borders can be created by using cobble stones, stepping stones, screed blocks and short, fluffy plants. 

Texture and layers can be included into the garden design by using different materials, varying from chunky arrabella rock (quartz dump rock), to plump succulents, spiky aloe’s, fluffy sedges, and hardscaping features, such as raised plants beds, terraces, water features, koi ponds and wooden decking.

Tree aloes (aloe bainesii) – Africa’s largest aloes – have a striking, sleek appearance and will perfectly complement a modern garden as feature plants.  There are many stunning plants to be used as focal points in the contemporary garden. 

Trendy exterior décor products are also often used to complement and round-off a modern garden design.  Our in-house garden décor company, Badec Bros Deco, can create a wide range of exciting décor products to enhance the overall beauty of the garden.

Ultimately, the garden design of a modern 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 design is just one of the subjects and professions that have benefited from Information Technology. Today it’s possible for you to become a landscaper in your spare time by using landscaping design software that you can find on the Internet. If you are having some difficulties on what design to use, this software can give you loads of ideas in creating your garden. Using this tool, you can carefully plan your design including the dimensions and the type of materials that you will need. After you have created your landscape plan on the computer, you can simply have it printed and then you are ready to begin.

When you use landscaping design software, you can get a understandable picture of how your finished garden will look like. Your landscaping design is shown on the screen and depicts what the finished garden would look like when construction is finished. All software of this type contains step-by-step instructions for creating your plan. The instructions are quite clear from the beginning to the end of your design. This is the perfect choice for people who would like to complete a landscaping project on their own but lack skills in drafting. This software is also helpful for those people who are thinking of following a professional landscaping career. Using it you can easily show other people your creativity in designing landscaped gardens. For those who are in the business of landscaping, using landscape design software allows them to show their designs to customers.

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.

The one great thing about using indigenous plants for landscaping is that you know before they have even been planted that they should thrive. South Africa has some rare and beautiful indigenous plants ranging from ground covers, small, medium and large shrubs and a selection of many trees, and you’ll find many species suitable for you’re particular region stocked at your local nurseries, and should also find a wide variety of bulbs, grasses and succulents that are suitable for landscaping.

Many landscapers such as ourselves can design and create indigenous garden landscaping to suit your environment and your particular requirements, and will supply the plants, materials and labour. Many regions of the country suffer from harsh weather conditions for much of the year, and this is one of the reasons why indigenous landscaping can be so successful where a garden using non-native plants either fails or needs a lot of upkeep. Whether you’re thinking of using local or foreign plants in your new garden, we will be able to give you excellent advice on how to use them in a low-maintenance, water-wise garden for you that will survive our harsh weather. There are always shortcuts that can be used depending on the regional conditions applicable in your particular case. If you like colour we can use annuals – this means they will return year after year in the same splendid beauty and at the same time give you a time saving way of having the garden in bloom throughout the season.

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.

Kingfisher Landscaping often uses pebbles, gravel and sandstone chunks (arabella rock) to fill plant beds around succulents or bamboo.  Raised planters especially appear rounded off neatly with white or charcoal coloured pebbles.  Arabella rock brilliantly enhances a dry bed, planted with succulents such as rock roses and cacti. 

Gravel can be used as a filler in between stepping stones, and of course for a neat and low-maintenance parking area.

Hardscaping materials such as these can really round off your entire landscape beautifully.

GeoEdge™ Range

This range, sold exclusively by Kingfisher Landscaping and Badec Bros Deco in Southern Africa, is employed to retain a variety of materials in your rooftop garden design, such as plants, flowers, stones, pebbles, pavers and tiles.

GeoEdge is a range of strong, yet flexible L-shaped aluminium strips designed with flexibility and sustainability in mind.  You can use this exclusive range to shape planting areas or paving areas, with linear and curvy lines.  It creates a strong 90° edge and is available with a slotted wall to enable water run-off.  With the assistance of this ground breaking product, you can create the neat and creative planting areas you have always dreamt of.  It creates a crisp division between the different areas you want to establish in your rooftop garden.

This patented product is manufactured of recycled commercial aluminium alloy and is 100% recyclable.  It is available in a Mill Finish (light grey), as well as, a Black Duraflex finish and in the following dimensions:

 *2.54cm (Wall Height x 5.08cm (Base)

 *3.81cm (Wall Height) x 5.08cm (Base)

 *5.08cm (Wall Height) x 5.08cm (Base)

 *6.35cm (Wall Height) x 5.08cm (Base)

*7.62cm (Wall Height) x 7.62cm (Base)

*10.16cm (Wall Height) x 7.62cm (Base)

Another advantage to GeoEdge is that the wall of the adjoined strips will not become unstable and untidy with time.  It is also weather proof and will, therefore stand the test of time.