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.

Imagine popping out into your garden to pick a fresh sprig of rosemary, parsley or coriander, while preparing your family dinner…If you start growing a herb garden, this is possible.

By growing your own herb garden, you will ultimately save on your grocery bill and have a wide selection of your favourite fresh herbs on hand.

Firstly, you need to plan the lay-out of your herb garden.  Your herb garden should be close to your home – preferably close to your kitchen – and it should be small and manageable.  It should be laid out on fertile soil, with good drainage.  Should the soil not be fertile enough, you can always mix in compost and a little it of organic fertilizers.  You should also ensure that you remove all weeds – roots, seeds and all – and that you till the soil to loosen it up and aerate it properly.

Your herb garden should be laid out in a sheltered but sunny area and as far away from polluting factors such as road traffic, inorganic fertilizer sprays and pets.  Ideally, your herb garden should be exposed to direct sunlight for 6 hours.

When planting your herb 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 herbs. 

Herb 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 herb garden with stepping stones, cobble edging and strips of pebbles, gravel of quartzite rocks.  You can border the entire herb 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 herb seedlings, 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 herb beds, will retain moisture in the soil and protect your herbs against weeds, pests and the harsher elements.

If you want your herb garden to produce optimal herbs, 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 herbs.

Finally, you should harvest your herbs, using a sharp knife or a sharp pair of scissors.  Do not tear, bend or break the sprigs off, as this will damage the plant and prevent optimal growth.  You should harvest little amounts each time and always harvest from the strongest and healthiest plants only.

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 use of hedges in your garden has numerous advantages.  They can be used to create privacy in your garden; as dividers to create different areas in your garden; to muffle noise and act as a windbreak; to create mazes; to attract birds and butterflies to your garden; to hide ugly walls; to improve your security around your home and garden; and to act as a green background for other plants in your garden.  Hedge plants are relatively cheap and low-maintenance.

The maintenance required once you have planted your hedge plants, involves pruning when the plants are still small.  This will encourage the plant to grow dense.  You also need to pinch the tips, while the plants are still actively growing to promote the growth of side shoots.

If you want to plant a hedge for security – along your border walls – you can use a paper flower bougainvillea (bougainvillea glabra), num-num (carissa bispinosa) or natal plum (carissa macrocarpa).

Other plants that can be used as security measures include aloes, cacti, agaves, and any other plant that has thorns.

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.

Ultimately the design and type of plants selected depend on the architectural style of the home and the home owners’ preferences.

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.

The inclusion of creeping plants in a landscaping design has many advantages.  Creepers can be used to soften walls; to cover ugly spots; to break the dullness of a long wall; to screen unpleasant views and; to decorate your garden.  They can provide shade, if you plant them to creep over pergolas or arches.  Some creepers, such as star jasmine (jasminum multiflorum) and Cape honeysuckle (tecoma capensis) infuse your garden with the lovely scents distributed by their pretty flowers.  They also attract birds and insects.

Creepers do not need a lot of space to grow in.  You can even plant them in pots!  This makes them ideal for small gardens.  These plants need occasional pruning and adequate water.  Most climbers need to be cut back after they have bloomed.

There are different types of growth habits for different types of creepers.  Ivy (hedera) species and the tickey creeper (ficus pumila) have air roots and climb by means of auxiliary tendrils and roots, as well as suckers. 

Wisterias and honeysuckle, on the other hand, need to be trained to curl themselves around supporting structures, such as trellises or pergolas.  They are strong growers and need to be pruned often in order to avoid neighbouring plants from being smothered.

Natural climbers, such as plumbago (plumbago europaea) and rambling roses, naturally form thickets and can, therefore be trained to climb.  Other creepers, such as the passion flower (passiflora incarnate) have their own tendrils, but will need the right support to climb successfully.

The use of hedges in your garden has numerous advantages.  They can be used to create privacy in your garden; as dividers to create different areas in your garden; to muffle noise and act as a windbreak; to create mazes; to attract birds and butterflies to your garden; to hide ugly walls; to improve your security around your home and garden; and to act as a green background for other plants in your garden.  Hedge plants are relatively cheap and low-maintenance.

The maintenance required once you have planted your hedge plants, involves pruning when the plants are still small.  This will encourage the plant to grow dense.  You also need to pinch the tips, while the plants are still actively growing to promote the growth of side shoots.

You will find hedge plants for any height of hedge you would like to grow.  Low-growing hedge plants include duranta “Sheena’s Gold” (duranta erecta), Cape leadwort (plumbago capensis), Mexican abelia (abelia floribunda), dwarf boxwood (buxus), and glossy abelia (abelia floribunda).

Tall-growing hedge plants include Cape-Forget-Me-Not (plumbago auriculata), Cape honeysuckle (tecomaria capensis), honey bells (freylinia tropica), large leafed privet (ligustrum lucidum), and sweet viburnum (viburnum sinensis).

If you want to plant a hedge for security you can use a paper flower bougainvillea (bougainvillea glabra), num-num (carissa bispinosa) or natal plum (carissa macrocarpa).

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping make use of hedge plants in the soft scaping aspect of our garden designs quite regularly.  Ultimately the design and type of plants selected depend on the architectural style of the home and the home owners’ preferences.

Pruning is the process of removing certain above-ground elements from a plant; in landscaping this process usually involves removal of diseased, non-productive, or otherwise unwanted portions from a plant. In nature, certain meteorological conditions such as wind, snow or seawater mist can conduct a natural pruning process. The purpose of anthropomorphic pruning is to shape the plant by controlling or directing plant growth, to maintain the health of the plant, or to increase the yield or quality of flowers and fruits. Supporters of pruning often argue that it improves the health of the plant and makes a sturdier structure, whereas opponents believe that pruning harms plants’ “natural” forms and leads to wounding, which may become infected.

Tree removal or trimming is not a job for amateurs. It is a job best left to qualified <a href=”http://www.kingfisherlandscaping.co.za”>landscape</a> professionals because of the hazards involved. A tree <a href=”http://www.kingfisherlandscaping.co.za”>landscape</a> professional knows the correct trimming techniques and has the right equipment to trim your garden tree safely and efficiently. Simply owning a chain saw does not count as a qualification. How do you know if your landscaper is really a tree removal specialist, or just someone trimming trees as a sideline? Beware of non-professional <a href=”http://www.kingfisherlandscaping.co.za”>landscapers</a> who are vague about the price and what you’re getting for it. Even if your tree is trimmed without a major mishap, you may wind up with the branches left to litter your <a href=”http://www.kingfisherlandscaping.co.za”>landscape</a>, because removal was never discussed as part of the price.