Attracting butterflies to your garden is as easy as planting indigenous, flowering plants in your garden. The first step you will need to take in creating a butterfly friendly garden is to conduct research on the endemic species of butterflies in your region. From there you will be able to determine which plants you will have to incorporate into your garden design, which will provide food and shelter for the butterflies that you wish to attract.

Some common plants that are inviting to butterflies include wild irises (dietes grandiflora and dietes bicolour), Blue Freylinia (freylinia tropica), Honeybells (freylinia lanceolata), Cape Honeysuckle (tecomaria capensis) and Cape leadwort (plumbago auriculata). Adult butterflies feed on nectar and their larvae – caterpillars – feed on the leaves of larval host plants.

Butterflies are attracted to colour, so make sure that you plant flowering plants, which are on your endemic butterflies’ menu. Your lay-out should be carefully thought through, as these dainty and pretty insects love sunny areas. Therefore, you will have to plant your butterfly-attracting plants in sunny areas. Naturally, you will have to research the needs of the plants, to ensure they will thrive in the sun. Butterflies also need water, so it would be a good idea to create an area for them to drink from.

Finally, it is important to avoid pesticides as much as possible, as this will harm not only the butterflies, but also their offspring – caterpillars. Not only will attracting butterflies to your garden add life and beauty to your garden, but you will also be contributing to conservation, as you will be restoring the balance of the ecology in your garden. And, sadly most of our indigenous butterflies are endangered. Butterflies are essential role players in pollination.

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping can 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.

Linda Poultney ©

You can create dimensionality by incorporating varying levels into your garden design.  You can either utilize extreme levels or subtle levels.  It depends on your personal taste and the area where you would like to create your garden.

Terraces and raised flower beds are both options to be used in creating different levels in your garden.  You can also plant a selection of plants together, which vary in species, density and height.  Decorative boulders, water features, Koi ponds, and wooden decking are also often employed to add different levels in your garden.

The possibilities are truly endless!  Our landscaping gurus will astound you with their inspired ideas.

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 ©

One can add depth and appeal to garden design, by using an extensive palette of colours. This can be applied to all of the materials incorporated in creating a unique garden.

The first range of materials would be plants. You are not restricted to flowering plants in bringing colour into your garden. Many plants have varied foliage colours. Just look around you when you are outdoors. Try to count how many shades of green you can count, by merely looking at the leaves on the plants around you. Decorative grasses, such as mondo grass (ophiopogon japonicus), dwarf mondo grass (ophiopogon japonicus kyoto), and jaburan grass (ophiopogon jaburan vittatus) have beautiful green leaves. Black mondo grass (ophiopogon planiscapus nigrescens) is a dark purple-black colour and acorus gold grass shimmers like old gold. Agaves are grey-green in colour, while euphorbias are a darker green and four fingers range in colour from pale green to bright orange. Fire chief phormiums are a beautiful rusty red in colour and the leaves on a star jasmine are dark green.

Flowering plants add seasonal colour, such as the bright yellow or deep orange flowers on the day lily. Gorgeously dainty pink flowers adorn the gaura – butterfly plant – and who can resist the blood red of a rose?

You can also use pebbles, rocks, stepping stones, pots, sculptures and benches to add colour to your garden. The possibilities are truly endless! Our landscaping gurus will astound you with their inspired ideas.

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 use of various textures in garden design adds interest and dimensionality to the overall aesthetic appearance of your garden. You can use a varied plant palette to add sensuality to your garden. Decorative grasses, such as mondo grass (ophiopogon japonicus), dwarf mondo grass (ophiopogon japonicus kyoto), jaburan grass (ophiopogon jaburan vittatus) and black mondo grass (ophiopogon planiscapus nigrescens) create a soft, waving appearance, especially when planted en masse. Plump, waxy succulents, such as rock roses, euphorbias, kalanchoes and aloes add a sense of fecundity and display beautifully as feature plants. Spiky plants, such as agaves, yuccas and cacti add a theatrical sense to your garden and are best flaunted as feature plants or border plants. Dainty, flowering plants normally add splashes of colour and an almost impish ambience to your garden.

Other materials that can be used to incorporate interesting textured levels into your garden include pebbles, rocks, slate rock, stepping stones, wooden decking, bark chips, concrete screed surfaces and mosaic. Sculptural elements, such as dogon ladders, dogon benches, planters, sculptures and mill stones are also ideal in adding interesting textures to your garden.

The possibilities are truly endless! Our landscaping gurus will astound you with their inspired ideas.

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 ©

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 ©

A sloping garden area has the potential of causing a lot of logistical garden lay-out headaches for a home owner. Fortunately our professional team of landscaping experts is at hand to offer years of experience and superb assistance.

Should you find yourself with a sloping garden area, 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 ©

Our designer had free reign and tons of fun in creating these playful exterior décor pieces for a longstanding client of Kingfisher Landscaping.

He started off with designing mild steel Cubedec planters, which differed in sizes.  Our team of décor experts created these planters, which were powder coated in various vibrant colours and decorated with unique laser-cut slogans.  These planters were strategically placed in a corner of the garden, where they were planted with plump euphorbias and agaves, which enhanced the play with texture.

Next, our creative designer dreamed up the concept of Cubedec gabion retainer walls, which were powder coated and filled with an assortment of interesting objects, ranging from slate stones to oil lamps.

Our experienced and creative teams at Badec Bros Mosaic, in conjunction with our in-house exterior décor company, Badec Bros Deco manufactured this vibrant Cubedec mild steel bench with mosaic tiling and a faux lawn top.

The final touch to this inspiring revamp was the inclusion of mild steel balls, which were attached to round steel rods, and planted amongst the plants in the flower beds.  Once again, these features were powder coated in a plethora of bright colours.

Our team of dedicated professionals can design and implement exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner.  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 trend-setting experts at Kingfisher Landscaping were approached to provide a breath of fresh air to this existing garden, which was originally installed by our professional team.  The clients’ brief to the resourceful landscaping designer was to add a couple of new features and spice it up a bit.  They also wanted to create more privacy in certain areas of their garden. 

Kingfisher Landscaping incorporated clean, straight lines into the hard and soft scaping elements, and added stylish art and décor pieces to the overall garden design.  We started this project by cleaning up the areas that needed to be revamped and then proceeded to construct raised, angular planting areas.  Each of these beds differs in height, which creates interesting levels.  Combined with the various textures – interesting plant palette, pebbles, screed blocks and sleepers – our innovative designer created an aesthetically pleasing exterior work of art.

We cast concrete screed blocks on site, which act as stepping stones and lead the garden ambler through this fascinating outdoor gallery.  Black pebbles were strewn around the steppers, to fill the area and add contrasting texture. 

This fascinating garden was specifically designed to incorporate and exhibit the clients’ impressive anthology of African art.  We also added a few artistic items – dogon ladders, a dogon bench, and authentic mill stones – to complement the client’s collection.  Our in-house décor company, Badec Bros Deco, manufactured wooden feature poles, as well as, solid mild steel screens and gorgeous trellis screens, which were finished in a rust effect.  The magnificent sculptures were brought to their full glory, by placing them on mild steel Cubedec pedestals – courtesy of Badec Bros Deco – which were also finished in a rust effect, to match the organic theme of the garden.

                                                                                                                                                           Where the boundary walls were not sufficient in providing privacy to certain parts of the garden, we brought in customized, mild steel screens.  These screens were placed in an overlapping manner, which creates privacy and adds to the artistic theme of the garden.  The same effect was achieved by grouping together wooden feature poles in another part of the garden, which was too exposed to the clients’ liking.

We used a limited amount of plant species in our palette, but chose these plants for their interesting textures.  Bromeliads (aechmea fasciata), desert spoons (dasylirion wheeleri), aloes “hedgehog”, bitter aloes (aloe ferox), carex green sedges, mother-in-law’s-tongues (sansevierias laurentii), candelabrum (euphorbia ingens) were all planted strategically around the garden.  The home owners also posses a lovely collection of cycads, which were moved and re-planted in order to best exhibit their beauty.

The aloes “hedgehog” were planted in neat rows in one rectangular raised bed, which was covered with rough sand to augment the use of texture.  The spiky desert spoons and plump candelabrum were planted against the boundary walls to soften the area.  Another angular planter was planted with lush mondo grass (ophiopogon japonicus), whilst yet another elevated planter was decorated with authentic mill stones and planted with dainty daisy lawn (phyla nodiflora).

The end-result is a beautifully renovated garden, which perfectly displays the individual art pieces and complements the attractive home, which it so effortlessly envelops.

 Whether it is landscaping, installations of Koi ponds, water features, wooden decking, garden illumination, swimming pools, irrigation or the inclusion of mosaics and garden décor in the garden – Kingfisher Landscaping will always define your exterior lifestyle in a stylish fashion.  For more information, visit the company’s detailed website.

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.

Linda Poultney ®

2010 has started with a bang and our team of landscaping specialists at Kingfisher Landscaping are ready to do business!

Our team of dedicated professionals can design and implement exceptional and beautiful gardens in a professional manner.  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 ®

Happy New Year! Our team of landscaping specialists at Kingfisher Landscaping wish you a very happy and prosperous 2010! May this year be filled with all the best things in life!

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.

Linda Poultney ®