The round-leaved teak is the second rare tree that was appointed by the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs.

The round-leaved teak is another gorgeous indigenous tree.  It can grow up to 10 meters in height and is deciduous, which means it looses it leaves during winter.  During spring and summer, the tree carries small, vivid yellow flowers, which are shaped like peas.  These perfumed blooms attract wasps and bees and the leaves are used by birds for constructing nests. 

These trees often grow together – forming arbour colonies – and occur in all the warmer climates of South Africa.  They naturally grow on rocky hills and in open bushveld.  The wood is used as firewood in some areas of the Limpopo province and it is used in bee farming, because the flowers are so rich in pollen and nectar.

The round-leaved teak provides lovely shade.  Combined with its beautiful appearance and its attractive qualities to birds and insects, the round-leaved teak is an ideal garden tree.

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 monkey thorn (acacia galpinii) has been appointed as one of the trees of the year for 2009, by the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs.

This fast growing tree – with its lush, light green foliage – can grow up to 36 meters in height and has a wide, spreading crown.  It is a deciduous tree, which means that it loses its leaves during winter.  During spring, this lovely tree carries light yellow flowers and maroon-coloured seed pods during late summer and autumn.  The monkey thorn is ideal for large gardens and can be planted in your lawn – or along the edges of your lawn – as it provides mottled shade, which will allow enough sunlight through to the grass blades.

This indigenous tree is quite hardy and can survive in hot and dry weather conditions, as well as, frost to some degree.  Saplings should be properly protected from frost, however.  It also attracts insects, such as bees and wasps, and will also provide shelter for birds in your garden.

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 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.

The Tree Euphorbia (euphorbia ingens) is fleshy, prickly and has many branches, resembling candelabra.  10ℓ or 20ℓ tree euphorbias also make for beautiful, sculptural pot plants. 

These plants also require very little maintenance and will flourish both indoors and outdoors.  Tree euphorbias grow quickly but, are also easy to transplant.  Therefore, you can remove them from the pots and plant them in your garden, when they grow too big.  They are sensitive to frost, so it is best to put them in a sunny area and out of the wind, during winter. 

Pot – or container – gardening is a very low-maintenance way of creating a garden and is also ideal for small areas.  Another advantage to pot gardening is that you can bring the outdoors indoors. 

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.

Tree Aloes (aloe bainesii) – Africa’s largest aloes – have a striking, sleek appearance and are also perfect to be used as pot plants.  On has to make sure that the proposed pot has a base with a large circumference, to prevent the whole ensemble from toppling over, once the aloe grows larger and becomes top heavy.  The creative and practical experts at our in-house décor company, Badec Bros Deco, will design and manufacture the perfect Cubedec pot for your tree aloe.

These aloes can grow up to 15 meters in height.  The forked branches will in time spread out into a dense crown, contrasting beautifully with the smooth, grey bark of the stem. 

Pretty cylindrical, orange-pink flowers will bring life to your garden or veranda during winter (June and July), making this sculptural plant an ideal focal point for any outdoor living space.  The leaves are dark green in colour and are long and narrow, with graceful curving.

Pot – or container – gardening is a very low-maintenance way of creating a garden and is also ideal for small areas.  Another advantage to pot gardening is that you can bring the outdoors indoors.

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.

Autumn – March to early June – is the ideal time to plant bulb plants in your garden.  Flowering times of bulbs vary from winter through to spring, depending on the type of bulbs you plant.  Therefore, with careful planning you can have colour in your garden during winter up to spring.

Bulbs include daffodils, irises, tulips, tulbaghias, ixias, hyacinths and freesias.  You can buy your bulbs from a nursery and plant them yourself, taking care to read the instructions carefully.

There are a few points to remember when planting bulbs.  Firstly, you need to lay out your proposed beds or pots in an area out of direct sunlight.  Then you need to prepare the soil by loosening it and working in old compost.  New compost will burn the bulbs, so take care not to use it.  After you have prepared the soil, you can plant your bulbs.  Make sure that the layer of soil covering the bulbs is as thick as the bulb is high.  You can compress the soil slightly, but do not compact it too much.  The soil around the bulbs needs to allow enough air and water through.  It is also a good idea to feed your bulbs with bulb food every three weeks, to ensure optimal flowering.

After planting your bulbs, you can mulch the beds and make sure to water your bulbs regularly.  Your bulbs should have a life span of up to four years. 

Should the bulbs start crowding one another, you will have to extract the bulbs gently, divide them and then replant them a little further away from one another.  At this time, you can also get rid of any unhealthy bulbs and replace them with new ones.  It is important to go through this process only after your bulbs have finished flowering and have gone into hibernation, as they are at their strongest at this time.

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.

Mulching is very important during winter.  It is a process by which you place a protective cover over the soil in your plant beds.  By mulching the plant beds in your garden, you protect the roots of your plants from soil frost.  Mulching has many advantages.  It moderates the soil temperature; stores moisture; enhances the nutrient count in your soil; prevents soil erosion; improves soil texture and prevents the growth of weeds.  Generally, mulching will improve the health and growth of your plants.

There are many types of both organic and inorganic mulch materials to use in your garden. 

Organic mulching materials include leaves, hay, bark chips, lawn trimmings, saw dust, shells, nut shells and tattered newspaper.  Should you use hay or straw as mulch, you need to make sure that does not contain any weed seeds, as this will cause rapid weed growth in your plant beds.

Inorganic mulching materials include, plastic mulch (such as plastic sheeting used in agriculture), gravel, stone chips, pebbles, rubber mulch (manufactured from recycled tires) and weed guard sheeting covered with a decorative layer of pebbles, gravel or stone chips.

You can also plant ground cover plants, such as dymondia margaretae (Silver Carpet), mazus reptans “white” and phyla nodiflora (daisy lawn) to act as living mulch in your plant beds or around trees. 

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.

Dead leaves do not have to be an irritation during autumn and winter.  You can utilize dead leaves and other decaying plant materials in your garden by creating a compost heap.  By doing this, you will be creating your very own circle of life in your garden.  You can feed the plants in your garden and in your home with your own home-produced compost.  You will also save money.  You can even add kitchen waste, such as potato and carrot peels, rotten veggies and the like to your compost heap.  This will also reduce the amount of refuse ending up in landfills, which costs money and ultimately encourages global warming.

Producing your own compost is a cheap, therapeutic and natural manner of feeding your garden.  By working compost into your garden, you will enhance the nutrient contents in your soil; create an insulating layer in your soil, which will prevent moisture loss and protect the roots of your plants from extreme heat or cold; and you will encourage a healthy ecosystem in your garden.

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.

Lawn maintenance during winter does not require much effort, but is important with regard to how your lawn will grow and look during the following summer months.

Your lawn will need regular watering, especially in summer rainfall areas.  At least one watering per week should suffice.

You can fertilize your lawn with a fertilizer that has a high in phosphate.  This will encourage root development; ensuring that your lawn stays strong and healthy throughout winter.

Your lawn will not grow as profusely during the winter months, so you will only need to mow it once in a while. 

Make sure that all dead leaves and other organic remains are raked off your lawn, as this will prevent the lawn from getting all the necessary sun and moisture it needs to survive.

Just before spring arrives, you can fertilize your lawn with a fertilizer high in nitrogen, which promotes leaf growth.  You should also aerate your lawn at this time to ensure a beautiful, thriving lawn during spring and summer.

Always remember to water you lawn well after applying any kind of fertilizer.

The landscaping experts at Kingfisher Landscaping can incorporate a beautiful, green lawn into your overall garden design and can professionally lay instant lawn in for you in your garden.