Using less water in the garden

Some advice from the latest Enviropaedia newsletter: Always water your plants during the early morning hours or in the evening. Between 10:00 and 15:00 you can lose up to 90% of water to evaporation. Focus on indigenous and non–invasive alien plants with low water demands. Roof water can also be profitably stored in tanks for … Read more

Agapanthus in bloom

My agapanthus africanus (Kleinbloulelie, uBani) are in bloom.  They really are great plants as, for most of the year, they just fade into the foliage and then, come summer, they shoot up these magnificant flowers that attract a variety of insects.  The name is from the Greek agape (love) and anthos (flower) – superb! They … Read more

Fungi

I went down to Clansdale on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast last weekend.   In the garden of the house we had rented was a dead tree and on the trunk this amazing fungi was growing. Normally I would just appreciate it for its beauty but I had recently been reading Pitta Joffe’s Creative Gardening with Indigenous … Read more