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Use roses as bee magnets for your veggie garden

Credit: article written by Ludwigs Roses

Did you know that 70% of the food we eat depends on being pollinated by bees?

Summer squash like zucchini and gem squash, as well as cucumbers, particularly rely on bees to pollinate their flowers, as do tomatoes, peppers and brinjals.

Scientists have now found out that buzzing over a bloom, flapping their wings, makes a slight positive electrical charge and they sense the slight negative electrical charge of the bloom that needs pollinating. Once a bloom is pollinated it emits a no vacancy signal with a positive charge.

How do they find flowers and remain faithful to a specific plant species?

The bee’s senses are adapted to signals of the flowers – the colour and the scent. It is a reflection of ultraviolet light from the flowers they detect, but also the direction of the scent they are able detect with their antennae. Bees remain faithful to a productive plant species until it stops flowering. That is important since there would be no fertilisation for a bee to fly from a rose bloom to a Calendula or a strawberry.

Observing bee activity amongst mixed rose bed is also interesting.

They will land on half open hybrid tea blooms and desperately trying to find a way through the loosely folded petals to get to nectar and pollen. They might buzz over an older open bloom and then soon look for another. In some large, fresh open blooms one might find several bees actively moving around getting the pollen to stick to their legs.

In selecting bee-friendly plants for the garden, have you ever considered single or semi-double roses? White, yellow, and pale pink roses act as a magnet for bees and also attract butterflies. With their exposed stamens and pistels, the pollen is always fresh, and the bees love it.

Being repeat flowering modern roses, they have a long flowering season, which means that there are always flowers for the

bees. It is also important to plant enough roses, close together, and in the vicinity of the vegetables so that bees don’t use up their energy hunting for pollen.

That doesn’t mean sacrificing growing space for vegetables. Train climbing or willowy shrub roses against a trellis on walls bordering the vegetable garden or use the rose-covered trellis as a flowering wall.

There is no reason why an edible garden can’t be beautiful. Frame the entrance with an archway and train a rose over it. Place an obelisk in the centre of a bed or as a focal point, with a rose trained around it. Line a garden pathway with low growing shrub roses, or place large rosefilled containers around the garden as features.

Roses and vegetables are good companions because they like the same growing conditions: fertile, well-drained soil and regular watering. Select disease resistant and naturally healthy Eco-chic roses and there is no need to spray.

Take your pick from these bee-friendly roses:

CLIMBING ROSES:

• ‘Mermaid’ is a vigorous climber, with pale yellow blooms and flowers repeatedly. • ‘Ballerina’ produces large trusses of small, single flowers in shades of pink and white on arching, graceful stems. • ‘Starry Eyed’ grows into a freestanding willowy shrub 2m high and 3m wide. It is ideal for training up pillars, over arches and onto walls. • ‘Cocktail’ is a favourite, flowering throughout the season with bright orange-red blooms and

a yellow eye. • Simply Charming is a stately chest high shrub that is never without its charming five petalled blooms of a very interesting dappled pink with prominent stamens in the centre. It can be trained on a trellis.

SHRUB ROSES:

• ‘Single White’ is a self-cleaning, low maintenance shrublet that produces clusters of single white flowers. It has a spreading growth and performs well in a large container too. • ‘Butterfly Kisses’ is a very healthy, free flowering rose that grows to hip height and attracts both butterflies and bees. It produces large sprays of 25 to 45 single blooms through to winter. • ‘Pixie Hat’ has clusters of bright red small 5 petalled blooms that remind one of pixie hats. As the outer stems arch from the weight on blooms new stems take their place and the bush is covered in flowers well into winter. Grows about 1.1m high.

Try these in containers

• Johannesburg Garden Club’, a neat shrub, growing about 1.1m high, covered with delicate soft coral coloured blooms. A mutation (sport) of that rose is ‘Duncan’s Rose’ with deep pink single blooms. • ‘Yellow Butterfly’ has blooms that look like a flock of butterflies on the bush. Is a neat little shrub, producing wave upon wave of blooms into winter. Excels in a container, or as a hedge. Grows about 0.8m high. • ‘Fortuna’ is a compact floribunda with unmatched flower power. The dense clusters of brilliant pink, five-petalled blooms weigh down the bush. The growth is slightly spreading but very neat and below knee height.

Click here for a complete listing of our bee friendly roses.

For your convenience we mark them with a bee symbol in the catalogue.

Get our kids back into nature!

SHOP ONLINE NOW www.plantland.co.za

Home Seller Mistakes

To avoid when Choosing a real estate agent -Part 1

Written by Xavier De Buck Luxury Homes in Johannesburg

When it’s time to sell your property, how do you go about choosing a real estate agent?

I’m sure there won’t be any problem in locating the nearest real estate agent!

Heck, that’s the easy part!

After all, you see real estate agent signages in every town, every neighborhood, and pretty much on every street corner!

However, deciding on choosing which real estate agent is something completely different!

Will he do a successful job of selling your property for the highest price, in the shortest period of time, and the least amount of inconvenience to you?

Most of us don’t normally get exposed to real estate agents too often, other than a few times in our lifetime. not be the most straightforward decision to make, wouldn’t you agree?

Yet, a vital part of the marketing process of your home is actually the selection of the right real estate agent! In other words, choosing the wrong real estate agent will undoubtedly lead to financial & emotional headaches ahead!

When choosing a real estate agent, there are a number of major home seller mistakes to avoid, and I have lined them up for you:

Mistake 1: Choosing a Real Estate Estate Agent Who Offers The Lowest Commission

Now that you’ve decided to sell your home, your next step will be to interview a number of real estate agents.

There are many agents out there who will undercut the competition by seriously lowering their commission, in an attempt to win the listing mandate!

“As a home seller, I’m saving money already, so why is that a bad thing?” you say.

Well, there are a few ways of looking at it: Reduced commission means reduced marketing resources available to assist in getting your home sold. The potential marketing tools that agent suggested he’ll be using, will be substantially less than what a full commission agent could offer as part of his marketing strategy of your property.

That’s a fair business conclusion, no? Now, say this listing agent decides to go the route of heavily discounting the commission rate so he can get your property listed, how many buyer agents are likely going to be turned off once they find out how small their cut of the commission will be? Hence, it would financially benefit the buyer agent to take his client elsewhere and be paid a standard market going commission for the services provided.

Let’s think how many buyer agents would get excited to work with your listing agent? And, finally, aren’t you curious to know why the agent needs to lower his commission by that much just to get the listing mandate? When he drops his commission at a drop of a hat (thereby hurting his bottom line), how good will he be when it’s negotiation time on the price of your property? Thereby hurting your bottom line?!

Does making this decision still make you warm and fuzzy at the thought of saving money? Before signing up with the real estate agent who’s offering the lowest commission, please read the above again.

Hopefully, it will put his listing presentation in perspective versus what other real estate agents are bringing to the table when marketing your home.

Mistake 2: Choosing a Real Estate Agent Who Gives You The Highest Listing Price

Now that you’ve decided to go on the market with your (overpriced) property, odds are quite high that you will eventually sell your home at a price below the going market price. One can truly not emphasize enough the importance of starting one’s marketing process with the correct asking price! The first 3-to-4 weeks of marketing are crucial and if the asking price is too high, unfortunately, potential home buyers will simply not even consider your listing.

Never mind taking the time to go view it! And, to be honest, why would they? The property is out of their price range anyway!

Or worse, a lot of real estate agents might even use your overpriced property to bounce their educated home buyers off to more correctly priced properties. “Now that we’ve seen what $500,000 gets you here, wait until I show you the next home which is marketed at exactly the same price. You’ll be blown away by the high finishes and many extra features!”

Is that how you want agents and buyers to do when they’re viewing your home? I didn’t think so either! Regardless how you look at it, the end result will be that the overpriced property will sit on the market for a much longer time. And it will eventually sell at a much lower price than would have been achieved if only it was priced correctly from the start!

Now, let’s assume there’s actually this one buyer who decides to put in an offer! Another unfortunate risk you’ll run with selling an overpriced property is that the banks will have trouble finding value during their appraisal; thereby limiting the finance amount for the buyer. And, unless there is a bigger deposit to make up the difference, the deal is likely to fall through.

All this effort, time, stress and living in hope, just to see it all go to waste! Being a home seller, you only have one chance to make a first impression! And, sure, while one might be tempted to be choosing the real estate agent who suggested marketing your property at a higher price, please make sure to ask for proof of how that price was determined by means of a Comparable Market Analysis.

Check with the agent what is currently on the market with similar features as your property. Having a look at the recent sales of similar homes in your area will give you, as the homeowner, a more realistic expectation regarding the likely sale price of your property.

Plus, it will immediately set the agent straight regarding the listing price he put forward.

COLOUR TRENDS

FOR 2021

We often oversee colours at the time of interior design. Colour plays an essential role in our lives. It is a visual language understood throughout the world.

When you try to communicate something through interior design, the best way to do it is through colour. The interior design is highly dependent on the colour scheme as it is the most important factor of interior design. Colours, lights, and shades always surround us.

Each tone of colour has a significant effect on our mood, has a specific meaning, and interlinks with our mind frame.

The upcoming interior season is preparing us for a return to bright colours, new zoning ideas, unusual storage systems, and upholstered furniture in which it is easy to “drown”. The trend of

the new interior season is the emphasis on juicy bright palettes in the design of furniture, lamps, accessories.

A return to the intense gamut from pastels is one of the clear trends of the season. On the one hand, it is a natural expression of our rich lifestyle and thought processes. On the other hand, the manifestation of the nostalgia of designers for the “eighties” with their strong designs and colours.

A big factor in our lives is COVID-19…. We spend more time in and around our houses than ever before. Therefore we need to lift our spirits! And what better way to it than with colour!

GREEN is often used in interior design because it gives a beneficial effect on the mental state, the property of calming and extinguishing any negative emotions. This shade also helps to concentrate and make important informed decisions. The variety of shades of this colour is exceptionally large. It can be from a gentle olive tone to a deep emerald. In addition to the background shade, you can additionally use green accessories. It can be curtains, pillows, tablecloths, bedspreads, and any other textiles that will give your room an atmosphere of comfort and cosiness.

Grey is a colour that has been popular for several years now, and accordingly, it is still one of the top ones that are often used in interior design. In fact, if you look at the essence, the grey colourspectrum has a lot of different shades, ranging from light tones to a dark graphite palette.

An interesting fact is that light grey tones help you increase the space, so this is just the perfect shade for rooms that have a small square. It is important to know the fact that grey colour is easily combined with other shades. Grey is and will be for the next few seasons still be a good colour to use on walls and use as a base colour in our interior design.

Grey kitchens may become less popular. All grey kitchen interiors can look cold and lack distinction. I foresee contrasting colours and textured elements being more popular in designing kitchens. more colour, visual interest, and playful design. This will happen through bold statement decor pieces like ceramic vases, sculptures, and decorative boxes, along with art.

A cosy house is, first, a comfort zone for owners and their household. But any home must meet not only the criteria of comfort but also the newest trends. Novelties of interior design and colour relate to both the general design of rooms, offices, and/or houses and individual details that should be paid attention to when are busy designing spaces.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT 082 782 4252 | 012 348 0869 altus@carneinteriors.co.za http://www.carneinteriors.co.za/ https://www.facebook.com/carneinteriors

Fruit & Pistachio Crumble

SA’s leading health retailer, Wellness Warehouse offers everything you need to live life well under one roof. Visit one of their 37 stores (and growing) nationwide or shop online to stock up on quality health supplements, organic and natural beauty products, real foods, eco home products and natural baby care, all offered with personal service and a 360° approach to health. www.wellnesswarehouse.com

Serves: 2

INGREDIENTS

*2 peaches, stones removed *½ cup Greek yoghurt *4 tsp pistachios, roughly chopped *Raspberries or other berries of your choice (for garnishing)

FOR THE CRUMBLE

*2 natural rice cakes, chopped *2 red apples, skin on and grated *2/3 cup oats *2 TBSP chia seeds *½ tsp ground cinnamon *½ tsp ground ginger *4 tsp honey *4 tsp olive oil

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. 2. Mix the crumble ingredients together. 3. Slice the peaches into wedges and arrange in the centre of a baking dish. 4. Spoon the crumble mixture around the peach wedges. 5. Bake in the oven for approximately 10 minutes, or until the crumble has turned golden and the peaches have softened. 6. You might need to stir the crumble so that it cooks evenly. 7. Remove and serve with yoghurt, pistachios and raspberries or other berries. If you like, you could add a touch of green, such as fresh mint.

SHOP THE INGREDIENTS IN STORE, OR SCAN THE QR CODE TO BUY THEM ONLINE

Excerpted from All Sorts of One-Dish Wonders by Chantal Lascaris, published by Penguin Random House South Africa and available at leading bookstores and online