NOVEMBER 2016
A Design Carousel A Scrapbook of inspiration • Bushveld • Wildflower grassland • Shady places • Textured looks
Cape Ground Covers A Green Corridor in the making
Highveld
Summer Meadow
IN THIS ISSUE Click on any page number to return to the Contents page
A GREEN CORRIDOR IN THE MAKING By Jenny Dean
CAPE COVERS Blanket your garden with a carpet of flowers
A RIVER OF BLUE STARS
A GALLERY OF DESIGN TO INSPIRE
Aristea ecklonii is in spectacular form right now
The topics that follow provide a starting point for design ideas
TEXTURE - A VISUAL FEAST Look beyond colour to create these visual compositions
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HOORAY FOR THE RAIN.....
NOVEMBER Click on any page number to return to the Contents page
WHAT’S IN FLOWER: Our popular series is re-packaged for mobile viewing - as beautiful as ever .... take a peek
BRINGING BACK THE MEADOWS Part 3: Summer By Emmarie Otto
Love our Magzine?
BUSHVELD Open grassland, rocky outcrops and scattered thorn trees
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WILDFLOWER GRASSLANDS
PLANTS FOR SHADE
These complex plant communites are visual and wildlife treasure
What you need to know to grow a successful shade garden
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FROM THE EDITORS DESK… Dear Readers, Now, I don’t want to complain about the weather – current rainfalls are gloriously drenching, refreshing, and life-giving – but my garden is battered and bruised beyond anything I have experienced so far after a monstrous hail storm a few days ago. Large soft leaves are shredded, flower stalks are mere bare sticks, fat, succulent leaves are pockmarked, and trees have lost a depth of canopy! Ah well, more for the compost heap. And, after weeks of unremitting downpours, there is something rotten in the state of Who-ville! But, as I say, I don’t want to complain… After a soul pampering visit to a couple of South Coast grasslands, plus an invitation to visit a ‘bushveld’ styled garden close-by, we decided that this final end-of-year gallop is the perfect time to put together a gallery of design ideas to help our readers get to grips with what they’d like to create in their backyards. The idea is to provide a creative scrapbook to help you conceptualise what you want, and provide a launching
pad for next year’s creations. So, we offer bushveld, wildflower grassland, textured combos, Cape groundcovers, and shady ideas. We do hope they will whet your appetite for next year’s reads. Jenny is passionate about designing green corridors for safe wildlife movement and foraging and talks about one newly planted. I’m almost sure the birds are keeping an eye out for the first fruits. Emmarie continues her gardening journal – it is now summer in her Highveld grassy meadow, and the landscape looks outstanding. And, Aristea ecklonii, one of the most beautiful wildflowers found through much of the country is in spectacular form right now. Enjoy.
MAGAZINE PRODUCTION: Editor: Anno Torr Publisher: The Indigenous Gardener Contributing writers: Anno Torr, Jenny Dean, Emmarie Otto All photos by Anno Torr unless otherwise stated. Other Photo credits: Andrea Abbott, Jenny Dean, Emmarie Otto, Wally Menne. Some image via Wikicommons Graphic Design: Anno Torr
Anno CONTACT US: Editor: anno@theindigenousgardener.co.za 072 602 5610 Advertising: Veronica: info@theindigenousgardener.co.za Accounts: Hermes: info@theindigenousgardener.co.za
Disclaimers and Copyrights: Opinions expressed in this magazine do not reflect those of The Indigenous Gardener or any project related to The Indigenous Gardener. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, The Indigenous Gardener cannot be held liable for inadvertent mistakes. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher.
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N FLOWER - NOVEMBER
Dovyalis caffra: Kei-Apple / Dingaan's Apricot 4 x 3 m. A lovely shrub or small tree for sun, though it will cope with partial shade. Tolerates moderate frost. It produces copious volumes of apricot-like fruits, loved by wildlife and makes a delicious jam. Flowers are tiny but attract insects. The strong spines make it a good barrier plant. Flowers Sept - Jan. Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Western Cape.
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Š Wally Menne
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N FLOWER - NOVEMBER
Helichrysum splendidum: Cape Gold A beautiful groundcover with shiny silver-grey foliage, and a mass of bright yellow flower clusters in midsummer. Older branches and the centre of shrub become woody with age. Needs room to spread. Aromatic leaves. Full sun, well-drained soils. Evergreen, frost, and drought hardy. Rocky slopes, forest and stream edges, and tops of mountains. Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Western Cape. Š Consultaplantas via Wiki Commons
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N FLOWER - NOVEMBER
Albuca nelsonii: Nelson's Slime Lily 80 cm - 1 m. A robust easy-to-grow bulbous perennial with lovely, unusual white and green flowers from Sept. to Nov. Flowers nestle among the long strappy bright green leaves. Bulb grows partially exposed above the ground. Can be deciduous in a cold winter. For coastal areas, and provides fast colour and foliage in new gardens. Found in grassland and on coastal cliffs in partial shade. Eastern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal.
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N FLOWER - NOVEMBER
Ruellia cordata: Veld Violet 30 - 40 cm. A low-growing deciduous shrublet for sun that grows from rootstock annually. Flowers are large and funnel-shaped, usually a mauve-blue, occasionally white - insect pollinated. A neat, fairly compact plant, most attractive to mix with grasses and forbs in a wildflower bed. Flowers from spring through summer. Grassland and rocky outcrops. Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West.
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Bringing Back the Meadows
Text and images by Emmarie Otto
Part 3: Summer The beauty of seasonal contrast in a Highveld grassland garden
Summer (Mid-November to February)
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hen true summer arrives (December to February), the entire garden explodes into white, pink, purple, red and orange. The white hues in the garden come from the erect Chlorophytum cooperi. Its tiny, white flowers start during spring and continue throughout summer, but only open in the mornings. Another white flower in the garden is the
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long-stemmed Ornithogalum longibracteatum which displays its beautiful, elegant flowers above the grass, attracting butterflies. Tucked away amongst the grasses are the miniature and delicate, daisy-like, white and yellow flowers of the perennial Felicia muricata subsp. muricata, a typical grassland species providing a contrast with the grasses in the summer garden. Felicia muricata flowers on and off throughout the year, even in winter, and is attractive plant
Crinum paludosum
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AC arousel Design
A Gallery of Designs to Inspire
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s we count the weeks to the lengthy end of year break, we offer you a gallery of design ideas to fire up your creative brain and ensure an energetic start to the new year. The indigenous gardener approaches gardening from a variety of perspectives, and we have catered for only a handful this month, from installing vegetation types, like bushveld and wildflower grasslands, to considering the micro-level of functional habitat of woodland shade. For those keen to focus on aesthetics and design principles, we showcase a few ideas for designing with textures, and provide Cape gardeners with a selection of ground covers.
veld, and woodland. The former gives it geographical context; the latter considers micro-climate restrictions.
Bushveld
This vegetation type is recognised by expanses of open grassland and rocky outcrops with scattered groups of trees and shrubs. It covers regions with warm, dry winters with little to no frost, and hot, wet summers. Thorn trees and aloes are typical woody components – euphorbias and acacias, for example. Trees have an open, light canopy allowing sunlight to penetrate, and grasses grow right up to the base of the trunk. Shrubs often have strong form; Vegetation Types: Ochna, Coddia, Grewia, Diospyros. The The most successful garden designs work ground layer hosts grasses, herbaceous with local conditions where they match the perennials, groundcovers, and bulbs; Eunatural vegetation type to create a garden comis, Crassula, Hypoxis, Gazania, Bulbine, that is long-lasting and sustainable, echoTulbaghia, Aristea, Chlorophytum, Scadoxus. ing a sense of place. Small gardens can make use of a single So, rather than contemplating a ‘Tuscan,' or character tree, like the Paperbark tree, ‘Contemporary’ design, consider vegetation Vachellia sieberiana, or the Umbrella Thorn, type and habitat; fynbos, savanna/ bushVachellia tortilis.
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FELICIA AMELLOIDES There is little to rival this shade of blue around the garden, and its success, popularity, and worldwide fame have been immortalised by the philately world, first appearing on a South African postage stamp in 2003. Performing best in day-long sun it retains a soft, mounding form well suited to border edges, banks, and rockeries, or spread throughout the bed. Make use of this mounding habit to create textural interest around spiky plants as a change to a typical expansive sweep of cover. Mature height is 30 – 45 cm x 50cm, its rapid growth ensuring first season flowering from spring to autumn. The Blue Marguerite thrives in areas faced with wind, and sandy soils, is water-wise, and tolerates a moderate frost. The white form, ‘Alba’ is a most attractive slightly smaller cultivar.
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BLUE MARGUERITE
Chaenostoma cordatum – Previously Sutera This strongly textured perennial is a must
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