Planting for nature

We choose plants for the garden for a number of reasons, mostly colour, size, texture and how they will fit into the overall design. We tend not to give much thought as to the why's of colour and shape, but one thing is certain, plants do not flower in order to pretty up our gardens! The evolution of flowers was to ensure their survival and that of other wildlife.

When you really love nature, its fauna and flora, gardening takes on a whole new perspective. Keeping wildlife, birds and insects in mind when planting can give immense satisfaction in knowing you are providing food and shelter for them. To achieve this, we need plants as they occur in their natural setting along with the wildlife they support – after all, it is their world too, and the pleasure of having such a strong connection to nature in our own back yards offers health benefits the medicinal world would bottle if they could!

Not many of us give real thought to nature when planting our gardens. The garden is there to give us pleasure, please our aesthetic senses and, to some extent, impress our friends and neighbours.

Many insects, like the Praying Mantis, are beneficial to the garden. It is no wonder they are often referred to as 'the gardener's friend' as they have voracious appetites for insects like moths, crickets, grasshoppers, spiders, aphids and flies, including one another! Your garden's greenery can be a safe haven for them against predators like owls, frogs, chameleons, bats and monkeys.

A Yellow Pansy (Junonia hierta) enjoying minerals in the soil after feeding on some nectar in my garden. This is one of the shiest butterflies around and it is easier to take a photo of a dragonfly up close than to even get near one of these beauties. Male and female similar and females have dots on hind wings. Common throughout South Africa except for most parts of the Cape province. Larval stage feeds on creeping foxglove among others. 

An Orb-web spiderling making its web between two of my plants. I watched this baby building its web in a matter of hours, complete with the characteristic zig-zag pattern in the centre. In South Africa the family Araneidae includes 40 genera of master weavers. There are both diurnal (day) and nocturnal (night) species. The diurnal groups continually repair their webs, usually using them for a number of days. The web cannot be used indefinitely as it dries and loses its capture ability and insects will no longer stick to it. Nocturnal spiders, on the other hand, construct a new web every night and it is taken down at dawn and eaten. This serves as a valuable source of protein. The bridge line, the main original stay that is built, is retained for reuse.

A Speckled Emperor Moth, (Wattled Emperor Moth, Mopane worm) resting on a Restios plant in my garden. It is from the Saturniidae (Silk Moths) family. I actually found her inside the house and brought her out to safety (not sure how SAFE it is...?) and she seemed quite content to just rest a while before disappearing into the thickets. Adult moths lay a single cluster of 50 to 200 eggs around twigs or on the leaves of host plants over a two month period. After approximately ten days, the larvae emerge and then pass through five instars before pupation. Instars I to III of the caterpillars are strictly gregarious and will forage together in aggregations of 20 to 200 individuals. After moulting into instar IV, caterpillars disperse immediately to become solitary. The larval stage lasts approximately 6 weeks, during which time the caterpillars undergo a 4000 fold increase in body mass. At the end of the larval stage, the fifth instar caterpillars burrow into the soil, where they undergo a period of diapause. Eclosion occurs either one or six to seven months after pupation, depending on the generation. The non-feeding adult stage lasts only two to three days, during which time the only function of the imago is to find receptive mates and to oviposit.

Indigenous trees lure birds and provide cover and safety 

 

Watching the birds as they make their homes in the shelter I have provided leaves me with a sense of achievement, pride and satisfaction. Seeing the Sunbirds visiting the Aloes and taking nectar back to their young warms my heart and watching the bees and other insects pollinate the flowers fills me with a sense of wonder, knowing they are ensuring the future of many plants in the process.

When gardening with nature in mind, do not use pesticides!! Most of these products are not selective and in spraying to kill what the gardener perceives as ‘pests’, will usually result in getting rid of the beneficial insects too. Use indigenous plants, preferably a good selection of local species, including nectar and pollen rich plants as they are of great value to bees, as bees around the world are disappearing at an alarming rate.

Indigenous grasses provide safety for many of our insects - this is a Net-winged beetle I found in my garden. Net-winged beetles or flat beetles (Lycus spp.) are all poisonous and therefore display aposematic colouration in combinations of orange and black patterns, which is mimicked by certain long-horn beetles and moths. The longitudinal ridges on the wings are characteristic of the net-winged beetles. They are slow flying insects that are very common on flower inflorescences and flower heads during the summer months. The larvae are predatory on other insects and look very similar to the larvae of the glow worms or fire flies. Eggs are laid under bark and in rotten wood, where the eggs will hatch and the larvae start feeding on other insects. 

Try not to plant hybridised plants - many hybridised plants have far less pollen and nectar and are thus not efficient providers of food. Many of them also have double petals, and, as lovely as they are to look at, it often makes life very difficult for the bees and insects to get to their food source.

 

A Grey-headed Bush Shrike (Malaconotus blanchoti) surveying his surrounds from one of the Karee's. An adaptable hunter, it will eat almost any animal that it can catch and kill, ranging from small insects to large 1 metre long snakes and other bird chicks. It often gleans prey from leaves and branches, either eating them immediately or impaling them on a thorn to be eaten later. Prey items which are to large to be swallowed are ripped into bite-sized pieces. 

 

The Ground-scraper Thrush absolutely loves loose leaf litter and is very active in Autumn and Spring when leaves tend to cover the ground. He is also a snail's worst nightmare and I often watch as they catch one, banging it against the ground until the shell is broken and he can consume the tit-bit inside.

When you plant for nature and not just yourself, you will be rewarded by having the best of both worlds - a beautiful garden as well as the company of a varied variety of wildlife. Who could ask for more?

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My sedges (Cyperaceae)

 Sedges growing amongst the paving in my garden

I have these beautiful, what I thought was grasses, springing up all over in my bathroom court-yard, but upon trying to identify them, found out that they are sedges. Grasses are characterised by 'nodes' along the stem - or jointed stems - as opposed to 'sedges' which have stems with no joints and which belong to another family. 

As in grasses, the basic unit of the inflorescence in sedges is the spikelet. Within the family there is enormous variation in spikelet and inflorescence structure. The spikelet consists of one to several, tiny, male, female or bisexual flowers, each borne in the axil of a boat-shaped glume (tiny bract) which is coloured in shades of green or brown, red, occasionally white or bright yellow. Mostly petals are absent, but when present, they are concealed within the glume and consist of bristles or scale-like structures. 

 

Distribution

The family comprises about 104 genera and more than 5 000 species world-wide, although estimates of numbers vary greatly due to differing taxonomic concepts of individual researchers and because modern sedge floras are available for only a few countries. The largest genus is Carex with about 2 000 species world-wide, followed by Cyperus with about 550 species. Sedges occur primarily in the tropics and subtropics, but may be locally dominant in some areas like the subarctic regions (tundra). 

In rather arid southern Africa there are roughly 40 genera and 400 species. They are found throughout the region, in particular habitats. Some species e.g. in the genus Tetraria are endemic (occur nowhere else in the world) to the winter rainfall region of the Western Cape, South Africa. 

Ecology

In southern Africa sedges are found mainly in wetlands (some are entirely aquatic) and along watercourses, but also occur in moist grasslands and along forest margins. Some genera (e.g. Tetraria) are common constituents of fynbos vegetation, which generally occurs on impoverished sandstone soils, whereas several species of other genera are pioneers on coastal dune sands. 

It is not surprising that adaptations to particular habitats are many. Many species are deciduous, and survive the unfavourable season as rhizomes, corms or tubers. Several species grow in semi-arid areas, and are able to survive periods of drought due to succulent, water-storing leaf sheaths. In arid areas many species have overcome the problem of temporary moisture (such as in pans) by becoming annuals, completing their life cycles in a month or two. Species occurring in fire-regulated grasslands often have protectively thickened and hardened or fibrous leaf sheaths. 

Sedges are generally wind pollinated, although some of the brightly coloured species are thought to be insect-pollinated. On several occasions I have observed thrips (tiny insects) in the flowers of Fuirena species, absolutely covered in pollen. It is almost certain that, as well as feeding on the pollen, they are also vectors. After disintegration of the spikelet the fruits are mostly dispersed by wind and water, and can also be carried long distances in mud on the feet of migrating birds. Some fruits have corky flotation tissue or further adaptations for water dispersal, some have elaiosomes (an oil-rich appendage on the seed) for ant dispersal, and others are equipped with tiny hooks and bristles for dispersal in the fur and feathers of mammals and birds. 

 

Economic and cultural value

The chief importance of sedges lies in their forming a major natural constituent of wetlands and riverside vegetation, where their densely tangled rhizomes contribute to erosion control and water purification. The consequences once they are eradicated are unfortunately all too easily observed. While on the natural theme, the dense sedge beds that form in swampy regions provide food and shelter for birds, animals and other aquatic life-thus attracting ecotourism. In grasslands, terrestrial game birds (e.g. francolin) feed almost exclusively on the small corms of some Cyperus species. 

Info from PlantzAfrica 

And here's the thing - termites absolutely love these sedges! A couple of days after taking these photo's, most of my sedges were all but gone. I sat for hours watching the termites chew a stalk off at the base, then cutting them into one-inch pieces and carry them down their hole. Termites are sometimes a big worry in my garden as I don't use any chemicals or poisons whatsoever. Termites are extremely nutritious as they have a good store of both fat and protein and are a nutritional food source for all kinds of animals from birds, to reptiles, to mammals.

But some new sedges are already springing up after the rain and now I sprinkle some diatomaceous earth around each plant, as well as where I suspect the termite holes to be. Diatomaceous Earth (DE) is the remains of microscopic one-celled plants (phytoplankton) called diatoms that lived in the oceans and lakes that once covered the western part of the US and other parts of the world. I also use it in the garden to keep snails and insects at bay as well as in my chicken coop as a control against mites, lice, mosquitoes and other harmful insects.

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October gardening

October is a time when the Celtis africana (White Stinkwood) stands proud with brand new foliage. It's a sure sign that summer is now here. One of my chores this past winter was trimming away some of the lower branches, not too many, it's still a young tree and I first wanted to see the result when the leaves appear, and I'm glad I did, the tree seems to be fuller and very happy. Unfortunately I lost one of my White Karee's (Rhus viminalis) to the right of her, have no idea why. It's going to be a big job taking it out, but another thought is to just leave it, the Fiscal Shrike absolutely loves surveying her surrounds from the top of the dead branches. Maybe planting an Hedera Helix ivy at the base would also be a good idea as I can train it up the trunk to cover some of the 'deadness'. But I've also experienced what the ivy can do to a dead tree - when it gets big, and HEAVY, it can bring the whole tree tumbling down, causing absolute havoc in the garden!

There's something I love about how stark the contrast is between July and October, from brown and dusty to clean and sparkly green after the first rains. Our rain has been very late this year, had our first shower last week, but already everything is starting to go green. All the greenery also inspired me to clean up the space between two trees and spruce it up with an ornamental twig basket and some crusher stone and river pebbles. Two little terracotta pots filled with some Sempervivums and a driftwood found on the beach completes the picture.

I lost six of my Clivias due to the heavy frost a year or two ago, so I placed a vintage hand planter amongst them to temporarily fill the spot. Maybe a coat of paint would be in order...

 

 

However, surprisingly enough, most of my nasturtiums survived the winter, adding a lovely splash of colour to the otherwise winter landscape. They're already sporting lots of large seeds, which I've already started pushing into the ground in some sunny, empty spots.

I'm never actually sure when to trim the Hydrangeas down, but this year I did it right at the beginning of winter and it seemed to have worked. They've sprung back to life with a vengeance and I've already got a couple of first flowers. And every year my flowers seem to be a different colour - whether I add compost or not seems to have a lot to do with it. Unlike my previous garden, which had a very acid soil and I mostly had blue flowers, now I'm blessed with lovely pink ones, obviously the soil here is much more alkaline.

My Geranium, placed on some wooden pallets together with some cacti and succulents, also survived the winter and is now ready for transplanting into the new garden I will be landscaping in the chicken run.

A garden ornament hanging from a branch of my Acacia karroo (Sweet thorn). Amazingly, the first green leaves on the Acacia appeared within hours (it seems!) of the bit of rain we had a couple of days ago.

Yellow Wood Sorrel (Oxalis stricta), commonly called Oxalis or sour grass, is a vigorous weed. It is a summer annual -- sometimes perennial -- that thrives in fertile, warm and moist soils and likes shade. (Identified by MyBlueDaisies in the comments below - Thanks Daisy!)

This little weed, which can spread like wildfire if left unchecked, covered most of my dead lawn during the winter, so I left it as it provided some sense of greenery in an otherwise dead scene. I'm sure I'm going to be sorry, because last summer I sat for hours on the lawn, pulling them out root and all, otherwise they just grow again. I did actually find it rather therapeutic sitting on the soft green weeds, taking in the scenery and just letting my thoughts wander. Have no idea what it's called, still doing some research to try and find the name.

Unfortunately the winter also killed off most of the plants around my pot feature (and the chickens played a great part too! You can see ChickyBoo above trying to find some greenery!), so I'll be choosing something more hardy to fill up with here again - the Hen & Chicks that filled up this spot is much too tender for winter and also much too tasty to the chickens!

My pot feature just before winter.

It's the middle of October and I'm only half-way through the chores I set for myself - soon November will be too hot to do anything but water the garden, so I'll have to hurry to finish off and fill in the empty spots before winter catches up with me again!

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Gazania — an easy to grow gem from Africa

If you have a sunny, dry spot in your garden where most plants don’t do well because it is too hot, consider growing Gazanias there. Or so they say. Unfortunately I have never had much luck with Gazanias, to my utmost chagrin! All my conditions seem to be right - LOTS of sun, also available part-shade, they need little in the way of watering or fertilising and are said to be pest-free. 

Well, the truth is that, in my garden, they die no matter WHERE I plant them. In part-shade, they do not flower at all. In full sun, they shrivel and die despite all my efforts to water them well. So I've ALMOST given up on EVER having any Gazanias in my garden, but have decided to give them one more chance before I totally ban them from my garden for ever! I planted four plants, in full sun, over the week-end, one of which is flowering, but I'll be keeping a close eye on them! What happens over the next few weeks will definitely decide their fate...

This genus of 16 species of annual and perennial daisies in the family Asteraceae hails mostly from South Africa, with one species extending the range to the tropics. They feature lovely showy flowers, which are large and brightly colored, and in favorable climates they can be relied upon to flower over a long period — in the southern Hemisphere from August till January reaching a peak in October and November. The species usually produce yellow or orange flowers, but the plants seen in cultivation are mainly hybrids and there are countless colour forms and seedling strains.

The Gazania flower grows easily in full sun, but can also do well in part-shade so long as they see a majority of sun during the day. Caring for these plants is very easy as they require very little in the way of watering or fertilising and they don't attract many pests. They are one of the ultimate waterwise plants and they flower prolifically.
The plants are relatively short-lived, up to about three years depending on various conditions. 

Gazania is pollinated by a number of insects: bees, bee flies, beetles, butterflies and ants, have all been seen visiting its bright flowers. This is another reason why they are able to thrive in most environments (except here in Tarlton it seems!), as they do not have any specific pollinators. 

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(Not so!) Easy and relaxed gardening

I used to take gardening for granted - dig this up, move that, de-weed there, carry that. Did it all myself, with only major and heavy work undertaken by the gardener. It was easy. Now, not so!

What brought this home to me is the fact that a couple of months ago I decided, while my trusty Chrissie (garden manager) was off for the day, to start a new pathway. I had most of the major materials - paving blocks, river pebbles, some plants I could use from other areas - even the area had already been demarcated, this was a cinch, it was just a matter of doing it, quickly. Or so I thought.

Donning my sun hat, sunscreen and gloves, I carried the 14 paving blocks, one by one, and laid them in an order that pleased me. Then I carried all the river pebble bags and emptied each one, one by one, spreading them nicely and interspacing them with some bigger rocks. Then I scrounged round the garden, taking some Echeverias and Aloes from shady areas and putting them on the right-hand side of the new path.

The Erigeron already growing on the left-hand side of the path formed a nice contrast against the pebbles. 

Chrissie had already transplanted some Hen-and-Chickens from another area that she had decided was overgrown! against the wall where they received a bit of shade, so that area was sorted out. I would just have to decide what to use to fill the rest of the space, which gets full sun, but also a lot of rain water run-off.

I decided to lift all my Echeverias (which were now in too much shade on the other side of the garden), a fairly easy job, and brought them all over to the new path, dug the holes, threw in some compost and planted them closely together. A few Aloes were added and I also carried over two metal birds from another part of the garden and placed them amongst the Echeverias. This was at last starting to take shape!

Next was to steal some Marigolds and a few other plants from other sections of the garden - thank goodness for Marigolds! They always make a good filler, are easy to transplant and give an instant splash of colour! Some more river pebbles and a few rocks and we're on our way.

Some Marigolds and a Festuca grass taken from another part of the garden. 

Another trusty standby is old logs or wooden poles - they give an instant facelift and provide nice little features in empty spots. 

After carting a couple of wheelbarrows (about six!) of crusher stone to fill the rest of the empty spot, making a nice little pathway, I stood back and surveyed my handiwork for the day, ignoring the gnawing backache, satisfied that I had made great progress for the day. A long, soaking bath was in order (as it was already 6pm) and decided to have an early night as well.

Well, the next morning was a different matter altogether! I could hardly get out of bed! There wasn't a bone or muscle that didn't ache! It took another soaking warm bath, a good rubbing of Arnica oil all over and three cups of tea before I could even venture into my studio.

What happened to the good old days of easy and relaxed gardening?! I know what happened - the years have a way of catching up with one!

But in just a few weeks I was rewarded for all my aches and pains. It definitely was all worth it and I will be repeating the exercise again shortly!

Chrissie, my trusted garden manager, without whose help my garden would really be in trouble! 

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I took a stroll

I took a little stroll 

along the pathway 

and observed the wild flowers blooming. 

It was a very fine day.

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Alluring and healing Agapanthus

Easy-to-grow Agapanthus (African Lily) produce glorious clusters of lily-like blooms that last throughout the summer.

I guess, as I live and garden in South Africa, the native home of Agapanthus, I have tended to take this amazing plant for granted. The gardens of my childhood home always included masses of both blue and white varieties. As children we loved to use the tall flower stems (after the flowers had withered) for Zorro style sword fights! My garden now has a number of the indigenous species all of which give great pleasure.

Agapanthus is of the family Agapanthaceae and some of the common names are common agapanthus, blue lily (Eng.); bloulelie, agapant (Afr.); isicakathi (Xhosa); ubani (Zulu). Most of the agapanthus that are grown are cultivars or hybrids of Agapanthus praecox, which is endemic to the Eastern Cape. It is generally 0.8 to 1m tall and flowers in mid to late summer (December - February) in South Africa.

Agapanthus praecox is easy to grow and it does well even in the poorest of soils, but it must receive some water in summer. To perform at its best, give it rich, well-drained soil with ample compost (decayed organic matter) and plenty of water in spring and summer. As with most plants, they benefit most from regular (e.g. weekly) deep drenching as opposed to frequent superficial waterings. It prefers full sun and some cultivars will flower in semi-shade. All the evergreen agapanthus are best lifted and divided every four years or so to ensure flowering. A. praecox will tolerate light frost, but in areas with extreme winter temperatures they are best grown in the cool greenhouse, or in containers that can be taken into a greenhouse during winter.

Perhaps what most gardeners fail to give much thought to, is the wonderful medicinal properties of so many of the plants we grow in our gardens. In South Africa, many of the indigenous African people consider Agapanthus to be both a magical and a medicinal plant, and the plant of fertility and pregnancy.

Traditionally Xhosa women (of the Eastern Cape) use the roots to make antenatal medicine, and they make a necklace using the roots that they wear as a charm to bring healthy, strong babies.

Margaret Roberts, a renowned herb grower, author and specialist in the use of herbal remedies, advises hikers to put leaves in their shoes to soothe the feet, and to wrap weary feet in the leaves for half an hour. The long, strap-like leaves also make an excellent bandage to hold a dressing or poultice in place, and winding leaves around the wrists are said to help bring a fever down.

However, Agapanthus is suspected of causing haemolytic poisoning in humans, and the sap causes severe ulceration of the mouth so the plant should not be chewed or swallowed.

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