Weeds - In Their Defense

I've been reading a great book by Richard Mabey called Weeds.

 

Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants

Its a subject that I spend a lot of time thinking about, and if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you'll know that I have strong thoughts about the proliferation of alien invasive plants.
We have a serious problem here in South Africa, with exotic, alien plants that have adapted to our conditions and are thriving and often out-competing our indigenous plants.

The feelings of peace and joy that most people derive from looking out over a seemingly natural forest valley, for me, can be a truly depressing feeling. At first glance, it may look like a serene, beautiful forest, but under the surface, there is a serious battle going on for space, food, and water...with lives being lost on a daily basis.

Montanoa - A pretty alien that frequents forest edges

That all sounds overly dramatic, and maybe it is...just a touch, but the reality is that even with our internationally renowned programmes like Working For Water, the reality is that these aliens are taking over.

If you consider that nearly 10% of the surface of our country is covered by alien plants, and every season, each one of these plants are producing hundreds of thousands of seeds, you begin to realise the magnitude of the problem facing our country and our natural vegetation. And all this is aside from their obvious threat to our own existence with the potential looming water shortages brought on in large part by these decidedly thirsty denizens.

Having said all of that, its been a refreshing read going through his book and looking at these 'evil' plants through different eyes. Even his attempts to provide a definition of what a weed is, sheds a different light on these tormentors and the symbiotic roles we have in each others stories.

I found the irony to some of his stories both tragicomic and terrifying. The story of the way in which Cogon grass has infiltrated the Southern States of the USA after its indiscriminate use of Agent Orange in the jungles of Vietnam is particularly stinging.

If you have a moment, you should definitely get hold of a copy - its well worth the read.

I've also begun a series on instagram - #invasiveplantsa - in which I've begun highlighting some of the more dangerous yet beautiful aliens. My hope is that by making them more visible, we would all be able to recognise them and do something serious about them.

You can also check out a previous post about the top 6 aliens and what to do about them.

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Beauty and the Brithys

There is always a price to pay for beauty...

If your name is Lily, or Aggie, or you go by the name of Amaryllis, or even Clivia, you'll know what I'm taking about. You may not have many enemies, but one of your worst foes is the beautiful-sounding Lily Borer...AKA Crinum borer, Brithys pancratii, or Amaryllis Caterpillar.

I've just finished a garden a few months ago, and having planted several types of rare bulbs, I was keen to see how they were doing. After visiting recently I was upset to find that this voracious little caterpillar was wreaking havoc on several different species of plants in the garden.

Eggs of Brithys pancratii

The moth lays its eggs, usually in clusters on the underside of the leaves.

This is why its sometimes called the Lily Borer

The larvae hatch, and bore into the soft fleshy leaves, often munching their way all the way down into the bulb.

The markings warn any potential predators that it is poisonous

I'm usually a firm believer in letting nature take its course, but sometimes something has to be done. Especially when the life of the plant is at stake.

The caterpillars usually recur regularly throughout the warmer months and less often in winter.  A pyrethroid-based insecticide sprayed onto the caterpillars usually does the trick in killing them - but it necessitates early spotting.

If I don't catch them early enough on plants like agapanthus, I will often take the drastic step of cutting back and destroying the leaves to prevent them from boring into the heart of the plant.

How To Transplant An Established Tree

I recently had a client email me asking for advice about how to move a relatively established tree. In moving any plant, there is always a risk that the plant won't survive. So of course, the best advice is to plan ahead, before you plant.

Flowers of the beautiful Halleria lucida tree

Do some research. Find out how big, how wide, how messy, and how deep the roots will grow when fully grown. The ideal is that you would never have to move a tree once it's planted...BUT that's not always possible - circumstances change, and it's not always possible to predict the future with any kind certainty.

Moving plants is always a matter of minimising risk - there are no foolproof ways of doing it. And every situation, species, and tree are different...sometimes, I think there is even an element of intuition involved.

But there are some things that you can do to reduce the risk of losing a plant that has been transplanted. Here is my reply to her, giving advice about how to move a particularly delicate tree:

1. Dig the root ball out as deep as possible, and then slightly deeper still (basically a trench all around the tree - leaving as much soil around the roots as is possible that you can still physically move),
2. Trim off about a third of the leaves.
3. Leave the plant in place for about 2 weeks to let it get used to having less roots, but all the time giving the roots a little bit of extra water on the root ball as compensation.
4. In about 2 weeks time, get your hole ready, measured and dug,
5. Water the plant and the new location thoroughly.
6. Trim off at least half the remaining leaves,
7. Move the plant as quickly and carefully as possible keeping as much soil around the roots as possible.
8. Try to position it in the same orientation that it was in its previous position.
9. Firm the soil down around the roots and try to wash soil down into any gaps that may have inadvertently formed, (I'm not a big fan of using fertilizers when planting unless your soil is terrible, but even then I would rather use copious compost instead)
10. And then leave it for a week or two...it doesn't have much in the way of roots so don't over water.
11. Then wait - it may lose a few more leaves, or even a branch - losing leaves is not a big deal, but keep an eye on the stem. If you notice any rot, then you can trim off the dying branch/trunk and paint the cut section with a tree sealant.
12. Then wait some more...sometimes I have given up hope on plants that look dead for a year or two, and then suddenly they come back...

Generally speaking, the smaller the tree the easier it will be to move. Also, if it was originally planted from a bag as opposed to self seeded, it will transplant easier. I've also found that trees transplant a lot easier in Autumn.

Weigh up the costs of losing a tree as opposed to keeping it in a place where it's not ideal - Is it really worth it?

Gardening On A Vertical

Plants love a good challenge... I admire the way they seem to survive thrive in the most death defying situations. You find plants growing in such diverse conditions - from Polar Bear hangouts right through to Desert furnaces. I've seen plants surviving on nothing but air, just clinging to rock faces. In the plethora of conditions that our amazing planet seems to dish out, plants seem to love to rise to any challenge.

Terramesh Wall Halfway Up

Cities pose their fair share of challenges to plants. Green Walls and Vertical Gardens have become 'the new thing' as people try to invite nature back into our inhospitable cities. They are an elegant solution to the stark walls and inert atmosphere of the places that we humans seem to flock to.

Several years ago, I built a green wall on a south-east facing, windswept balcony. Its been interesting to watch the evolutionary growth of the green wall, and I've used it as a proving ground for different plants to see which of them were best suited to this type of environment.

Some plants - particularly ferns seem to reproduce to the point of trying to suffocate everything else. Others, like a small aloe, and several different types of orchids have grown quietly and unassumingly before bursting into surprising flower. You can watch a video of how I built it here.

Green Terramesh being installed

An ongoing project (Romead Business Park) that we have been working on for quite some time, has posed several challenging situations which I hope to elaborate on in the future. One of the challenges, was the lack of space at the main entrance to the Park. We had some large banks that were held in place by a beautifully designed concrete curved wall. But the wall could only be so big before it would start compromising the design of the main entrance.

The final solution was to use a product called Terramesh from Maccaferri. This is woven wire mesh which is back filled and compacted with soil. Plants are then planted into the face, which in time forms a dense groundcover, and should prevent any long term erosion.

Just after planting

We planted up the wall, using a succulent called Crassula multicava. Its a plant with a happy disposition - content to grow on a South facing wall (no sun), and it seeds itself quite readily, and will even survive dry periods and still look very good. It has a pretty pink flower all through the year.

Before

After

Roof Garden That Wasn't - 6 Months Later

What is it about human beings that we always expect the worst? There is always a feeling of apprehension when finishing a garden. The apprehension accompanies a few nagging questions... Will the clients like it? Will the design work? Will the plants do what I'm expecting? What if this...what if that...

So it was a huge relief going back months later to a garden to find a happy client, and a garden that has far exceeded my expectations. It was a garden with a few challenges. The biggest challenge being a huge concrete slab that covered at least half of the planting area.  The soil depth was at the most about 10cm. It was not at all an ideal place to plant.

I quickly popped in before going on leave and took a few pictures, but will go back in the next few weeks to get some more.

Lawn Area with flowering Plectranthus on the right

The concrete area is on the left (where the gravel path begins)

The view back towards the house

There is a fair bit of pruning and weeding that needs to be done to get everything back into shape after a very warm and wet summer, and the real test of the garden will be how it looks at the end of winter. But judging by the way things are looking now, those nagging doubts are gone.

The Roof Garden That Wasn't

I am convinced that the best design ideas come out of challenges. Obstacles are fertile ground for inspiration. Adversity encourages creativity. I believe that the reason why South Africa is so full of incredible, inspiring, inventive people is because of our troubled past, and our current challenges. So when problems arise, I'm learning to embrace their constraints rather than to try and circumnavigate them.

I had the fortune recently of meeting a new client with a wonderful enthusiasm for everything around her. It was a privilege to have a client with an eye for design and beauty, a love for nature and a confidence in my abilities.

Back Garden with views over Palmiet Nature Reserve

The garden was a mix of various styles, with some interesting layers to it. The front garden although a little overgrown, had a lovely tropical feel to it, with some interesting plants that had been collected over the years. While the back garden was a fairly blank slate surrounded by some beautiful old indigenous trees, and a splendid view out over the Palmiet Nature Reserve.

Front tropical styled garden

The challenge in the garden came from the least expected source - the biggest part of the large open lawn was really a thin veneer of grass over a 1 foot thick reinforced-concrete slab! Not much chance of doing anything interesting there...

After giving it a bit of thought, and looking through the photos, I decided that the front garden didn't need too much in the way of redesigning. I would move some of the plants around, and take some out altogether to open it up and give a more open feel, and do some minor planting.

My approach to the back garden was to look at it as if it was a roof garden - which to all intents and purposes it was (without the building underneath), and cut my cloth accordingly. We would use mainly grasses and succulents that would be able to cope well with a shallow root system, and potential drought conditions, while at the same time encouraging even more birds into the garden.

Rough sketch of the back garden

My client was characteristically enthusiastic about the ideas and the way forward, so we began the project with the task of opening up some holes in the concrete in which we could plant some taller plants. At this point I had assumed that the concrete would be at the most 4-5 inches, and I was certain that it wouldn't have been reinforced.
It took twice as long as I had expected, and one jack hammer chisel head later before we managed to cut holes that I was happy with.

The rest of the project went more or less according to plan, and I think the final result worked really well.

We kept a section of grass on the right (where there is no concrete), for children to play on and to keep the open feel of the area, and we created pathways through the natural planting, one which led to a bench under the trees, and the other to a covered 'entertainment area' which we paved and incorporated into the garden using the same gravel as the pathways.

 

Euphorbia, Aloe, Cycad and Fever tree

Gravel pathway leading to paved entertainment area

The Art in Patience

If I were to choose a word that would sum up the last few years, it would be that uncomfortable word 'Patience'. So many of the projects that I have been involved in during this period have involved some element of long term planning.
Again, a gardening analogy is most apt - the process of preparation and sowing seed in one season only to reap the fruit years later applies so perfectly to so many areas of this business. Looked at in a cautious light - forgetting to sow seed in one season can so easily result in a lean period years later.

A selection of flowers found in the grassland above the Romead site

One of those projects which I began nearly two and a half years ago, has finally come to fruition. You can read about the start here. Over the last few months we have finally been able to begin the planting of some of the common areas - it feels so good to get our hands dirty at last.

The Romead site just after clearing

Originally on the actual site, there was a combination of grassland, aliens, and some garden escapes. But the site is nestled in between beautiful veld on the slopes below the Kloof escarpment, and the large riverine trees alongside the Umbilo tributary. The concept behind the design of the landscaped areas is an attempt to integrate the two vegetation types from within the park, but with an emphasis on grasses.

The dramatic entrance to Romead Business Park

In the next few days, once we have finished - I will go into a bit more detail of what we have planted, with the whys and hows.