The Top 6 Aliens To Watch Out For

You didn't expect to see little green men did you? This is a blog about Landscape Design - albeit from a South African perspective...but still...

I've recently joined Sprig as a guest blogger, and have written a post about an extremely important subject for us here in South Africa - Alien Invasive Plants. You may have noticed a few posts about the subject here before. I wrote about the efforts to control them through biological agents, and the differences between exotic and alien plants

Its important to be able to recognise them, so that you can eradicate them as quickly as possible. So here are some pictures of the most dangerous aliens to be on the lookout for where I live - in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa:

1. Chromolaena odorata - Triffid Weed - This plant spreads like wild-fire, because it seeds itself when it is still young, but it is easy to pull out when its still small.

2. Litsea glutinosa - Indian Laurel - I think this is our biggest threat here in KZN. Under a single tree, thousands of saplings shoot up. They grow at a rapid pace, and are difficult to pull out, even when small.

 3. Cardiospermum grandiflorum - Balloon Vine - Grows up into the tops of trees extremely quickly, and spreads its seeds out of sight. Easy to spot and pull out when its still small.

4. Lantana camara - Don't confuse this with the hybrid, which is safe to plant. Easy to uproot when its still small.

5. Melia azederach - Syringa - Like Litsea, it grows quickly and is hard to remove even when small.

6. Schinus terebinthifolius - Brazilian Pepper - It used to be planted as a fast-growing hedge, because of its pretty berries, but soon became a pest.

Now that you know how to recognise them, take a walk through your garden, and pull them out as quickly as possible...

You can also download a pdf list of all the Invasive Alien Plants of South Africa.

A Crush on Chelsea?

Its not actually my thumbs that are green at the moment - I'm just generally envious after looking at photos of the Chelsea Flower Show. I've been wanting to visit Chelsea ever since I learnt how to say Chrysalidocarpus lutescens Agapanthus.


We miss-timed our holiday by a couple of weeks (in my opinion not my wife's) a few years ago while visiting the UK and back-packing around Europe, and didn't get to see any of the spectacular gardens on display. I did however, get to see a wall at the back of the Royal Hospital Grounds, as we got lost on the way to IKEA - but that's sadly as close as I've come.

I've developed this slight crush on Chelsea, because (judging from photo's only, mind you) you get to see what can be done, with a lot of imagination and similar quantities of cash. I'm sure that very few of the gardens are long-lasting, or could be easily transferred into a real-life garden. But Chelsea's gardens set a standard, and in some cases push the limits of what gardens could be in an ideal world.

So every year, I scour the internet for pictures, vicariously appreciating the gardens from 11000 miles away. But I console myself with the thought that in most cases the actuality of something isn't what you've built it up to be, and judging from my friend Viv's experience, it can be painful too.
She also wrote a story for the Times, in which she talks about how the budget's were pruned back this year, but that designers were taking a positive approach, and showing ways to garden on a small budget and recycle where possible.

I've also found some great pictures of Chelsea by Robert McMillan from Garden Focus.

So I guess another year goes by that I didn't get to visit Chelsea for myself, but so what...at least I have those amazing ice trays from IKEA!

Forage Oakland

If you follow Bloggers 'Blog Of Note' you'll probably have already read about this great idea, and even though its a rather tenuous link to the world of Landscape Design, I thought it was worth a mention.

Asiya Wadud has started a movement called Forage Oakland - the idea being that people would get together in their neighbourhoods to forage for produce from gardens, that would otherwise go to waste. She puts it far more elegantly in her manifesto, and is definitely worth reading.

I love the idea of taking such an ancient method of survival, and bringing it back into todays context as a solution to some of the problems that we face in society at the moment. I hope the idea catches on.

Take The Time To Smell The Roses

Following a thread, I found a post on a blog in japan about a japanese tradition called Hanami. This is the custom dating back to the 8th century whereby people gather underneath cherry trees that are in full bloom to contemplate the flowers.

Some of the essence of this custom has probably been lost over the centuries, but wouldn't a lot of the problems that we have in South Africa be lessened if we cultivated a habit of taking time to contemplate the flowers?

Excellent Links You Should Check Out

After reading a post on improving your blog sidebar I realised that I had too many links on my sidebar. I use the links on my site quite a bit to stay current with what is happening in the gardening world and beyond, so I didn't want to get rid of them. But the long list of links was starting to look messy.
So to remedy this problem, I decided to put the links that I find interesting or click-worthy into a post, so I can easily refer back to them when I want to. Take the time to go through them, there is some amazing stuff in there!

• 100 ways to save the environment
• Alastair Heseltine - Sculpture
  
• Andy Hadfield - Technology Blog
• Architectures Of Control - Design
• Breathing Earth: CO2 emissions
• Dan Pearson - UK Landscaper
• Designmind: Built Ind. Network
• Domani: Design Products
• Durban Daily Photo
• Ecofoot - Eco Footprint Calculator
• GreenMyWallet: Green incentive
• Ideate - Small Business Blog
• materialicious: Design Blog
• No Impact Man: Enviro Lunatic
• Oooms - Product Design Site
• Piet Oudolf - Dutch Landscaper
• Plantzafrica - Indigenous Plant Info
• Safe Lawns - Organic Lawn Care
• Shedworking - Blog about sheds
• Soekershof - Maze & Botanic Blog
• South Africa Rocks - yes it does!
• The Gardener Magazine
• ThinkinGardens: Why Garden?
• Trash Watch - Litter Action
• Urbansprout - Green News

Trash Talk

Sean from Bamboo Geek has a great website on all things green (including bamboo). But he has just started a website called TrashWatch, which is attempting to make companies which generate large amounts of trash take responsibility for their trash that gets spread around the countryside.

This is an American based site, and obviously aiming at American companies, but we in South Africa could take a leaf out of his book, by taking a stand against companies that generate litter and make no attempt to clean it up.

We also have a responsibility to make sure that we don't litter ourselves. I can't tell you how often I see people throwing rubbish out of their car windows as they drive along. Is it that they don't understand, or maybe they just don't care?
How do you educate people? The perception is that government has neither the capacity or will to really focus on this issue.
The companies that generate the rubbish themselves need to take responsibility for education, or better yet - reduce the amount of plastic and non-recyclable materials that they generate.

SA can be proud - Woolworths has just been awarded "Responsible Retailer of the Year" at the World Retail Awards. This is a great achievement, as they stood out from other retailers internationally in their efforts to do 'good business'. Other businesses in SA need to step up and begin to take responsibility for their footprint too. We need to look at how we do business, and how we can do it better from an environmental point of view.

Where In The Gardening World Are You?

I've been looking around the blogosphere for blogs related to gardening and landscaping, when I stumbled onto Jodi from Bloomingwriter's blog. She's asked garden bloggers to:

"Tell your readers a bit about your hometown, your state, province…something that really tells us where you are in the world. What’s really special about your community?..."

I live in Durban, a city in Kwazulu Natal, which is itself on the east coast of South Africa. We have an amazing subtropical climate, which means that temperatures rarely drop below 12˚C/53˚F and reach a maximum of 32˚C/90˚F. Even though South Africa in general is classed as semi-arid, Durban's rainfall is quite good at 84mm/month. Those are the facts and figures...

Durban being in Kwazulu Natal "the place of the zulus" is also known as eThekweni. It is an incredibly culturally diverse city - with a wonderful mingling of cultures and religions. There are tons of reasons to visit us here in the "Last Outpost":

The warm sea current and some of the most consistent waves in the world combine to make Durban one of the worlds top surfing spots.

Less than an hour from Durban, will take you to Game Reserves with Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Zebra, Giraffe etc.
Also not far from Durban is the Drakensberg Mountain Range (a world heritage site) with the world's second highest waterfall - the Tugela Falls, which falls a spectacular 947m.

Durban is also well known for its spicy foods, with curries that are full of flavour and heat. The Bunny Chow is something that has to be tried. It was a meal that originated in Durban in the 1940s - made from a hollowed half loaf of bread, filled with either beef, mutton, chicken or beans curry. Its origins are unclear, but it was invented by Indian workers who, needing to eat in a hurry, had their curry contained in a half loaf which could then itself be eaten.

There are several other things worth seeing or visiting:

The architecture in Durban has benefited from the mix of cultures - with Art Deco, Cape Dutch, Colonial and contemporary styles. There are a number of interesting churches and temples, as well as office, and shop buildings. The City Hall is beautiful, and is represented in Durban's Logo.

All kinds of things are sold on the streets by informal traders, from fruit and vegetables to tools, traditional medicine and crafts.

Sports is a big part of life here in Durban, with the Sharks rugby, Kaiser Chiefs soccer and Dolphins cricket teams being well supported. The A1 grand prix is held every year in February through the streets of Durban. The 2010 soccer world cup will be held here - with a new stadium being built just for it.

Gardening in Durban is relatively easy because of the wonderful climate, things seem to grow without any attention. This can become a problem though, with gardens becoming overgrown jungles quite quickly.
We have some incredible plants growing in the wild, which have become popular exports:
Agapanthus, Strelitzia, and Crocosmia to name a few.

There is a big emphasis on planting indigenous plants in South Africa - partly because they are well adapted to this climate and there is a strong need to conserve water, but also because of their incredible beauty.

The best thing about Durban though, is the people. They are warm and friendly, resilient and creative. Laid back and relaxed are words often used to describe Durbanites.