Maybe it was just a long, lonely COVID-19 winter or I am the eternal optimist, but I think Spring is in the air. Or if it is not, it is a good time to start thinking about it. And now I am talking on behalf of your garden. The year 2020 can perhaps be characterised […]

By this time, we are all painfully aware (emotionally and financially) of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. None of us really foresaw the consequences – initially I thought it is only another flu strain. But when it hit the world, including South Africa, it was painful and with long-term implicit consequences that we cannot […]

Quite recently, I gave a presentation on this topic at the University of Pretoria (for Architecture and Landscape Architecture students) and I thought it would be appropriate to share it with a wider audience. Ecological intelligence refers to our ability to understand the processes that occur in nature and our affirmative response to these processes. […]

The main aim of the database, created for the Wildflower Wholesale Nursery website, was to collect searchable information about suitable plants for landscaping that occur or are adapted to the Highveld. Currently the database consist of about 900 plant species. When planning a landscape, the most important initial action is to reconcile your expectations with […]

Inherent in the previous topic “Go with the Flow”, is the concept of low maintenance. Although many of you are already familiar with the topic I think it is worth highlighting some points in this regard none the less. I think that low maintenance gardening is something we should all aspire to. The concept of […]

(The dynamic nature of a garden that has incorporated ecological principles in its design). Before we can discuss this topic, let us just look at the concept “ecology”. It simply refers to the interaction and interdependence of all the aspects that play a role in environmental health. Obviously, it refers to plants, but also to […]

The previous topic that we discussed (‘Soil is WHAT?”) introduced the concept of “Right plant, Right place.” Since soil is the most difficult to manipulate of all ecosystem parameters required for optimum plant growth, we deliberately identified this topic as the point of departure. It was also crucial to highlight the concept that soil is […]

The secret to a resilient garden is to put the right plant in the right place. Simple, isn’t it? But the right place has a few aspects that we will elaborate on in the next few newsletters. Bear with me, it might save you thousands of Rands in the near future. The most obvious place […]

Has a new mass extinction of life on earth already started? After all, it has already happened five times! To answer the question we need to step back and recap some of the earth’s history as related to life. The first traces of complex life appeared about 600 millions years ago. I think life is […]