The Gardener Magazine

In your perfect world, what would your ideal garden look like? A beautifully designed, laid out created space which draws you around every corner, teases you to look deeper into every nook; or is it a crazy place, one of personal indulgence, memories, collections of rocks or pebbles that you picked up, or a piece of wood that you packed in your suitcase that travelled along with you, thousands of kilometers, to find its final home in your garden? I guess for me it can be both. I try to keep some order in my garden, but I most certainly do have the crazy spaces where my personal indulgences are let loose. My area of succulents, anthuriums, sempervivums or whatever the latest bug that has bitten me. Pot after pot…

Subscribe to plants Happy Life Plants strives to make your indoor jungle experience as easy as possible. With an array of indoor plants, gorgeous pots and trendy baskets, it’s hard not to enhance your space with beautiful greenery. They offer monthly and seasonal subscriptions which include a package of lovely planting goodies as well as a fabulous plant. Each plant comes with a care card with information, tips and tricks on caring for your plant. www.happylifeplants.com Multi tool does it all The new Worx 20V Sonicrafter Oscillating Multi-Tool allows you to carve, saw, cut, trim, sand, grind, polish, and countless other uses on a variety of materials. In a single tool you can do a variety of tasks simply by changing the application head on the front of the tool.…

Dear Tanya… Winning letter I got this in my compost bags that I bought at a nursery. Is it miswurms or cutting worms? Are they good or bad for my plants? Much thanks Nellie Hi Nellie, These are rhino beetle larvae that feed on decaying vegetable and plant matter as well as rotting wood which helps decomposition. The adult beetles feed on nectar and sap. I most certainly would not recommend any treatment as I believe these guys are super important to our ecosystem. If, however you find a huge infestation of them in your soil and they are damaging plant roots or stem tissue then an insecticide can be used. I would rather scoop them up and drop them off at a park or nearby field. You can read…

The compact and free-flowering aloes that we can plant in small gardens or pots nowadays, are mostly hybrids bred by complex breeding programmes and have been closely monitored to give modern gardeners the best quality plants possible, with a better disease-resistance and a higher drought-tolerance. They have healthy foliage, some with interesting thorns and hues of green and grey, and their flowers are profuse in a magnificent range of bright colours from early winter into spring. These hybrids have all the wildlife benefits of species growing naturally in the veld, like attracting bees, butterflies and nectar-feeding birds. Aloes love full sun, very well-drained soil, a little water now and then once well established, and a feed with any general garden fertiliser in spring or summer. Dig out planting holes 3-4…

The Panorama route in Mpumalanga forms part of the Blyde River Canyon, the third largest canyon in the world, well-known for its vistas extending over the Lowveld. With dramatic views from the well-known‘God’s Window’, the area has abundant waterfalls, plants and trees. At the heart of this tourism region, lies the little town of Graskop, (‘grassy hillock’) at an elevation of 1400m above sea-level. This mountaintop boasts precipitations of 1200mm on average annually, which means lush indigenous forests and diverse grassland plains. This is where we met Gustav Peach, hands filled with kokedama, at his Westlodge Guesthouse. To understand a garden, you must know the history of the person that created it. Born in the Free State to a bank manager-father and a mother who was a keen gardener, there…

When designing small gardens, walls form an important design element and need to be considered as part of the whole design. Walls, after all, is space, just on a vertical axis. Think about interior design. Feature or accent walls are a major design feature to add colour, paintings, wallpaper and more and this concept needs to be considered outdoors too. In fact, outdoors provide more opportunity to add things like water, plants for living walls, murals and mosaics that perhaps are not suitable for an indoor design. Here are some of the inspirational ideas that were presented by designers at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show 2023. Matte black According to interior designers, black is back for 2023, but now it’s matte. The idea is that black is bold…