ZBRRA

Some Zinkwazi gardens can boast that in addition to their wealth of birdlife, porcupine, blue duiker, mongoose and tortoises live in the dense cover of the coastal bush. We don’t have to live along the privileged strip admiralty to reap the rewards of having these small creatures in our gardens. It may be a little harder to create the desired protective habitat - but it is possible. 

The following article was written by Nurseryman and plant expert, Geoff Nichols. I approached Geoff after the realisation that Zinkwazi residents are unlikely to remove from their gardens familiar plants which for years have provided colour, texture and most of all enjoyment. Any change involves effort, and unfamiliar challenges are uncomfortable. With the guidelines provided by Geoff in the article below, I feel confident that once the step is taken, our good climate will do the rest and it won’t be long to saying “I have a maintenance free garden and feel good that I have played a part in encouraging the return of wildlife to our gardens in Zinkwazi”

 

 

 

Geoff writes as follows:

 

This document is written in an attempt to remind owners and maintenance contractors of the need to enhance habitat value in your own gardens and those that contractors maintain on behalf of the absentee owners.

 

What ZBRRA now would like to do is encourage owners to redirect the maintenance effort of their small gardens to a level that allows wildlife the best habitat they can have without impinging on your, the human, habitat.

 

To this end ZBRRA would like to ask that no raking of leaves be carried out on the planted sections of garden beds. It is not necessary to rake the soul out of the soil. The leaf “litter” is the compost that gets drawn into the soil by woodlice, earthworms and termites that then break down the leaves into the basic elements that are the nutrients that the plants need to grow. This vegetation in turn feeds and shelters the various forms of wildlife in Zinkwazi.

You really only have to sweep or rake the sealed surfaces like pathways, decks and driveways. The leaves swept up here should then be scattered on the surface of the soil under shrubs and trees on your property. The added leaf layer acts like blotting paper to prevent water runoff and the subsequent soil erosion.

In fact this layer of leaves is your natural compost heap. Instead of piling the leaves in a conventional heap or worse still placing the leaves into black plastic bags for removal to a municipal landfill site, please leave them to lie on top of the soil. This organic matter stays on your property and becomes nutrients for the plants and soil. This natural composting process saves homeowners many thousands of Rands annually because they do not have to purchase as much commercially produced pine bark based compost.

 

An invisible advantage to all this leaf litter and wood chippings is that the soil fungi that are essential for healthy forest plant growth are able to live and absorb as well as release nutrients in to the soil thus making these nutrients more readily available to the plants via their roots. These chippings are therefore natural inoculums for the soil especially in new gardens that are being installed on the depauperate soils of the abandoned canefields.

 

Finally with the added fungal activity there are more termites and other subsurface organisms that feed a very localised and increasingly rare Giant Legless Lizard.

A combination of compost mixed with wood chippings from the site and granular fertiliser on the Berea Red soils of Zinkwazi is a must especially on the new gardens that are being installed. The recommended rate of application for the Zinkwazi soils is 50grams/m² of 5:1:5 (28) or 2:3:2 (22). We would also recommend an application of Dolomitic Lime at 150 grams/m² on all new garden installations. For optimal plant growth it is recommended that fertiliser and compost be added twice a year in early spring around August and then in mid summer during December to gardens in high sunlight areas for the first 3 growing seasons after planting the rate here would be 30grams/m² of 5:1:5 (28) or 2:3:2 (22). For lawn areas this application is done at the same frequency as above but for the life of the lawn.

During the winter months let the garden rest and no fertilising or excessive watering need be done at all. 

 

It is not necessary to disturb the soil by digging it over if the leaves are left in place. The digging damages the surface roots of your plants and also weakens the plants.

Only dig the soil to remove weeds. Many of the so-called “weeds” in these natural plantings are actually local plants that are food plants for the various types of wildlife.

 

The domestic plantings tend to be a simple palette that has very little soul due to the use of the same 10-20 species. No one is actually using anything different and the uniformity becomes boring. The plants are usually exotic and are providing little or no benefit to the local wildlife. This is the general situation at Zinkwazi where owners now use species that the Bushbuck, Blue duiker and other faunal elements do not browse, pollinate or collect nectar. This causes a knock on effect due to more homes being built the potential habitat decreases so forcing the same number of antelope and other wildlife to feed on less plant material but with less palatable species being planted the wildlife has less choice.

 

Plants both indigenous and exotic that should not be used in gardens

 

Rather use plants that will feed Bushbuck and other wildlife to maintain the forest understorey feel of your gardens.

 

The invasive plant species that are beginning to be problematic in that they are taking up space that could be growing habitat but more seriously they are invasive and are now escaping at Zinkwazi:

 

Goosefoot or Arrowhead Plant - Syngonium podophyllum

Artillery Plant - Pilea microphylla

Creeping Charlie - Pilea nummularifolia

Mondo - Grass Ophiopogon japonicus and all its varieties

Flax Lily - Dianella tasmanica Cultivar Variegata and Dianella tasmanica normal green

Lily Turf, Lilyturf, Monkey Grass - Liriope muscari

Sword Fern - Nephrolepis exaltata

Bromeliads various species

Striped Inch Plant - Tradescantia fluminensis

Green Inch Plant - Tradescantia zebrina

Inch Plant - Callisia elegans

Senna pendula in the estuary.

 

Rather use plants from this much more extensive and palatable list

 

 

There is also a need to select the most suitable plants for either sun, semi-shade and shade. Plus plants that will live under eaves where less rainfall and dew falls on the plants allowing pests like mealy bug to infest the plants.

 

Chrysanthemoides monilifera

All the above need full sun. Not all creepers but are the best first line of defence.

 

Good shade plants for under Coast Red Milkwoods – Mimusops caffra are:

 

 

Wendy Balcomb sent me a photo taken by Don Futter of an acacia covered in a cob-web like substance. For those that have seen this in Goshawk Place,  the substance is Moth caterpillar silk. The little moth is a pyralid moth Zith carnicolor…..If you have not seen it -  take a look. The cure – none necessary - this is natural. Leave it alone !

 

Geoff Nichols May 2008.

 

 

 

specialists in indigenous trees, flowers, shrubs & groundcovers

 

Claremont Farm is a family-run nursery that specializes in indigenous plants - offering over 300 different species of indigenous plants. We offer advice and consultation on any of your gardening needs, delivery and planting services, and indigenous landscaping.

Our plants are all priced for our wholesale business, and we extend these prices to the public. We are in the process of building a tea garden at the nursery, and encourage people to spend time enjoying the butterfly and bird species that visit our nursery.

 

South Africa boasts the richest floral kingdom in the world, but sadly, our indigenous flora are disappearing at an alarming rate due to urban development and farming. By planting indigenous vegetation, you can reverse this trend, and also provide a habitat for birds and insects. Planting indigenous requires very little upkeep - and once established, provided they are planted in the right place, indigenous plants will generally never have to be watered again. Alien bird species such as Indian Mynas and Pigeons are not usually attracted to Indigenous Vegetation, and there is generally no reason to use insecticides on indigenous vegetation as insects will usually just encourage growth in these plants, as opposed to killing them. 

 

The following list of plants can all be grown near the sea, and on dunes with little or no work to keep them going. They will help to stabilize banks, provide protection from sea-winds, and some can be used as natural screens and ‘burglar guards’.

 

Contact us at Claremont, located on Sheffield Beach Road, just off Salt Rock Road in Sheffield Beach for more information, or call Kerry at 083-618-5596.

 

           

 

Acacia Karoo - Sweet Thorn (fast growing, attracts numerous butterfly species, popular bird nesting tree, suitable for bonsai, fragrant yellow flowers)

Accocanthera Oppositifolia - Common Poison-Bush

Allophylus Natalensis - Dune False Currant (attracts butterflies, attracts birds, fragrant flowers)

Aloe Thraskii - Dune Aloe (attracts nectar birds)

Aptenia Cordifolia - Aptenia (ground cover with bright pink flowers)

Barringtonia Racemosa - Powder-Puff Tree (attracts butterflies)

Bauhinia Tomentosa - Yellow Tree Bauhinia (attractive yellow flowers)

Bersama Lucens - Glossy White Ash

Brachylaena Discolor - Coast Silver Oak (good windbreak or hedging plant)

Canavalia Rosea - Beach Bean (creeper with attractive pink flowers)

Carissa Macrocarpa - Amatangulu (scented, fruit, attracts birds, suitable for bonsai, edible fruit, good hedging & screening plant (thorny))

Chrysanthemoides Monilifera - Bush-Tick Berry (attracts butterflies, attracts birds, good screening and hedging plant, edible berries)

Clerodendrum Glabrum - Cat’s Whiskers (scented, white flowers, attracts butterflies, attracts birds)

Cola Natalensis - Coshwood (attracts butterflies)

Cussonia Sphaerocephala - Natal Forest Cabbage Tree (fast growing)

Deinbolia Oblongifolia - Dune Soap-Berry (attracts butterflies, attracts birds, edible fruit)

Dodonea Augustifolia - Sand Olive (fast growing, good screening & hedging plant)

Dracaena Aletriformis - Large-leaved Dragon Tree (scented flowers, attracts butterflies, attracts birds)

Drypetes Natalensis - Natal Ironplum

Euclea Natalensis - Natal Guarri (scented, good shade tree, attracts birds)

Eugenia Capensis - Dune Myrtle

Ficus Burtt-davyi - Veld Fig (fast growing, attracts birds, suitable for bonsai, edible fruit)

Ficus Lutea - Giant-Leaved Fig (fast growing, good shade tree, attracts birds, edible fruit)

Hibiscus Tiliaceus - Lagoon Hibiscus (fast growing, good shade tree, attracts butterflies, organge/yellow/ red flowers,good screening plant)

Maytenus Procumbens - Dune Koko Tree

Microsorium Scolopendrium - Dune Fern

Mimusops Caffra - Coast Red Milkwood (attracts butterflies, attracts birds, edible fruit)

Mimusops Obovata - Red Milkwood (scented, good shade tree, attracts butterflies, attracts birds, edible fruit)

Pheonix Reclinata - Wild Date Palm (attracts butterflies, good bank retaining/restoration plant, popular bird nesting tree, good screening/hedging plant (thorny), edible fruit)

Plumbago Auriculata - Plumbago (attracts butterflies, attractive blue or white flowers, good screening plant)

Psychotria Capensis - Black Bird-Berry

Psydrax Obavata - Quar

Rhoicissus Digitata - Baboon Grape (creeper, attracts birds)

Sideroxylon Inerme - White Milkwood (good shade tree, attracts birds)

Strelitzia Nicolai - Natal Wild Banana (fast growing, attracts nectar birds, good screening plant)

Strelitzia Reginae - Crane Flower (attracts nectar birds, attractive orange & blue flowers, good screening plant)

Syzygium Cordatum - Water Berry (scented, good shade tree, attracts nectar birds, edible fruit)

Tecomaria Capensis - Cape Honeysuckle (suitable for bonsai, attractive orange or yellow flowers, good hedging plant)