Gardening Galore

December 2003

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Gardening Galore

With the arrival of the long-anticipated rains, it’s time to get out into the garden and do some serious planting, and especially planting of trees and shrubs.

During my travels, I see a fair number of gardens and notice the same mistakes being repeated in each. I would like to dwell on a few of these and hope that they will be of some help:

When you have decided which tree or shrub to plant, good preparation of the hole and the soil is needed to give it a good start. This is often lacking. You will be doing your trees a good favour if you dig the hole one metre x one metre x one metre. Having done this, put ashes and compost in the bottom of the hole and break up the bottom layer slightly. Then backfill with the best possible soil available; water thoroughly to settle the soil, wait a few days then plant the tree into moist but not soggy soil. Try to plant to the same depth as the plant is in the bag; whilst remembering that the soil will settle a little. Do not plant too deeply – the roots should be in the ground but don’t put too much of the stem in the ground. With some trees, palms for example, planting too deep can be fatal or you will get the volunteer growth coming up around the main stem which will be unsightly.

It is important to dig square holes because plants get pot-bound in round holes. With square corners, the roots grow into the corner and break out. In round holes, the roots grow round the hole in a circular fashion.

Watering is another area in which care must be taken. A good soaking once a week is better than a light watering every day. During dry weather, a light watering does not allow the water to go down more than a few inches and is still in the evaporation layer so is lost very quickly, especially when it is windy. Mulching with grass or other plant debris will help but it tends to pull the roots up to the surface rather than sending them down deep so that they are properly established. During drought years, it is very important to have the roots deep down in the soil.

Garden staff tend to stop watering as soon as the first rains come. It is important to keep watering as it takes time for the rain water to get down to the 60 – 80 cm level where it is needed. So, keep watering – use the garden as a water bank; keep depositing.

After the first rains, the weed growth is phenomenal; inches in a day. These are water and nutrient thieves. Hoe them out or just slash them down – they will mulch the soil, adding nutrients to the soil.

The author of our monthly column is a horticulturalist who can be contacted on email at pete@kantemba.com or by phone on 096 747-990 for any of your gardening queries.