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The Eastern Cape has experienced drought-like conditions for quite some time now. We are solely reliant on rainwater in our household so we do our best to employ a water-wise approach to gardening. See a step-by-step account of how we went about creating a watering-free indigenous "stone garden" in our front yard.
When we moved to our new home there was a stone cactus garden in the front yard. Although it was quite attractive, we soon came to the prickly conclusion that cacti are not for us. The stone garden was due for a make-over. The existing plastic layer had perished, the garden had been invaded by kikuyu grass and just about everything was infested with ants. We moved the cacti to the side of the house and decided to go indigenous instead. Indigenous plants are not only well suited to our local climate (meaning they don't need much water), but they also attract local birds, insects and wildlife to the garden - something we really enjoy.
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This is a typical portion of the existing little wooden fence. You can clearly see the kikuyu grass creeping through. The fence itself had also become an ant- and termite-haven. We were definitely losing the battle in terms of trying to keep the grass at bay, so we resolved to try something different in the new garden.
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First we cleared the front portion of the existing garden, removed the wooden fence and dug up all the invasive grass tentacles. This was a lot of hard work!
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Our plan for controlling the kikuyu was to dig a widened "trench" around the perimeter.
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We then put a strip of black 250μm damp-proof plastic sheeting over the inner border. The stones were to keep the wind from flapping the plastic up.
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Although the little wooden fence was in quite a bad state we decided to reuse it. We rinsed and subsequently doused it in certified organic eco-friendly pesticide. We then placed it alongside the plastic border.
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Once the inner edge was in place we tackled the outer edge (the grass invasion front). Here we made use of a similar plastic strip which we turned down along the outer edge of the trench (bottom part of the photo).
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We then proceded to fill the trench with soil, thereafter tucking the plastic back over the soil, forming something like a plastic-coated soil sausage.
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The end-result - now there is now no soil touching the sides of the fence and the grass can be managed more easily at the outer edge of the plastic.
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After this we levelled and treated the inner portion of the garden, and covered it with a large piece of plastic sheeting. The plastic sheeting not only prevents weeds from growing, but it also keeps the soil from drying out.
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When we had the plastic in place it started to rain :) By the next morning there were lovely little puddles on the plastic. We had great fun deciding where to place the plants. Here Tigger, our safety inspector, is testing whether the rocks are well-spaced for safe hopping.
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The next step was to cut holes in the plastic, hollow out the soil under the holes and insert the plants. We decided to plant vygies in little holes along the outer edge.
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Tigger was soon on the scene to point out that the excess soil left on the plastic must first be removed before we go any further.
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Once the soil had been removed, we wiped the plastic with a wet cloth, waited for it to dry and taped the edges down.
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Then came the tricky part - colouring in the garden in with various pebbles, stones and gravel.
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So far so good - the vygies we put in at an early stage seem to have spread quite beautifully and the outer edges are working very well...
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Tigger is enjoying the garden...
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And everything is slowly settling in. As you can see we incorporated a wide assortment of plants including pincushions, aloes, wild garlic, watsonias, euphorbia and kalanchoe. We decided to try various other types of vygies along the other outer edge strips and only planted these some time later. The plants have adapted well and the garden is starting to have a very nice feel to it.
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Last Updated on Friday, 09 July 2010 15:33 |
