Conservation gardening
Words & Photos by Andrea Durrheim
G
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
ardening with indigenous plants has a whole
lot of environmental
benefits. On the whole,
you are going to save on water and
fertilizer and you will attract more
birds to your garden. Gardening has
even led to the preservation of certain plant species that are extinct or
very rare in the wild.
For example, Erica verticillata, a
beautiful Cape Flats species was
thought to be extinct until a plant
was discovered growing at Kew
Erica cerinthoides has the
widest natural distribution
of all Ericas
gardens in England. Another form
of the same plant was found in a
park in Pretoria and in time other
specimens came to light. Today
thousands of plants grow in private
gardens.
Choosing your plants
You can decide to what level you
want to take indigenous gardening.
You may prefer to plant only locally
indigenous plants that already occur in the area. You will find that
this isn’t as limiting as you might
think – or you can plant mostly in-
Pelargonium and sewejaartjies.
Note mulch on soil
digenous plants with a few of your
favourite exotic plants. Just remember to group plants according to
their environmental requirements.
The best way to find environmentally savvy plants is to choose ones
that occur naturally in your area.
Check out what sort of niche they
prefer: wet or dry soil, sun or shade,
deep or shallow soil and plant them
in similar spots in your garden for
low maintenance and sure fire success. Imitating nature is always going to be easier than doing battle
Lachenalia aloides var. aurea,
bulbs growing in their natural
environment can be left in
place during dormancy