Barleria obtusa Blue
Barleria repens 'Tickled Pink'
usually for autumn
erwise have grown, down.
Keep it looking great all year
Ground covers form a natural
‘mulch’, shading the soil so that
weed seeds are less likely to germinate. After all, most weeds are pioneer plants adapted to grow on
exposed soil. Plus, ground covers
look a lot prettier than a layer of
grass clippings. A dense mat of Gazanias, Stachys, or one of the easygoing Plectranthus species such as
Plectranthus neochilus is both
practical and attractive. You’ll still
get the occasional weed, but you’ll
have much less work on your hands
if you don’t have bare soil between
plants. When weeds do grow, make
it your mission to get them out before they can produce seeds. In
time, you’ll whittle down the seedbank instead of adding to it every
year. One weed allowed to seed can
produce literally hundreds of unwanted offspring!
Choose plants that flower at different times. A lot of gardeners do all
their garden shopping in spring.
Make a point of visiting your garden centre at different times of the
year so that you can choose plants
that flower at different times.
For example, autumn brings Lion’s
ear (Leonotis), Ribbon bush
(Hypoestes aristata) and beautiful
bush or creeping Barlerias (Barleria
obtusa or Barleria repens) not to
mention Bush and creeping Plectranthus for sun, shade, or both.
Spring shoppers will miss out on
these colourful plants.
A word of caution about ‘perpetual
flowerers’ that bloom all year: many
of them get scruffy owing to all the
spent blooms, and you have to trim
them back. In addition, many of
them are daisy family, and while
daises are pretty, you want a little
more variety in your flower shapes.
Euryops 'Sunshine Classic Fine leaf'
Barleria repens Rosea
Examples that spring to mind are
Euryops ‘Sunshine Classic’ and our
pretty, blue Felicias. They’re good
plants to have, but you do need to
think about maintenance.
Getting established
Once your garden is established,
you shouldn’t have much work to
do beyond pruning and occasional
thinning. Many people look at
plants’ eventual height and spread,
and space accordingly, but unless
you want big, bare patches until
your plants eventually get there,
you’ll want to plant a few ‘fillers’.
Although some may criticise this as
‘overplanting’, you do get a garden
that looks grea B