Page 6 - LandscapeSA Issue 110

rAND WATEr ADVErTorIAL

CoNTAINErS

AND COURTyARDS

Tiny townhouse courtyards
are no longer an excuse for

boring gardens. Water Wise
shows you how creativity
and imagination can produce
delightful mini-gardens in

small or restricted spaces. It all Tower gardens can be used to grow shallow-
starts with good planning. A variety of different coloured and sized rooted veggies along the sides and deep-rooted
containers create great focal points.
veggies on the soil surface.
hink about what you want to get out bottles with potting soil and plants. Water can also be made by wrapping shade
of your garden, which part of your every two or three days. netting around securely planted poles to
Tdesign space gets sun, at what time form a ‘cylinder’. Fill the ‘cylinder’ with soil,
of day and for how long (veggies need Container gardening: This refers to the use plant the deep-rooted veggies on the soil
six hours of sun daily), as well as whether of any container to grow plants such as old surface and shallow-rooted veggies such as
you require your garden to be functional, cooking pots, empty food cans, watering lettuce around the sides of the cylinder.
for example to provide privacy or a shield cans, rusty old wheelbarrows, clear glass
from strong winds. Use any of the following bottles and jam jars. The water wise Hanging pots: Also known as hanging
ideas, or create your own space-saving advantage of container gardening is that baskets, this technique allows you to use
option to suit the area you have available. you can zone your pot plants strategically wall and ceiling space to create spectacular
to ensure plants with similar water needs showers of trailing plants. Use indigenous
Vertical gardens: Also called living walls, are grouped together. plants such as the canary creeper, hen-
these use any vertical space available for and-chicken, plectranthus, the potato vine,
planting. prop a trellis up against a clear Tyre veggie patches: These innovative lobelia and pansies. Make sure that the
wall space and train creeping plants to gardens make use of old and discarded basket is no higher than eye-level so that
climb up it. Use plants such as climbing tyres to grow a variety of vegetables. It is the plants are visible and easy to maintain.
roses, jasmine, wisteria and the indigenous best to grow shallow-rooting veggies in
alternative Ceropegia, which is a trailing single tyres, such as spring onion, lettuce Shelf gardening: If you don’t have
vine. and herbs, unless you layer the tyres in a accessible ground or floor space for
tower, as described below. Cut the inner planting, consider installing shelves or a
Bottle gardens: These are very rim off the tyre before planting veggies to display stand up against an empty wall.
environmentally friendly. Old cold drink give you more surface space. Shelves can be stacked with pot plants,
bottles are hung up horizontally with hanging baskets and trays of herbs. Create
fishing gut against a wall, and filled with Tower gardens: These expand on the use colour and texture by using a variety of
herbs or seedlings. Start by cutting a square of tyres for veggie gardens and due to containers and pots in which to display
out of one side of the bottle, approximately their height, allow you to plant veggies plants and remember to zone them
in the place of the label. Make two small with deeper root systems. potatoes can be correctly.
holes on either side of the bottle, parallel grown very successfully in tower gardens.
to one another, and thread fishing gut plant seeds in the bottom tyre and as soon To assist with your ‘container courtyard’,
through these holes in order to hang the as the stalk protrudes from the soil, add a here is a list of plants and veggies suitable
bottles up. Once you have done this, fill the second tyre and more soil. Tower gardens for growing in a mini-garden:
Veggies: climbing beans, beetroot,
broccoli, small-headed cabbage, carrots,
cucumber, eggplant, lettuce, climbing
peas, potatoes, peppers, radish, spinach,
tomatoes and turnips.
Plants: gazanias, vygies, scabiosa,
pelargonium, bulbine, lobelia, african
stachys, violas, helychrisium, diaschia and
orchids.

Space-saving gardens are fun to design and
importantly, water wise.

Bottle garden: up-cycle used cold drink Tyre gardens are great for growing shallow-rooted veggies. For more information:
bottles for growing herbs or seedlings. • www.randwater.co.za n

4 Landscape SA • Issue 110 2022