POLOKWANE – The Gardener / Die Tuinier magazine editor, Tanya Visser, recently came to visit Polokwane offering her insights and valuable tips on gardening.
Gardeners from all over the province visited Builders Warehouse on Wednesday, July 29 to enjoy a day spent between like-minded people.
Tanya is not only the editor of these magazines, she is also the presenter of The Gardener TV show, and avid gardener herself. She enjoys to get her hands dirty and to create beautiful gardens. “We know the winter in Polokwane is dry, get a water tank and put it up in your garden, or use old cold drink bottles to catch up water from the gutters. You can also use your washing water or dish water. The soap in the water will not damage the plants, just avoid using fabric softener,” she advises.
She spoke about fertiliser and how to choose the best fertiliser for your plants.
“When you want your lawn to be green, make sure you have good roots. First feed the roots, then six weeks later, you will have a beautiful green lawn,” says Tanya.
She advised gardeners to use top soil only if the lawn is uneven or needs to be built up, as top soil is full of weed seeds. “By buying top soil, you invite all the weeds in the city into your garden. Lawn dressing is better. If you need to build up your lawn, use top soil but fill it up with lawn dressing. There are no weed seeds in lawn dressing.”
Tanya also spoke about weed killers, her ‘red hot tip’ is to read the instructions carefully before using the product. For further fertilising, she advises using bonemeal for gardeners who do not have dogs and super phosphate for those who do. Bonemeal works only on the roots.
“The best way to know what you can grow in your garden is to be curious. Visit an open garden or the person with the best garden in your city and see what they plant. Plant local and do not smuggle in seeds,” she says. Lastly she showed the gardeners how to prune plants and told them when the best time is for certain plants to be pruned. “Prune a flower plant after it flowered and a plant without flowers when it has the best chance of recovery,” Tanya advises.
“We invited Tanya to come and talk to gardeners to give them information and answer their questions. The gardeners then get a chance to browse and possibly buy their gardening supplies from us,” says Onicca Mothapo, sales manager at Builders Warehouse Polokwane.
Protek exhibited their home and garden poison products and Plantimex provided in-house plants. Both companies gave away some awesome prizes to the guests.
