ON our sweltering summer days, our indigenous garden really comes into its own, offering our family a cool, green, shady oasis and respite from the heat.
During February, the garden is all about lush greenery rather than bright colours. The early summer floral extravaganza is drawing to an end and there are only a few plants that are flowering now. Instead it is the berries, fruit and seeds that provide splashes of colour as well as interesting texture.
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Flower-wise, the late summer palette is one of gentle pastel colours. What flowers there are during this time of year are soft pinks, blues and mauves. These include my spur flower or plectranthus species that are starting to bloom, reminding me that autumn is on its way. It is during this season that this genus seems to be at its very best.
Also offering these gentle colours in the February garden are the pale pink flowers of my river indigo (Indigofera jucunda) trees and my shell bush (Ocimum labiatum), the baby blue Plumbago auriculata flowers and the mauve September bushes (Polygala myrtifolia, which never seems to stop flowering).
Late summer is quite busy in the garden because of the vigorous growth of the indigenous plants at this time of year. There is always some trimming, cutting back and tidying up to be done. Indigenous plants can be a little wayward and do need a bit of discipline.
It is at this time of year that I appreciate the fact that I have reduced my lawn to pocket handkerchief size as it requires very little effort to keep it neat.
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February also involves plenty of weeding and I have had quite a battle keeping the flower beds free of inkberry (Cestrum laevigatum), a nasty, alien invasive that seems to have taken a liking to my garden.
There must be a crop of this weed growing happily somewhere in the neighbourhood , I thought, and eventually I found the culprit, a large bush, leaning over a nearby garden wall, inviting the birds to spread its pestilential seeds throughout the neighbourhood.
We don’t keep invasives to ourselves. By harbouring invasive weeds we infect the rest of the neighbourhood so do your neighbourhood a favour check out your garden to make sure you aren’t damaging the environment by providing a home for these outlaws.
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