Is there such a thing as maintenance-free gardening?

s there such a thing as maintenance-free gardening?

I was recently described as "an expert on low maintenance gardening". While I thanked the lady who said this to me for the compliment, I pointed out that I did not consider myself as such, largely because I don't really believe in the idea in the first place. If you want to have a wonderful garden, you've got to put some work into it. Actually quite a lot of work. Is it possible to become a decent pianist or tennis player without years of dedicated and consistent practice?

All the best things in gardening come as a result of someone putting a great deal of thought, energy, skill, work, imagination, and more energy and more work into the endeavour. A Wisteria vine trained as a small tree, a beautifully balanced group of shrubs, the bright orange berries of a Pyracantha, adorning the front wall of a private house, and a lush lawn, (hopefully a small one in a dry climate), all these are achieved by high maintenance. The exceptional, and the delightful in the garden are unlikely to be achieved, except in very rare cases, by a regime of "low" maintenance, let alone "no" maintenance.

Translated into English, this means that it probably isn't worth going to the trouble and expense to put in a garden in the first place, if there isn't the will or perhaps the means to look after the garden afterwards. It's a bit like a person blowing their savings on a really fancy car, and then "saving" on comprehensive insurance, by taking out third party insurance instead. So if you plan to maintain the garden yourself, the question that has to be asked is "how much time are you prepared to put into the garden per week?" To have a successful garden, the work has to be regular and consistent. Good results are a function of doing things on time, like mowing the lawn not when you feel like it, but when it needs it. (i.e at least once a week in the growing season).

Of course many people simply do not have either the time or as the saying goes, the inclination to work on the garden themselves. So then the issue of money comes in. How much can you afford to pay out to a gardener each month? If you're planning to spend a lot of money on setting up a garden, It would be worth beforehand, looking into the going rates for a professional gardener.

This does not mean that the design should not take into account the viability of maintaining the garden. I've seen many a private garden degenerate because the set up is too fussy and complicated to maintain reasonably. For instance, let's say the going rate for monthly upkeep in your neighbourhood is $200. The question is what is the average time spent by the gardening teams for this particular sum? If your garden is so difficult to maintain, that a gardener has to spend an unusually long time working, then one of two things are going to happen. Either he asks for more money, or he's going to quit. And this he'll do sooner or later, all the good will in the world notwithstanding.

Finally, I ought to admit that there is in fact such a thing called a "maintenance-free garden". There really is. It's a garden without plants!

Enjoy your garden
Jonathan@dryclimategardening.com

It's enough to make you climb up the wall!

It's enough to make you climb up the wall!

Some of the most spectacular garden sights are those of the wall of a house or public building draped in the green of some climbing plant. It's worth pointing out though, that some of the worst decisions in the gardening world, and some of the more expensive too, concern the ill-advised use of a climbing vine like plant. Unsuitable climbers growing in the wrong place can make a small garden effectively unmanageable, cause the decline and eventual death of a great tree, cause roofs to leak, and even to be responsible for properties to drop in value. So let's try and make some sense of this, because the right climber in the right place, can transform your garden from being ordinary and run of the mill, into being special. The sort of garden which apart from anything else may add value to your property!

Climbing plants can be grouped into two broad categories. Those that cling by themselves to flat surfaces, or wrap themselves round other things, and those that require support. The advantages of the former are obvious and often tempt the unaware to plant them by a wall of the house. They tend to grow quickly and are to all intents and purposes, maintenance free. The bad news is that they tend to be very aggressive, grow rampantly and cause a great deal of damage. So think three times before planting innocent-looking numbers, like Ivy (Hedera), Boston Ivy (Parthenossisus), or Creeping Fig (Ficus pumila).

They can however be very attractive. Boston Ivy being deciduous, often has spectacular fall colour, at least in cold-winter climates. The juvenile leaves of Creeping Fig are fascinating in their delicacy. Another beauty is the Trumpet Vine (Campsis radicans) , with its spectacular show of orange/red flowers. This plant can be monstrously aggressive and like other self climbers are best planted on free-standing or retaining walls, but best avoided as I've indicated, next to buildings, if you want to avoid trouble!

Another big mistake is to allow Ivy to work its way up a tree. From every point of view, a mature tree is the most valuable, the most irreplaceable element in any garden. Ivy will smother the tree's leaves, thereby reducing its energy potential and eventually the ivy's sheer weight can cause tree branches to collapse.

Climbers that require supporting need of course a lot more maintenance, but you can be in control of them, instead of them running wild, out of control. Furthermore the effort can be really worthwhile. Think of a purple Bougainvillea, or a delicate Jasmine. How about the Boudreaux flowers of a climbing Rose like the "Don Juan" variety, on a whitewashed Mediterranean wall? Absolutely fantastic. And don't forget the classic Pyracantha trained on a trellis that's been fixed to a wall. Does this mean a bit of work? I'm afraid so. There are also some fairly easy to maintain climbers like the fragrant Quisqualis indica, the once ubiquitous Honeysuckle (Lonicera), and the delightful, If slow-growing Star Jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides).

Finally I think it's worth avoiding the type of vine that may not be dangerous, but just ends up being a tangle and a mess. Some are planted because of their spectacular flowers like Thunbergia Grandiflora, others such as the famous Wisteria sinensis, can be unforgettable in the most skilled of skilled horticultural hands, but more usually, especially in small gardens, are pretty unmanageable.

Enjoy your garden
Jonathan@dryclimategardening.com

How Choosing the Right Soil Type in Your Garden Can Save You Water And Money

If you're still thinking about how to make a garden in your plot, and haven't actually started the work, and if you are in the situation where soil has to be brought in, no doubt you've been pondering about the most appropriate soil type for your future plants. Perhaps you've already consulted with a gardening contractor on this subject, or with a soil scientist. If so, there are all kinds of issues that you've probably discussed by now, such as drainage, soil fertility, the problems associated with soil compaction, to name a few.

However did you know that soil type can have a significant affect on the amount of water the garden will consume annually? Broadly speaking, there are 3 options. Clayish soil, known popularly as "heavy" soil, sandy soil or "light" soil and something in between, a soil type known as loam. A commonly held view, is that light, sandy soils make for preferred conditions, while clayish, heavy soils, for inferior conditions. This view has been promoted by many contractors, partly because it's so much easier and therefore cheaper to build and plant a garden with light soil. As a garden contractor myself, I happen to have plenty of experience on this matter! While many heavy soils can be really poor, and should be replaced if possible, many are perfectly adequate, and are actually to be preferred to sandy soils. Assuming there's satisfactory drainage, many of the other problems associated with them, such as poor aeration, can be dealt with by common horticultural techniques, such as adding large amounts of compost, mulching, and by adopting an appropriate irrigation regime.

The moisture retaining properties of clay determine that waterings should be relatively infrequent, but with proportionally larger volumes at each go. This is to allow air to fill the spaces in the soil, vacated by water as it drains away. And this is where water can be saved. For example, let's take a lawn in a Mediterranean climate, whose area is 50 m2. A typical evapo-transpiration rate for perennial lawns in this sought of climate could be 4mm per day. That's to say the lawn is taking up some 4 liters of water for every square meter per day. As sandy soils have poor moisture retention properties, the lawn (in sandy soil) could be watered every two days, to the amount of 400 liters. (4mm * 50 m2 * 2 days = 400). Yet on the other hand, in heavy clay soil, the interval between waterings could well be 7 days or more. That means the quantity to be used would be 1, 400 liters.( 4mm * 50 m2 * 7 days = 1,400) Where's the saving you may ask?

So far, none at all. However if we use a lawn species suitable for a hot climate, a deep-rooting species like Zoysia for instance, and providing there's enough soil depth, say over 70cm, then we can take advantage of the way water behaves in clay soil, and the way it is retained, by extending the irrigation interval by say 1 day, while retaining the same quantity to be consumed. In other words instead of 1,400 liters every 7 days, we water to the tune of 1,400 liters every 8 days! During the long hot Mediterranean summer that can be a considerable saving.

What's good for thirsty lawns is even better for water conserving plants. In heavy soils many drought hardy shrubs and trees can be irrigated once a month, with very significant savings.

Warning: While light soil can be placed on top of heavy, heavy soil should NEVER be placed on top of light soil. Also soil types should never be mixed.

Enjoy your garden
Jonathan@dryclimategardening.com

Five Excellent Reasons For Mulching Your Garden Beds

Five Excellent Reasons For Mulching Your Garden Beds

The use of some sort of material to be spread on the ground to a certain height, which acts as an insulating layer between the soil's surface and the atmosphere, or mulching in short, is a technique being increasingly employed by professional horticulturalists. Some home gardeners may still be insufficiently aware of its importance, so in this article I'll tell you why mulching is so important, then I'll go into the different types of mulch, their various qualities and how they should be used.
Amongst many benefits, a mulch on the soil –

Significantly reduces weeds. This is true of annuals although mulching does not generally prevent the growth of perennial weeds
Significantly reduces the evaporation of moisture from the soil surface and is therefore an essential part of water conserving gardening
Protects the soil from erosion caused by wind and rain. This is a fantastically important benefit
Moderates the top-soil temperature. So in the winter a layer of mulch can prevent freezing, and in hot- summer climates, prevent the top soil reaching temperatures that inhibit plant growth
Is aesthetically superior to the sight of bare soil and irrigation pipes

Taking aesthetic considerations into account, there are broadly speaking two types of mulch which are viable in a garden. Organic mulches such as wood chippings, and natural inorganic mulches such as pebbles. Which is preferable?

The use of decorative pebbles is often part of an overall design. They are particularly appropriate, associatively, in dry climate gardens. But there are a number of drawbacks involved. Some aggregates such as dark stones of volcanic origin have been found to actually increase the top-soil temperature. Furthermore, adding organic feeds to the soil, something that should be done once or twice a year, becomes difficult and tiresome. The use of a chemical fertilizer pump offers a way round this, but sets in train a number of undesirable consequences. The dependence on chemical fertilizer as the only method of feeding is dreadful gardening! For further discussion on the automatic fertilizer pumps, see a previous blog of mine called "The truth about fertilizer pumps."

On the other hand, while wood chippings may in some cases be less attractive, they help to create a better habitat in which your garden plants grow. Organic mulches definitely moderate the soil's temperature, they provide raw material for essential organisms like earthworms, (see my previous blog, "The worlds greatest gardener!") and as they break down they contribute humus to the soil. All these factors reduce pest and disease infestations, improve the soil's structure, and in the long run help to provide balanced nutriment for the plants

For organic mulches to be effective, they need to be spread to a depth of about 10 cm, after the initial quantity has settled. This means you need to spread about 15cm in order to end up with a layer of some 10 cm, and you'll need to add a bit each year as the chippings closest to the soil's surface break down. Be careful to keep the mulch away from tree trunks and shrub stems. It could cause rot to set in.
Enjoy your garden
Jonathan@dryclimategardening.com

Some Tips On Mowing - The key To Having A Great Lawn

Now that we're moving into summer in the northern hemisphere, those of us in dry climates fortunate enough to own a lawn, should be starting the regular mowing regime that will take us through into the onset of winter.

The most common lawn grasses in hot dry climates are perennials like the Bermuda grasses, Cynodon, Zosia varieties, Kikuya grass (Pennisetum), or St. Augustine grass, (Stenotaphrum secundatum). With the exception of the latter, these grasses should have been de-thatched sometime in the spring. This can be done either by mechanical scarifying, or by shaving to the ground. This extreme treatment must never be carried out on grasses like St.Augustine, that spread by stolons, but only, like the species mentioned, on grasses that develop ryzomes .

After the grass has come back – a process that can take anything up to a month, we start our regular mowing. Regular means regular! Not when we feel like it, not when the grass is a foot high, but as a regular activity. Other than watering, regular mowing at the correct height is probably the single most important factor determining the quality of the lawn.

At what height should the blade be set? The height of the blade is determined by one simple rule - the grass should be as green after mowing as it was beforehand! No more than 40% of leaf length should be removed at anyone mowing. Never scalp the lawn from now on until next spring's de-thatching. You can decide the right height by mowing a small swathe of grass with the blade set high, then go back, lowering the blade's height until as mentioned some 40% of the leaf is cut. This 40% does not include the stems, on which the leaves are attached, but only the leaves themselves.

So how often should you mow the grass? The answer is - it depends. As we've established the fact that not too much leaf should be removed at one shot, it follows that the longer the interval between mowings the longer the grass is going to be, and therefore the more leaf is likely to be removed. So don't let the grass get so long that this situation arises. If the lawn is growing well – a function of many factors like adequate moisture, nutriment levels, and well aerated soil, then you should mow once a week at the very least. Every 4 or 5 days may well be better. Did you know that the Greens on golf courses are usually mowed a couple of times a day?

What we have to remember is that the leaf, as the plant's photosynthesizing organ, is its source of energy. Consistent removing of excessive amounts of leaf during the plant's most active growing season, reduces the potential energy available to the plant, when it most needs it. Also, scalping the grass, which occurs when the blade is too low, or when the grass is too high, exposes the stems to direct sunlight which can often cause direct damage to the grass.

As a final thought. The healthier the grass the more hardy it is to pests and diseases. Conversely, as the grass weakens, often as a result of a consistently poor mowing regime, the more vulnerable it becomes to pathogens, and the more weed species are able to establish themselves, thereby further weakening the lawn.
Enjoy your garden
Jonathan@dryclimategardening.com

A Superb Combination For Your Dry Climate Garden

Those of us who garden in a dry climate hardly have it easy when it comes to creating interest in the garden. The shortage of water means we have to really use our imagination, and dare I say it, our design and horticultural knowledge, in order to come up with a successful composition. I see this more as a challenge than a problem, because it gives us the opportunity to ignore the clichés, break the paradigms and start to THINK.

Today I'm going to focus on a particular shrub combination I planted in a customer's garden some three years ago, which now is coming of age, and starting to look fabulous. Before I reveal the actual species concerned, let's try to establish some basic principles when it comes to designing with plants in general and woody material in particular. We should always check to see whether our choice of plant conforms, yes conforms to the principles of good design such as unity, diversity, emphasis, scale, and simplicity.

· Unity means there should be a lot in common between the plants that make up the composition.
· Diversity means there should be some variety, otherwise the arrangement is liable to be boring.
· Emphasis means that something should stand out a bit. It can for instance be a colour contrast, or a vertical element in a predominantly horizontal shrubbery.
· Scale means that the dimensions should be proportional to one another. A bush 4 meters high would be out of scale to a garden bed whose width is say 20 cm.
· Simplicity is possibly the most elusively difficult criterion to satisfy. To achieve it try to think of a beautifully designed interior, or a well-dressed person – perhaps yourself!

Now to the bed itself. Its dimensions are small, 6 m by 2m. It's located opposite the entrance to the house, while the neighbour's rather tall house rises in the backround. I've used Carissa macrocarpa for the bulk of the space. It's mainly a green foliage plant. Green should be the dominate colour in most compositions.(Unity) For variation on the colour green ,I added the paler, Durante repens, and for contrast the deep purple leaved Euphorbia cotinifolia. (Variety/Emphasis). At the end of the bed are a couple of fresh green coloured junipers, of sculptural habit,–known as "Kaizuka"
Now the deep reddish plants should be planted very carefully. Their over use is the sure sign of design naiveté. But there's another point worth making here. It's important to combine together plants of similar leaf texture. The Euphorbia's leaf shape and leaf size, are very similar to those of Carissa macrocarpa. So while the leaf colours contrast strikingly, (Variety) the leaf textures are almost identical! (Unity/Simplicity).
Finally in the back corner I planted three pencil thin Cypresses, very close together, in order to form a vertical emphasis, but also to be in scale with the afore-mentioned neighbour's house. The Cypresses, called "Santa Catherina" also link well of course with the coniferous Junipers.
You've all heard the business-world's phrase – KISS- "Keep It Simple Stupid"
Keeping it simple is not easy in garden design. It's almost counter intuitive. But if you're going to err, err on the side of simplicity. You can always add things later.
Enjoy your garden
Jonathan@dryclimategardening.com

Three More Excellent Ground Cover Plants For A Dry Climate Garden

As water gets scarcer and scarcer in dry climates and in not so dry climates, we gardeners have got to find ways of reducing the water consumption of the garden. In practice this means amongst other measures, that lawns have to be seriously reduced in size. In some instances there is simply no substitute for a lawn. Nothing can take traffic or be used for playing like grass. However in many parts of the garden, an area has been grassed up because the gardener or home owner couldn't think of anything else, or probably didn't think of thinking of an alternative. Once we break the paradigm and start to design our garden space, which is garden-speak for thinking, then we begin to see so many more possibilities. We discover that there is far more potential to this "outdoor room" than was previously imagined.

This is where ground cover or prostrate plants come into their own. Today I'm talking about three plants for three different design situations. Small scale, medium and large scale.

For small spaces I've grown (pun intended) to love the species of Cranebill, Erodium reichardii. It grows to about 10-15cm forming small mounds. Its cushion shape makes it an excellent companion, style wise, to many xerophyte species. It sports delicate pink flowers virtually all year round, and can take light shade .I planted it in one garden over 4 years ago, and it's showing no signs of degeneration. It is virtually maintenance free.

For larger spaces, The Morning Glory, Convolvulus sabatius (mauritanicus), is great. It can be planted small, because each plant can cover at least a radius of 1 meter. It has a very prostrate habit, with light purple flowers, most of the year. To be grown in full sun only. Although Ground Morning Glory does tend to spread as a weed a bit, it can be uprooted without resource to spraying.

A very useful large scale flowering ground cover is Lantana montevidensis. It has a rather sprawling, slightly untidy habit, and a pungent smell, which makes it unsuitable for small, intimate spaces. But it can be superb when seen at a distance, with its mass of deep purple flowers. There are also a number of varieties available at nurseries.

As far as watering is concerned, both Erodium and Convolvulus can grown on an average shrub regime, about 1/4 of the requirements of a lawn, whereas the Lantana is a bit more thirsty, probably needing an additional 400mm per annum in a Mediterranean climate.
Enjoy your garden
Jonathan Ya'akobi
Jonathan@dryclimategardening.com

How to make sure you have a fabulous lawn

There are a number of factors which determine the quality of a lawn especially in a dry climate. Correct irrigation, an appropriate feeding regime, regular mowing at the suitable height, are all basic requirements. With grasses that produce a heavy thatch, an annual scarifying job is essential, and top dressing the surface with sand (sometimes mixed with compost) is often necessary to straighten out the bumps and troughs in a lawn. However today I'm going to focus on a number of steps which are sometimes overlooked but should be taken before you lay the turf.

· Make sure of adequate drainage. While grasses require a lot of water, their roots require a sufficient percentage of oxygen in order to breathe. A good if rough method of checking the drainage is to dig holes about 50 * 50 * 50cm, fill them with water and see how long it takes for the water to drain away. Up to three hours is generally reasonable, more than a day is untenable.
· Improve the soil with a generous quantity of well rotted compost. I use about 30 liters per square meter. Then incorporate the compost into the soil with a garden fork or mechanical rotivator. Obviously you're going to rake the soil until it's smooth and straight before laying the turf.

But there's a little secret that can often make all the difference. It's a secret that's especially relevant to small lawns and therefore to those in dry climates where the size of the lawn should be kept to a minimum.

The smaller the lawn, the more the soil underneath is liable to get compacted, due to the high amount of traffic relative to the lawn's area. Soil compaction, with the resultant reduction of gas exchange and water infiltration, is one of the major factors in lawn failure. While compaction under an existing lawn can be relieved to an extent by aeration, it's a million times better to prevent it in the first place, by insulating the soil from the impact of traffic. This can be done by spreading about 10 cm of sand or some other inert material, between the soil surface and the turf. That's how it's possible to have grassed parking lots!

Warning: The sand must be leached of salts.
Laying an insulating layer can be quite expensive, because in addition to the material itself, you may have to excavate a lot of soil. However, I can't think of a surer way of bypassing the problem of soil compaction, and assuming that the other factors are taken care of, giving you a much better chance of having an excellent lawn.
Enjoy your garden
Jonathan Ya'akobi
Jonathan@dryclimategardening.com

The Truth About Fertilizer Pumps (For the small garden)

The next time someone tries to convince you that you "have to" install an automatic fertilizer system to feed your garden plants, I'd like to suggest that you take into account the following points.

· In many countries it is prohibited by law to pump liquid fertilizer through the drip system, without the installation of an approved back-flow instrument. This instrument has to be checked by a qualified person on a regular basis – usually once per annum. Failure to do so, like driving a car with an out of date license, could lead to criminal proceedings. Please check where the law stands in your country.
· As the fertilizer is usually poured into a 25 liter container (from which the solution is pumped into the drippers),this empties very quickly in anything but a very small area. In other words you spend more time messing about with feeding than if you were to apply compost and slow release fertilizer once or twice a year .
· The tendency for people who use fertilizer pumps is to think that there's no need to add organic matter to the soil. Nothing could be more mistaken in my view. It is essential to build up the percentage of humus in the soil, and this is generally done by the consistent adding of compost at least once a year. While composting, slow release fertilizer, organic or mineral, can be added, without spending significantly more time. Total reliance on chemical fertilizer is liable to cause soil degeneration, and increase disease and pest infestations, and by creating an undesirable soil pH, can actually make some microelements, unavailable to your garden plants.

From my experience, injecting liquid fertilizer does often result in more rapid growth in a newly planted garden, but gardens whose soil is enriched organically, catch up after a couple of years or so. Is quick, quick, quick, the last word in good horticultural practice? I don't think so. In fact the only circumstance in a small garden where automatic fertilizing may be intrinsically preferable, is for plants grown in pots and containers, excluding hydroponic culture. So other than container gardening, I suggest you save your money and leave the fertilizer pumps to the plant nurseries where their use is far more relevant –
Enjoy your garden
Jonathan Ya'akobi
Jonathan@dryclimategardening.com

Pruning Small Plants

After last weeks' letter on pruning, I assume the secateurs and sheers have been put to good use. This week as promised I'm talking about the pruning and clipping of small plants, whether herbaceous or partly woody (sub-shrubs). If you find the issue of tree and shrub pruning rather daunting, then cutting back perennials is far less problematical, if for no other reason, because the potential damage is far less serious. To lose a Chrysanthemum or two, is not very nice, but to damage an Olive tree is another matter. I'm sure you'll agree with me!

What happens when we just leave a plant like Lavender, or Sage for example? The plant tends to get leggy and bald. It's green and maybe flowering on top, but bare and dry below. A similar thing happens to many ground covers. One that comes to mind is a fabulous plant from Australia, ideally suited to a dry climate, - Myoporum parvifolium. If left alone, you tend to end up with long strands, and a bit of green at the edges.

Many superb flowering plants have actually fallen out of favour, which means they're becoming increasingly rare in plant nurseries, because they get uglier and uglier as time goes on. If only more people knew that they could prevent this, and maintain excellent plants for a number of years by the simple expedient of clipping!

A perfect example of this is the Ice Plant, Lampranthus sp. from South Africa. Anyone who has seen a carpet of Lampranthus in full flower, will know what a unique effect it creates. Furthermore, being a succulent, it can get through the summer without irrigation. So far so good. Except that the "carpet" looks worn out and bare for about 11 months of the year. So here's a tip. The plant flowers in the early spring. When about 75% of the flowers have been spent, don't wait for the remaining ones to die off, rather cut back to a visible growing point. Do not prune back a stem to the wood. The Ice Plant does not rejuvenate from the wood. By pruning, you encourage lateral vegetative growth, and this ensures that instead of being bald for most of the year, you get a nice, green ground cover, until next year's spring flowering. So take note that the timing is often the difference between an herbaceous plant that plays it's part in the garden, and one that should be pulled out!
You can follow this idea with many plants, and particularly with many herbs and spices, like Sage, Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Lavender and many others.
Till next week – fname- enjoy your garden
Jonathan Ya'akobi
Jonathan@dryclimategardening.com

More important pruning tips for the dry climate gardener

This week I'm going to talk about pruning cold sensitive plants. In a recent newsletter, I mentioned the importance of not pruning such plants until the onset of spring. Now that spring has arrived in the northern hemisphere, it's important to be prepared for some pruning right now, and not wait till the summer. Remember though that spring is the worst time to prune naturally deciduous plants, as the cuts will cause the rising sap to "bleed" out of the plant. If you didn't prune when you should have, i.e. when the plant is in winter dormancy, you can do some light pruning in the summer.

Back to the pruning of the less hardy plants. These could be of Mediterranean climate origin, or of sub-tropical and tropical origin. Let's start with shrubs.
If you want the shrubs to be "bushy", that's to say green from the ground–up, and not to develop a tree-like habit, then it's necessary to cut back about a third to a half of the height of the plant. This also ensures that the flowers, if and when they appear, will grow more or less at eye level, and not be "up in the sky". This is particularly relevant to such flowering mainstays as Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Hamelis patens, Cestrum elegans, Alyogyne huegelii, to name but a few.

It should be noted that larger scale landscaping bushes, such as Melaleuca sp., do not take kindly to regular heavy pruning,.although light pinching can be in order. During the growing season shrubs can always be pinched, but beware of over- pruning. Contrary to popular belief, heavy pruning is not good for the long-term health of the plant.

For this reason, tree pruning should be far more be approached with far more care, and with much "respect" for the tree. Never remove too much woody material at one session. More than a third of the total volume of material, is the limit. If necessary, prune a certain amount in one year, and continue the following year.
In next weeks newsletter we'll be continuing the pruning theme, where I'll be talking about herbaceous perennials and sub- shrubs.
Till then enjoy your garden
Jonathan Ya'akobi
Jonathan@dryclimategardening.com

The World's Greatest Gardener

Do you have any idea who that could be?
Let me describe some of his characteristics so that you might be able to work it out for yourself.

He's about two inches long, rather flat, grayish in colour and wriggles about if you hold him in your hand. Yes it's the earthworm! A truly joyful moment for me is when I discover earthworms in the soil of a customer's garden that were not previously there. This is because their existence shows that the soil conditions are improving sufficiently to support them.

But why are earthworms so important for the garden, and why do I call them, a little bit of hyperbole notwithstanding, the world's greatest gardener? Let's see what they do.

Earthworms burrow through the soil creating channels which significantly improve the aeration in the soil. They ingest large quantities of soil, secreting it back in the form of beautifully rich humus. This humus binds soil particles together creating a healthy soil structure. Humus also has moisture retaining properties, thus improving the moisture availability in sandy soils, and the aeration in clayish soils. Humus finally breaks down, releasing essential nutriments for the plants to take up.

So this little creature, composts, fertilizes, cultivates, and helps to protect plants from disease, because healthy soil conditions improve the plants' hardiness to pests and disease. Now how much would you pay for a gardener like that?

All you have to do to make your garden earthworm friendly, is to supply good quantities of organic matter in the form of well rotted compost, and keep off the chemical fertilizers. The latter burn the earthworms and either kill them or cause them to flee the garden.

Till then love your earthworms, love your garden – It will love you in return!
Jonathan Ya'akobi
Jonathan@dryclimategardening.com

Some important pruning tips for dry climate gardeners

Spring has arrived in the Northern hemisphere, Summer is coming to a close in the South. For Mediterranean climate gardeners, whether in South –West Australia or the Middle East, some pruning work should be carried out.
Let's talk about spring first.

In mild winter climates, this is about the last opportunity (if spring has yet to start) to prune naturally deciduous trees and shrubs, including roses, i.e. plants that are not cold sensitive.

A common and sometimes costly error is to mistake a conditionally deciduous plant, i.e. a plant that sheds its foliage in response to local climate conditions, with a naturally deciduous one. The former are usually of tropical or sub tropical origin, and are liable to be highly sensitive to cold - even the cold prevailing in mild winter countries.

A very important rule is never to prune a cold sensitive plant until the possibility of night chills, not to speak of frosts, has passed. Wait till the weather has sufficiently warmed up.

In South Africa or Australia, where autumn is approaching, this might well be the last chance to prune cold sensitive plants before the temperatures drop significantly.
I'm thinking particularly of those herbaceous plants like ornamental grasses, that look pretty poor in the winter, especially if left untouched, but might be damaged by winter pruning. With the purple coloured Pennisetum setaceum for instance, it's often worth cutting it to the ground a month or two before the onset of winter, and again in the spring if needs be.

Jonathan Ya'akobi
Jonathan@dryclimategardening.com

How to have colour in the garden without flowers

Last week we touched on one or two design issues relating to flower colour.
This week I'm going to give you a few tips on adding colour to the garden without resorting to herbaceous perennials. This is important to us as dry climate gardeners, because with few exceptions, herbaceous plants demand a lot of water.

Firstly, we can use flowering shrubs which are both relatively thrifty in their water needs, and flower profusely. As a rule of thumb, shrubs can be grown using a third less water annually than flowers. So here are some bushes which have prominent flowers, and are suitable for a dry climate, albeit requiring some irrigation through the summer months. Alyogyne huegelii, Brunvelsia pauciflora, Grevillea sp, Jasminum,.(some) Melaleuca (some) Plumbago auriculata, Rhaphiolepis indica, Rosmarinus officianalis, and Viburnum tinus.
Secondly, we can make use of plants that have colorful foliage. For grey foliage, Leucophyllum frutescens is excellent, as well as many varieties of Juniper such as "Grey Owl". If you want to add some gold into the composition, try Melaleuca "Revolution Gold". I also recommend a stunningly beautiful shrub called Durante erecta "aurea", although this requires more water than the others mentioned.
There are of course quite a number of plants, both woody and herbaceous, whose foliage is reddish purple. These often have the term "Atropurpurea" after the species name. For shrubs, Berberis and Vitex are grown successfully in the Mediterranean countries, as is the rather over-used Prunus pisardii. A superb shrub/tree is Euphorbia cotinifolia, although beware of its poisonous sap.
There are also many ornamental grasses or grass-like plants, which have colourful foliage – Bluish-greys as in Festuca glauca, reds, bronze and golds as in some varieties of Carex.
A word of caution. Beware of over planting colourful or variegated foliage plants. Green should always dominate. Use the exceptional plants as the term exceptional implies – sparingly!
I look forward to sending you next weeks' newsletter. Till then enjoy your garden
Jonathan Ya'akobiJonathan@dryclimate gardening.com