There is nothing that screams, “HOME” as quickly and elegantly as a plant. If you are living on your own your plants soon become the confidantes that you’ve been wishing for your whole life. They need minimal care, as long as it’s the right kind, and are always willing to listen. If they seem down, it’s quite possible that something is amiss in your own life. They are, simply said, wonderful. Whether you have a struggling little townhouse garden in need of a little TLC or want to decorate your home with a few container plants, we will furnish you with the basic information. If you wish to know more, there is a plethora of books out there, with not only the information, but also enough pictures to inspire even The Green Goblin to become an avid gardener.
Garden Tools
There are quite superb (and sometimes obscurely-designed) tools available. But they come at a price — a very steep price, in fact. You will be able to do all the necessary with the minimum. So go out and buy or borrow a decent spade, a fork and a pair of gloves. The gloves are more important than anything else; it’s no good having a beautiful garden but having to hide your rough hands and broken nails from everyone coming to appreciate your handy work. And if you can get them in funky colours, go for it. It would be advisable to also get a rake and a good pair of secateurs or clippers. If you are preparing a garden from scratch you will need a pickaxe and a lot of courage. Go wild!
The small garden.
Probably the most difficult garden to plant, as space is limited and the budget usually even more so. The following guidelines are very general and can be applied to nearly every garden, but we’re guessing that if you have a couple of acres of ground, you probably read this for entertainment value rather than information you’re planning to use.
Play around with colour; make a rainbow in your back yard or plant loads of white flowering plants with splashes of colour in between. When buying plants, ask the friendly people at the nursery when they flower, if ever, and try to get plants that flower during different months of the year for colour all year round. The more you ask and experiment the more you learn. If you are more of a green person, there are just as many options for experimenting with various shades of green foliage plants (okay, or just one shade … whatever tickles your terrain).
Gardening Preparation
We have a pickaxe that travels with us wherever we move. We have bonded in a very big way — three days of solid axing, digging, smashing and cursing. We had already bought the plants for our carefully designed shade garden, including 15 bags of compost, thinking that it will be a good day’s work. We removed the grass from the designated patch and prepared to work the compost into the soil when we hit gold, or rather concrete and builders’ rubble, At this point we should move away from this particular experience lest this gets slapped with an age restriction code VL. Suffice to say that it took three days and a hired rubble removal company to get us to the point where we couldactually plant something. In the meantime, we almost lost the clivias and othershadelovers waiting to be planted, because their shady spot took longer to prepare than we expected.
The point is, decide what you wish to plant where, but expect the unexpected and have a plan B. Prepare the soil by removing the grass (if necessary) and working in a bag of compost per square meter. This may seem a bit excessive, but the soil is extremely poor in most of the new townhouse developments. Do this before buying the plants if you are not entirely sure what you might find underneath that patch of grass.
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