Holistic Living Starts with the Soil
It might surprise many to learn that organic farming is obsessed with the soil. It’s a logical stance for those in the trade, of course, as the ability to farm organically has to stem from a healthy and robust supporting soil. Similarly, although the desired effects in a suburban garden are more aesthetic considerations, a landscaped garden is not done without suitable ground covers that complete the planted effect.
Yes, the same rules apply to gardeners and organic growers – bare soil will wash and blow away over time, and lose all of its humus-rich goodness, whether on a farm or in your garden – but in a garden situation, a lack of ground covers just looks yuck. It’s unfinished! We know as humans, fundamentally, that a healthy ecosystem has green from top to bottom, and it seems an almost instinctual recognition in us that we recognise pristine, leafy nature when it’s glowing, and when it’s absent. A big part of that picture in our heads is the ground cover component – no one looks at happy trees and shrubs and expects to see bare soil beneath them.
SA is Spoilt for Choice When it Comes to Ground Covers
Far more importantly for the average home gardener, however, is the range of choices ground covers opens up. There is indeed a great variety of trees and shrubs to choose from for South African gardens, but a far greater variety of ground cover species. There are ground covers suitable for sun or shade, dry sun or dry shade, wet conditions sunny or shady, rocky conditions, clayey conditions, annual blooming, constant blooming – the list is a very long one indeed. Few other components “finish” a garden so capably and beautifully as successfully established ground covers.
South Africa has contributed mightily to the international floral trade because of our stunning indigenous species. We are not floristically impoverished! South African gardeners have a large variety of eminently suitable and easy indigenous ground covers to choose from – Agapanthus, Bulbine, Falkia, stunning Clivia for the shade – as well as being able to draw on the exotic species and varieties that are copious in numbers too. Finishing off a well-designed garden with the dazzling variety of shapes, textures, colours, and flowers of ground covers is really the final touch to a professional installation.
Windy Willows is Ground Covers for Africa!
At Windy Willows, we’ve been growing ornamental plants for decades, and our offer to you comes in larger bags (established plants), smaller bags (younger plants for mass planting), and, when you really need to cover a strip from here to Cairo, we also supply ground covers in plug trays; so, you can buy hundreds of small plants at a time, for only a few rands each.
Call on us first when it’s time to plant – we’re your best deal on variety, price, and robustly healthy plants!
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