 afternoon everybody on this beautiful Saturday there is rain all around if you in Cape Town and you've managed to keep your beautiful feet standing up straight because I believe you've had like 200 kilometer an hour winds trees have been uprooted but the good news is your dams are full what was it 99.6 percent we have out the school of unbelievable we have had beautiful rain all across the country and for that we are truly blessed so welcome to this virtual event I am live I am broadcasting from Westville Quasulina tell and it really is a privilege to be with you today on behalf of builders warehouse folks I am their gardening the gardening person they're gardening guru they like to call me but hi I don't know if anybody really wants to garden today because it's pretty miss it really is but folks I'm here for the next 30 minutes we've got an awesome slideshow to take you through and please get your questions because folks 15 minutes I'm gonna be giving you my time and that is it is anything that you've got and no question is a silly question okay please no question is silly so whether it snails whether it's roses whether it's what to spray what to plant how do I deal with it heads up monkeys and moles or a no-go zone and but no really guys any question if you've got something on and whether it's property related whether this is your game or not we're here for you and it really is a great honor and pleasure so I see Tracy Miller is there lots of lots of crappy candies and green hearts I love the green hearts I really love the green hearts so folks remember get your questions going don't be shy don't be scared that you might tap it out incorrectly or that somebody's gonna be watching me all right so folks let's get into it we're talking gardening tips and tricks now the whole term gardening can be sometimes really overwhelming and their various reasons for this number one we've all of a sudden become a homeowner yeah and we're like in our mid 30s or whatever owning our first home worst of all we might have moved into a place that had previously the mother-in-law okay so you've now inherited it moved into that space and there's a beautiful garden along with gardening comes this thing called emotion emotion because gardens are emotional things they are parts of our lives that full many many gaps and it's not only just for beauty it really isn't there's so much more more to it there's legacy there's indulgence there's keeping things going for other other reasons more than just keeping it beautiful do do wonderful to have you here Peter Brown Peter Brown good day to you oh my goodness you own a fish farmer my project can get more farms and businesses how can I grow the agriculture with low cost okay dude you've got big questions there but we're gonna get to them leechy tree stop bearing for right leechy trees very very interesting I'm gonna get to you and just speaking to plants really help them grow Tracy asked Tracy I'm gonna tell you a very very quick story and this is to do with a leechy tree in fact it was a lemon tree so wait for a tear this lady had done everything to the lemon tree she'd fed it with 515 she'd fed it with a good organic fertilizer she tried a lot of things and the said lemon tree just would not produce lemons so she went outside one day with the broomstick and gave it a good few cracks true story on its stem cracked it with the with the broomstick and low and behold a couple of months later the lemon tree flowered and fruited subsequently so what isn't it about talking to plants and it's actually been proven and if you want to real read a really good book and find the book called the secret secret sex lives of plants true story done on experiments with plants looking at tone looking at beat and how they react do they of course they do and they are living creatures and there is energy that goes through them and we know that so talk to them but talk to them in tone it's all about tone but you probably think I'm really crackers right now but that's okay too so guys let's get into the into the PowerPoint I'm gonna share with you some gardening tips and and really I hope that you that if anything sparks any consideration any ideas whilst you're going through it please bang through the question and I'm gonna get through to them a little bit later so number one it's all about lawns remember the lawn can make or break your garden space and coming out of winter we into spring now things are still a little slow yes because it's cold in certain parts of the country it still is really cold lawn works on temperature and it awakens through temperature and it awakens purely through the amount of nutrition and water that they get now of course going into the winter months it's there's far less rain except if you're in the Cape and water is really important we do know as well that water is really expensive so you've got to think smartly when deciding on what type of lawn to put down and how you're going to maintain it importantly what I need you to think about all the different types of lawn so they're basic types is cuckoo you which is known as quick you can get it in seed form guys which is fantastic because it really is easy to put down especially now in the early spring months if you do your preparation correctly and it's all about preparation guys it's like building houses if you don't get the foundation right your house gonna go one way and it's the same with the garden it's all about the soil feed the soil improve the soil make sure that's right and then you can have a gorgeous garden and what is important and I'm gonna bring up the slide over here and what is important guys is that to get that look to get that look you need to do the prep right and it worries me intensely when spring comes along and I see a lot of people on the sides of the road that are selling so-called topsoil folks it is not a good idea please please please it really is not a good idea to buy bags of topsoil or compost from the side of the road you need to buy from a reputable garden center in other words pop down to your local builders buy the stuff in the bag that says compost because it's gone through a special screening you guarantee it has no weeds it has no rocks and it is not the what do they normally sell you as topsoil I call it like the the fill from from the building site that they needed to remove the soil off yeah that's what you ended up getting so guys please make sure that you use the right product the only time that you are going to be using top dressing because I'm asked this a lot about lawns and how to fix lawns the only time you are going to be using top dressing is when your lawn is severely crinkle cut okay so when your lawn has got big dongers that's when you put top dressing on but folks you do not put top dressing on like a thick layer you've got to do it gently in little additions so it's a small amount making sure that the leaves the blades of lawn still peek through as soon as it grows through you then add the next layer if you have not done spring treatment of your lawns then do this now two three two which you pick up at your local builders big bag of two three two on the lawn first please folks don't be tempted to buy the seven one three yet very important because seven one three just encourages you got it greening two three two encourages good rooting good solid structure that's what we need first you don't get the roots right you're not going to get the top right okay so two three two down first if it's raining which it is now almost across South Africa get out there and run around like Mary Poppins and throw the two three two down because it's a chemical fertilizer it's important that you do water it in you want to use an organic product then look for something like Atlantic by a lawn which you can get in 10 kg bags put it on and you've got no no worry that it's going to burn your lawn at all right so that's lawns they make or break a good garden guys let's get on to the next one this is about edging edging folks is so important because it keeps the garden beds that side and it keeps the flowers here it defines your space so you've got the lawn and then you've got the garden beds and many many gardens that I've gone to I've seen this and you've seen it as well garden bed okay yeah garden bed trees donga come on you with me I know you with me donga and then oh lawn over here somewhere and then the gap keeps opening and opening and opening and I call it continental drift because one day you walk outside with your cup of coffee and you're like the lawn moved it got smaller and yes that happens to so many homeowners why because we give our garden executives our garden helpers could even be the husband a spade to cut the lawn edges folks put something down as simple as this and I want to show you with my little pointer here as simple as this guys I have just used bricks this is a clay a common clay brick have a look at it there and to define the edge so when you mowing you can literally put the lawn mower wheel on this brick edging yep on there the other lawn mower wheel is obviously there and a way you go you can then use if you don't want to do that because like me you know I want the leaves just to cascade over the edge just to soften that edge a bit so then what you would use is a little trimmer you can even get a good sheep shear which are great for cutting edges but edges define your space and they stop that moving of those large dongers it's the only way I can describe it I don't know if there's another word craters yes I mean they get bigger and bigger and bigger I also like to call them in certain gardens you've seen it they called puppy dog graves yes it is that because they like the soil is heaped up around the plants nowhere in nature do you see soil heaped up around plants nowhere in nature and remember gardening is an expression or an emulation of what we want in our own environment which is the place that we call paradise all right let's get on to the next slide another form of edging which is really really good in modern day gardens we find a lot of pebble being used now pebble is fantastic why because it's really good for security you use pebble around the house because normally a lot of home owners find splashing okay up on the walls dirty the walls awful mess okay awful mess generally lawn battles to grow under there why because it's in the rain shadow okay because of the eaves so you're going to battle and battle and battle and if lawn won't grow somewhere stop fighting get rid of it that is my firm favorite if it won't grow stop fighting with it get rid of it rather put down some gravel or a really good tough indigenous ground cover that will do the job but I love gravel put it around because when people go when they're walking you hear it you're alerted to it low maintenance it certainly doesn't need to replace and always remember to use the weed fabric it's called weed guard you buy it and rolls from your local builders and guys remember the weed guard is actually recycled two liter coat lids yeah you know the plastic lids that's what it is so it's a thick woven fabric that you lay down and then you put the pebbles on top of that the reason for that is it stops the pebbles from disappearing into the soil yes because many of you have spent really good money on bags of stones emptied into the garden and you're like a couple of months later where have you gone guys what happened what ate the stones well there ain't nothing that eats stones except the soil so remember to put down your weed fabric really really important look at this over here pathways edging really important here is another little type of brick remember you can use a paving so you can use an ordinary paving which we call a rectangular paver you can use that as an edging bury it in and it works brilliantly the other thing that you can use is a little cobble now cobble edging also works well and it's very inexpensive so there we are a couple of different ways on how you can maintain an edge and look gravel in the pathway works brilliantly absolutely brilliantly okay moving along guys the choice of plants it's really important that you choose wisely going into summer now i want to give you a few plants that are going to work brilliantly in your garden and especially if you're on a budget okay so think about these over here and i want to show you these agapanthus brilliant to get them in the white you get them in the blue guys there are so many different varieties of them from dwarf little plants to some that get up to 50 60 centimeters in height consider using those the plant on the right over here where my that is called an osteospermum you will find them in abundance at your builder's garden centers today they indigenous they love the sun they great on banks they good in pots man and the butterflies just love them okay moving it down remember to always deadhead and if it means picking then do that but what does deadheading mean it means when the flowers are spent always always remove the spent flowers so that you can encourage new growth okay another good tip if you have restricted space a lot of people have restricted space and they say well i don't want to garden down there it's also an age thing you know like while i garden down there like you know it gets a bit it gets a bit difficult to raise the beds raise the beds can be done simply by using blocks cheap blocks okay use blocks today the cladding options the tiling options are insane guys just insane and they also very inexpensive so look out for the specials look out for things that will work for you it could even just be a simple bag washing on a raised wall okay so it doesn't necessarily have to be the top top end it could work here and still do the same job all right isn't that beautiful as a lovely raised plant just spectacular lovely filled with the plants of summer filled with geraniums filled with verbenas little mini petunias and those are the plants that we want okay pots guys are mad about pots and if there's one way if you want to increase and just improve the area within your home and even if you're renting there's nothing that says that you can't garden because you don't own the place absolutely not gardening and pots works it's been done for centuries and guys if you get bored with it then you just give it a lick of paint okay it's something that can change within an instant remember think of things like grouping your pots and threes always important and if you are going to be making choices and deciding on a range of pots please make sure that you try and purchase all of them at once because with a lot of pots what happens is when you go back and you're looking for something for the matching pot that you couldn't afford the previous month it's gone and the chances are that you might get the next the same one ordered for you is not going to be very high because a lot of the pots are imported especially the glazed pots so please make sure use the facilities like credit facilities that's why they're there but for me terracotta pots like you're seeing on the left here on the shelf just work beautifully and especially for herbs in courtyards and in hot sunny spots trees guys think twice before you remove a tree and think very carefully when you plant a tree when we're planting trees we're not planting for us we're planting for those generations before you move into when you move into a home a lot of people are very quick to remove trees please be very very careful get the professionals in get them to give you an opinion on whether this is a good tree or bad tree worrying about the roots and sometimes all the trees need is actually just a good pruning that's sometimes all they need is you know good haircut lifting the the stems and you can see this tree over here has been pruned beautifully why because when you look at it the lower branches have been removed so you're actually seeing the beauty of the tree the beauty of the tree is its awesome stems which means then that you can garden underneath and here in this next slide is a perfect example because this tree has been lifted so the lower branches removed and by doing that you have created so much more depth in the garden at least three meters which normally would just be plain okay right watering guys consider the watering of your garden and i mean that from not wasting because water can be wasted very very quickly and make sure that you've got the right equipment that your hoses aren't leaking that you've got the right spray nozzles to actually do the job properly all right and make sure that you mulch mulching is a thick layer of organic material around any bare patches of soil it's so important really really important and i'm often asked tanya what do i do on banks well guys banks is like such an opportunity because it's an opportunity to make a garden which nest not necessarily could easily have been there but it's by grouping rocks by using the plants that are water-wise that can cope with those hot dry conditions because a lot of banks are normally in the full blazing sun so consider using plants which are architectural like these beautiful aloes aloe fair rocks up here these are the miniature aloes that just do such an amazing job all right and there you have it and look at also the most important thing that i want you to learn out of this slide is texture gardens need not to be all about flowers but they can also just simply be about the texture of the plants here we've got beautiful grays with yellows succulents are all the rage and anybody can grow them right guys i am now going to go back to our questions and answers let's just have a look here let's see who's with me sindiswa fantastic how do you get rid of those little white bugs insects naturally sindiswa it's really difficult to the on no uh the on no hold on i've got something going on here right how do you get rid of them naturally pop down to your local builders there's a couple of products the one is called eco buzz okay and it's called pest pro if you've got white fly pest pro will do the job it's in a little sachet one sachet goes into one liter water spray it on and it's really easy the other thing that you can use is something called margaret robits organic insecticide guys it's simple these products you could drink them you could put them in your coffee and nothing will happen to you they're good for the environment they don't kill ladybirds they don't kill good wasps they don't kill bees so please rather use those as a first choice it's really important because it's all those other things in the garden that actually maintain the environment for you and me all right which plants work well in the house linden there are loads okay but if you want to start out um have a look just right here right right here okay these are beautiful plants these are all actually from my home um pepperomias you'll find these fantastic easy to grow really easy and they're one of the plants that nasa prescribes as the healthiest for cleaning air yeah the guys at nasa do that so like they know what they're doing don't they all right birds nest ferns brilliant love the bathroom because they come from the tropical areas from the forests they grow in the trees birds nest ferns this is a beautiful fern also antherioms and guys i just got a brag about the clivia clivia's on flower now watch out for their caterpillar and if you do get that caterpillar you've got to pop down to your local builders and you've got to get the product called lava pro lava pro is a natural inoculant which you spray on the leaves when seed caterpillars start eating it basically causes the caterpillar to have a really upset tummy and it stops eating if a bird picks up that caterpillar doesn't die if you eat that caterpillar nothing's going to happen to you and if your child happens happens to eat 20 caterpillars guess what nothing happens to it all the dog it's a completely natural product all right i hope that answers your question for the indoors all right let's go back up here uh what would you suggest this is from recorder what would you suggest when your yard is fully paved and there are dogs that recorder no wait a second then there are dogs that bite everything and dig out blocks recorder recorder you got a story going there my man um and what can i get from builders to use as a barrier for the dogs okay first up dogs eat things and dig things because they are like us they need stuff so let me tell you this and you're gonna think i'm completely mental but you need to assign an area three of your garden where they can have fun so dig up some of that paving of yours because dogs don't live normally just on paved area seriously now recorder listen to me lift up some of your paving dig out some of that soil go to builders and get some um what is it called um play sand you know sand that you put in a children's playpen um do you get children's play pens what are they called sand pits sand pits that's it go and get some of those bags they sell it at builders put that sand in that area that you've dug up okay well you've removed the paving right and then you want to go to the pet section you know where they sell those hooves and treats and things like that and you want to bury some of those in the sand wowza now when the dog goes along it starts digging it doesn't get a hiding it doesn't get shouted at you encourage it you stroke it you pet it you give it good positive reinforcement and the dog finds a treat voila happy days okay because then it's going to go and dig there before it goes and digs in your garden all right try that and let me know because i guarantee it works uh recorder and oh and the other thing is barriers for dogs there are loads of things for barriers you can buy a little instant picket fences you can buy a little um uh kind of hoopty ones like this that are done out of plastic coated wire they last really really long you can get expandable trellis that you simply need to knock a hole in a pole in here and a pole in there and a few cable ties and voila you've got a fence it doesn't need to be a five day project you can literally pop down purchase the thing pop in um a dowel there a dowel there expand the trellis or put your little piece of trellis there and you sorted and remember cable ties for anybody whether you're DIY or Gardner or a man's best friend all right um oh recorder thanks you said it makes sense give it a try my friend and really dogs dig and are destructive because they bore and give them lots of toys to play with give them lots of toys yeah choose a pair of shoes um okay uh let's have a look here uh bernie hello wonderfully really pleased got to hear you today oh thank you bernie that's great thank you very very much how to get rid of that right we've got that alani and where else we had a question up here from peter brown i want to get back to this question um how can i grow the agriculture with low cost um peter one of the best ways and and i firmly believe that in agriculture south africans we need more farmers we need more subsistence farmers and the way that we do that is to grow food growing food is cheap a packet of seed costs you hardly next to nothing go and buy packets of seeds and encourage local farmers to grow their own and you too should be growing your own um south africa has a shortage of of subsistence farmers and that's what we need um so from my side um i would certainly want to see that encouraged and wonderful that you've got a fish farm because we need more sustainable projects in and around our country brilliant i'd love to actually hear more about it um and who else do we have a man a man is just sending me lots of flowers so a sunday i'm hoping that uh that you've got a glorious garden here but folks remember if you have any gardening questions guys pop on to the builders facebook page remember you can message us we will answer them in fact i'm the one that answers them so get on to the builders facebook page also remember to go to our our youtube channel builders essay where you'll find a whole lot more clips where yours truly is teaching you about different things in gardening not only gardening but there's some really cool dry clips there as well and it's really important that you go back to those go back to them because for any you can click on whatever one you want also remember to go and visit the blog on the builders website because folks there there is loads of information all you've got to do is just click to it folks it's been an honor and a pleasure being with you this afternoon it really has thank you for the questions i hope that you have enjoyed your time with me get down to builders and get it done god bless you all and happy gardening