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LETS BRING BACK THE WILDLIFE – W Balcomb

Some Zinkwazi gardens can boast that in addition to their wealth of birdlife, porcupine, blue duiker, mongoose and tortoises live in the dense cover of the coastal bush. We don’t have to live along the privileged strip – the admiralty reserve to reap the rewards of having these small creatures in our gardens. It may be a little harder to create the desired protective habitat – but it is possible.
The following article was written by Nurseryman and plant expert, Geoff Nichols. I approached Geoff after the realisation that Zinkwazi residents are unlikely to remove from their gardens familiar plants which for years have provided colour, texture and most of all enjoyment. Any change involves effort, and unfamiliar challenges are uncomfortable. With the guidelines provided by Geoff in the article below, I feel confident that once the step is taken, our good climate will do the rest and it won’t be long to saying “I have a maintenance free garden and feel good that I have played a part in encouraging the return of wildlife to our gardens in Zinkwazi”

Geoff writes as follows:

This document is written in an attempt to remind owners and maintenance contractors of the need to enhance habitat value in your own gardens and those that contractors maintain on behalf of the absentee owners.

What the Zinkwazi Conservancy now would like to do is encourage owners to redirect the maintenance effort of their small gardens to a level that allows wildlife the best habitat they can have without impinging on your, the human, habitat.

To this end Wendy would like to ask that no raking of leaves be carried out on the planted sections of garden beds. It is not necessary to rake the soul out of the soil. The leaf “litter” is the compost that gets drawn into the soil by woodlice, earthworms and termites that then break down the leaves into the basic elements that are the nutrients that the plants need to grow. This vegetation in turn feeds and shelters the various forms of wildlife in Zinkwazi.
You really only have to sweep or rake the sealed surfaces like pathways, decks and driveways. The leaves swept up here should then be scattered on the surface of the soil under shrubs and trees on your property. The added leaf layer acts like blotting paper to prevent water runoff and the subsequent soil erosion.
In fact this layer of leaves is your natural compost heap. Instead of piling the leaves in a conventional heap or worse still placing the leaves into black plastic bags for removal to a municipal landfill site, please leave them to lie on top of the soil. This organic matter stays on your property and becomes nutrients for the plants and soil. This natural composting process saves homeowners many thousands of Rands annually because they do not have to purchase as much commercially produced pine bark based compost.

An invisible advantage to all this leaf litter and wood chippings is that the soil fungi that are essential for healthy forest plant growth are able to live and absorb as well as release nutrients in to the soil thus making these nutrients more readily available to the plants via their roots. These chippings are therefore natural inoculums for the soil especially in new gardens that are being installed on the depauperate soils of the abandoned canefields.

Finally with the added fungal activity there are more termites and other subsurface organisms that feed a very localised and increasingly rare Giant Legless Lizard.
A combination of compost mixed with wood chippings from the site and granular fertiliser on the Berea Red soils of Zinkwazi is a must especially on the new gardens that are being installed. The recommended rate of application for the Zinkwazi soils is 50grams/m2 of 5:1:5 (28) or 2:3:2 (22). We would also recommend an application of Dolomitic Lime at 150 grams/m2 on all new garden installations. For optimal plant growth it is recommended that fertiliser and compost be added twice a year in early spring around August and then in mid summer during December to gardens in high sunlight areas for the first 3 growing seasons after planting the rate here would be 30grams/m2 of 5:1:5 (28) or 2:3:2 (22). For lawn areas this application is done at the same frequency as above but for the life of the lawn.
During the winter months let the garden rest and no fertilising or excessive watering need be done at all.

It is not necessary to disturb the soil by digging it over if the leaves are left in place. The digging damages the surface roots of your plants and also weakens the plants.
Only dig the soil to remove weeds. Many of the so-called “weeds” in these natural plantings are actually local plants that are food plants for the various types of wildlife.

CHANGE OF PLANT SPECIES
The domestic plantings tend to be a simple palette that has very little soul due to the use of the same 10-20 species. No one is actually using anything different and the uniformity becomes boring. The plants are usually exotic and are providing little or no benefit to the local wildlife. This is the general situation at Zinkwazi where owners now use species that the Bushbuck, Blue duiker and other faunal elements do not browse, pollinate or collect nectar. This causes a knock on effect due to more homes being built the potential habitat decreases so forcing the same number of antelope and other wildlife to feed on less plant material but with less palatable species being planted the wildlife has less choice.

Plants both indigenous and exotic that should not be used in gardens

Rather use plants that will feed Bushbuck and other wildlife to maintain the forest understorey feel of your gardens.

The invasive plant species that are beginning to be problematic in that they are taking up space that could be growing habitat but more seriously they are invasive and are now escaping at Zinkwazi:

Goosefoot or Arrowhead Plant – Syngonium podophyllum
Artillery Plant – Pilea microphylla
Creeping Charlie – Pilea nummularifolia
Sedum sp.
Mondo – Grass Ophiopogon japonicus and all its varieties
Flax Lily – Dianella tasmanica Cultivar Variegata and Dianella tasmanica normal green
Lily Turf, Lilyturf, Monkey Grass – Liriope muscari
Sword Fern – Nephrolepis exaltata
Bromeliads various species
Striped Inch Plant – Tradescantia fluminensis
Green Inch Plant – Tradescantia zebrina
Inch Plant – Callisia elegans
Senna pendula in the estuary.

Rather use plants from this much more extensive and palatable list

Aeollanthus parvifolius
Aerva parviflora
Aneilema aequinoctiale
Aneilema dregeanum
Anthericum saundersii
Arctotheca prostrata
Asparagus densiflorus
Asparagus falcatus
Asparagus plumosus
Asparagus setosus
Asparagus virgatus
Asystasia gangetica
Barleria elegans
Barleria gueinzii
Barleria obtusa
Barleria prionitis
Barleria repens
Celosia trigyna
Chlorophytum bowkeri
Chlorophytum comosum
Chlorophytum comosum variegatum
Chlorophytum comosum variegatum reverse
Chlorophytum krookianum
Chrysanthemoides monilifera
Cineraria atriplicifolia
Coleotrype natalensis
Crocosmia aurea
Cyathula uncinulata
Deinbollia oblongifolia
Delosperma cooperi
Delosperma rogersii
Dicliptera clinopoda
Dicliptera heterostegia
Dimorphotheca fruticosa
Dracaena aletriformis
Drimiopsis maculata
Droguetia iners
Dyschoriste depressa
Dyschoriste rogersii
Helichrysum cymosum
Helichrysum panduratum
Helichrysum populifolium
Hibiscus pedunculatus
Hoslundia opposita
Hypoestes aristata
Hypoestes forskaolii
Ipomoea pes-capre
Isoglossa cooperi
Isoglossa woodii
Justicia betonica
Justicia campylostemon
Justicia capensis
Justicia flava
Justicia petiolaris
Justicia protracta
Laportea peduncularis
Leonotis dubia
Leonotis intermedia
Leonotis leonurus
Leucas lavandulifolia
Metarungia pubinervia
Microglossa mespilifolia
Microsorium punctatum
Microsorium scolopendrium
Ocimum reclinatum
Oplismenus hirtellus
Orthosiphon labiatus
Pelargonium capitatum
Peristrophe cernua
Phaulopsis imbricata
Plectranthus ciliatus
Plectranthus ecklonii three varieties purple, pink and white
Plectranthus fruticosus
Plectranthus hereroensis
Plectranthus lucidus
Plectranthus madagascariensis
Plectranthus madagascariensis var. “Lynne”
Plectranthus madagascariensis var. “Green variegation”
Plectranthus petiolaris
Plectranthus purpuratus subsp. tongaensis
Plectranthus saccatus subsp. saccatus
Plectranthus verticillatus
Plectranthus zuluensis
Polygala virgata
Pouzolzia mixta
Pseudechinolaena polystachya
Pseuderanthemum hildebrandtii
Pseuderanthemum subviscosum
Pupalia atropurpurea
Pupalia lappacea
Rhinacanthus gracilis two colour forms white and purple
Selaginella kraussiana
Setaria megaphylla
Stenochlaena tenuifolia
Tectaria gemmifera

There is also a need to select the most suitable plants for either sun, semi-shade and shade. Plus plants that will live under eaves where less rainfall and dew falls on the plants allowing pests like mealy bug to infest the plants.

Dune Plants
Aloe thraskii
Canavalia rosea
Carpobrotus dimidiatus
Chrysanthemoides monilifera
Gazania rigens
Ipomoea pes-capre
Tephrosia purpurea
Asparagus densiflorus
Aloe maculata
All the above need full sun. Not all creepers but are the best first line of defence.

Good shade plants for under Coast Red Milkwoods – Mimusops caffra are:

Dracaena aletriformis
Isoglossa woodii
Psychotria capensis
Droguetia iners
Plectranthus fruticosus
Plectranthus ecklonii
Plectranthus petiolaris

Wendy Balcomb sent me a photo taken by Don Futter of an acacia covered in a cob-web like substance. For those that have seen this in Goshawk Place, the substance is Moth caterpillar silk. The little moth is a pyralid moth Zith carnicolor…..If you have not seen it – take a look. The cure – none necessary – this is natural. Leave it alone !

Geoff Nichols.

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