The Gardener Magazine

The Gardener is a monthly, national magazine dedicated to inspiring gardeners, providing practical advice and showing step-by-step garden projects. Our monthly features include garden design, in-depth plant features, growing vegetables and herbs, water gardening, garden wildlife and pets, specialist plant articles and much more. We have an extensive database on our website that is growing daily.

Welcome

Subscribe and win! • Stand a chance to win a voucher from Plantland to spend at their online store Value R2500 AND a gardening hamper of premium garden tools!

FRESH PICKS AND CLIPS

Ask the team

TAKE YOUR pick! • Some great gift ideas for your loved ones this holiday season.

COVER STORIES

A garden of discovery • At Farm Lorraine in Franschhoek, clipped hedges, productive vegetable beds, orchards, roses, a woodland and water come together in a formal garden that feels anything but formal. It is a peaceful, productive landscape designed as much for exploring as admiring.

A grassland reborn: ONE STEP AT A TIME • Dawn Booth is passionate about restoring grasslands, particularly the gem she has discovered in her own back garden.

Small gardens, BIG IMPACT • Designing spaces that feel larger than life.

Leave the mowing to the Husqvarna • As the growing season gathers pace, the lawn starts asking more of you than anything else in the garden.

WHAT TO PLANT NOW

SURFING Safari • Like the motion of the tide, the petals of the new ‘Surfing Safari’ range of hydrangeas are wavy shapes – something very unique in hybrid hydrangeas.

Rush to plant restios • One does not rush off to a nursery to specifically buy a restio, but becomes enthralled by the rush-like looks, the soft feel when brushing a hand over them while visualising the effect it will have in a landscape or container, and then it’s a done deal!

A South African spin on Plumeria • Few plants evoke the relaxed, sun-drenched spirit of summer quite like the frangipani (Plumeria). With their intoxicating evening fragrance, waxy petals, and architectural winter silhouettes, frangipanis have earned a cherished spot in landscapes across the globe.

Bidens rules in summer • It’s time to bring home those strong pops of instant colour that give garden beds and containers the real summery look, and if the happy faces of bidens (beggarticks) have caught your eye (as they will!), invest in all the lovely varieties with their great staying power!

Bougainvilleas are chromatic intensity! • You cannot out-breed the natural climbing and rambling traits of a bougainvillea, but you can breed in a more compact growth habit with shorter side stems without forfeiting the sheer scale of flowering!

SUMMER’S showstoppers • November and December are prime time for filling beds, borders and pots with annuals that thrive in the heat. These four sun-lovers will carry colour right through to autumn if you give them what they need.

YOUR ORCHID QUESTIONS Answered • Orchids have a way of making people nervous. They arrive looking spectacular, then the flowers drop, and there’s a mild panic. Is it dead? The truth is, orchids are far tougher than they look. Here are the three questions that come up most.

Endlessness and Elegance • If the words floriferous, fragrant and favourite come to mind, you are probably dreaming of hydrangeas and lavender. Have you planted them yet?

Reimagining poinsettias • Known as the quintessential holiday houseplants, poinsettias are often treated as disposable. We buy them to decorate our homes in December, and forget about them in January. They often end up on the compost heap by mid-summer if they’re lucky, or worse, in the bin.

Colourful COLEUS • There are only a handful of...