The West Wind Issue 15

Gardening for Biodiversity BY RICHARD COWLING

"When my wife Shirley and I are forced to move to a vrekplek, our home will likely be bought by folk with little interest in weirdo gardening, and kikyu lawn will probably prevail again."

As of writing this article, I am nurturing about 185 species of indigenous plants in my garden at Cape St Francis, a stone’s throw from the beach front.

I say “about” because, in the few hundred square meters of erf that is available for horticulture, species come and go.

Such a concentration of species in such a small area is unlikely to be found in the wild, even in our species-rich fynbos vegetation. It is difficult to sustain populations of all of these species in such a small area.

THE GARDENER MUST DEAL CONSTANTLY WITH A FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF ECOLOGY, NAMELY PLANT COMPETITION FOR LIGHT, MOISTURE AND NUTRIENTS.

What this boils down to is pruning, cutting, slicing and removing foliage to enable smaller plants to persist in the face of larger ones. Maintaining biodiversity is hard work.

NINE SPECIES IN MY GARDEN ARE CLASSIFIED AS RED DATA BOOK SPECIES, WHICH MEANS THEY ARE THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION.

These include: Kouga Cliff Lily (Cyrtanthus flammosus) Albany Dune African Daisy (Arctotis elongata) St Francis Dune Heath (Erica chloroloma), and a vygie new to science (Delosperma sp.) that is only known from one locality north of Humansdorp.

All the threatened species in my garden were grown from seeds or cuttings.

LIKE ALL THE OTHER SPECIES I AM GROWING, THE FUTURE OF THESE RARE PLANTS IS UNCERTAIN.

When my wife Shirley and I are forced to move to a vrekplek, our home will likely be bought by folk with little interest in weirdo gardening, and kikyu lawn will probably prevail again. Living as we do in the Greater St Francis area, surrounded by nature reserves, many local indigenous plants establish spontaneously in our gardens. Two of the many welcome invaders, namely Christmas Berry (Chironia baccifera) and Poison-Bulb (Boophone disticha).

Gardening for biodiversity is great fun, especially in our year-round rainfall climate where it is possible to cultivate species typical of the summer-rainfall, subtropical coast to the east and the winter-rainfall, Cape coast to the west. It is even possible to create a patch of Namaqualand in spring by scattering in autumn a seed mix of Bokbaai Vygie (Cleretum bellidiforme) and Rain Daisy (Dimorphotheca pluvialis).

SO WHY NOT CONSIDER REPLACING THAT SOULLESS EXPANSE OF LAWN AND BRING SOME BIODIVERSITY INTO YOUR GARDEN. YOU WILL BE AMAZED AT THE DIVERSITY OF WILDLIFE – BIRDS, RODENTS AND INSECTS – AN INDIGENOUS GARDEN ATTRACTS.

And besides, gardening is a Zen activity: slow, contemplative and nurturing. An ideal activity for these tempestuous times.