Random Harvest Newsletter Archive

Magical March…I can’t get enough of it!

I had an early morning meeting the other day and was a little too early.

I was so pleased to see the sun rising and glowing on the grasses on our order platform. An added bonus to the day.

Some of my favourite plants are in bloom in March, and there always seems to be a riot of butterflies everywhere.

My Nursery staff are having the most wonderful experience discovering the basics of Indigenous Garden Design under Bruce Steads very capable instruction.

It is gratifying to see how it comes through in their assistance of customers and also in their own tasks around the nursery.

Please read more under Events about the great course in Indigenous Garden Design that Bruce will be offering to our customers – starting on the 4th of April 2020.

Bruce is an ecological horticulturalist and garden designer who lectured for many years at Lifestyle College. He has graciously agreed to run a course here at Random Harvest Nursery for our customers.

He will start from the absolute basics (as he has done for my staff) and lead you through to creating a garden or gardens which are both beautiful and accommodate the needs of wildlife. He will also teach you how to interpret beautiful landscapes for your own garden.

These will be held on Saturday mornings from 9h00 to 12h00.
Dates: April 4th, 18th and 25th and May 2nd, 9th, 16th,23rd and 30th
Cost: R2500.00 for the full 8-day course.

You will complete the course just in time to spend a while designing your garden and be ready to go in spring to create your own peaceful haven.

Where: Random Harvest Indigenous Nursery
When: 10h30 to 12h00
Cost: Free of charge – we just ask you to please support the nursery and / or the tea garden while you are here.
What to Bring: A notebook, your questions on the topic, and a friend

Date: Wednesday 4th March 2019
Topic: Bee Friendly Garden Ideas - A discussion with Clem Smith
Join us for an informative discussion on the many ways in which one can encourage bees to get the most out of your garden…and as many reasons that bees are good for your garden. Includes a honey-tasting.

Date: Wednesday 1st April 2020

Topic: Creating Cameos in your Garden.
How often do we see only a small portion of the garden out of a window, through a gate, from on the driveway, or in your courtyard?

We’ll discuss how to make these views picture perfect cameos, that inspire and lift your spirits every time you catch a glimpse of them in your everyday lives.

Bruce Stead who has been teaching indigenous garden design at Lifestyle College will be sharing his ideas with us.

I for one can’t wait to hear some of his amazing ideas that he is willing to share with us.

Why not join us on our next bird watching walk at Random Harvest? On our last walk, held in February, we saw 57 species, almost a third of our total bird count. Next bird walk details as follows:
Saturday, 14th March 2020 – Andre Marx
Start time: 6h30 for 7h00 sharp.

Saturday, 18th April 2020 – Lance Robinson
Start time: 7h00 for 7h30 sharp

Cost: R165 per person, including a great buffet breakfast after the walk
Bookings: (Essential) Contact Paul on 082 553 0598 or Ashley on [email protected] - Bookings cannot be made on our website – please use the details listed here.
Take a walk through the various vegetation patches of Random Harvest. The diversity of habitat increases the chances of seeing some of the 166 bird species spotted here. A bird list is supplied.

Friday, 13 March, 2020 & Thursdsay 3rd April - Domestic Gardener Training (08h30 – 15h45) (Note: April training has moved to Thursday to accommodate the Autumn Garden Show at Doonholm Nursery)

Give your gardener the gift of knowledge! This course is designed for the gardener at any skills level who works in the domestic, landscaping and commercial environment, to enhance their gardening skills with emphasis on sustainable gardening practice. Most languages are catered for on the day. A truly uplifting course! Breakfast and lunch included.

Sagewood is our featured, self-catering, 4-star cottage for the month of March. From the carport adjacent to the cottage, to the cheerful lounge and pretty bedroom, guests love this cottage. It’s full of country charm, yet has the convenience of a work table with a view and free WiFi. All cottages are serviced daily, and fresh milk, tea, coffee and rusks are provided. For more information, please have a look at our (Hyperlink website) or call Paul on 072 562 3396 or email him on [email protected].

Namaqualand Daisies should be planted in the second half of March, and into April. Make sure you prepare the beds well prior to sowing seed.

Mix a good dose of compost into the soil and ensure that the soil is well drained and fairly light.

Scatter the seeds and then cover them with about 2cm of soil.

After raking the soil lightly, water well.

Nymphaea nouchali – the deciduous Blue Waterlily has rounded floating leaves and beautiful, sky-blue through to pale- lilac or pink flowers with masses of yellow stamens in the centre.

As it is a submerged plant, its roots need to be at least 25cm below water.

Grows in light semi-shade or sun and is a wonderful addition to a pond or potted water garden, in a large pot.

Nymphoides indica - abundant, small, fluffy, yellow flowers at the edge of each leaf make the Yellow Waterlily irresistible to anyone who has a water garden or pond of some sort.

It thrives even in fairly small ponds, so is extremely rewarding.

Impatiens hochstetterii - Mauve Impatiens is a beautiful, soft, mounding plant for those difficult shady areas.

It also makes a lovely container plant for semi-shade.

It has attractive, glossy leaves with pinkish petioles and bears masses of pretty, small, solitary, mauve to pink flowers from Oct. to Apr.

It does not tolerate drought.

Aspilia mossambicensis - Wild Sunflower looks great when used in a mixed, colourful border or to create pretty, floriferous containers.

Can tolerate light frost and drought.

Prune regularly to keep tidy and promote flowering.

Plant in compost-rich soil, in full sun or semi-shade.

Attracts butterflies and tiny pollinating insects to the garden.

Asparagus densiflorus ‘Myersii’ - Foxtail Fern is a neat form plant that can be used as a focal point in the garden.

Makes a good container plant and is particularly beautiful growing gracefully over pond edges.

Grows well in light shade or semi-shade It is also a plant with many medicinal and traditional uses.

Crassula expansa fragilis - Striped Fragile Crassula is an ornamental green, spreading succulent ground-cover that looks great in rockeries as well as making a lovely container plant.

It is drought resistant and will grow in sun but prefers light shade to look its best.

Warburgia salutaris – The beautiful, small to medium sized Pepperbark Tree makes a great evergreen feature tree for the garden.

It grows exceptionally well in containers.

It is highly endangered due to the over harvesting of the beautiful bark, which is collected for medicinal purposes.

Leonotis cf. leonurus ‘Simba’ - Lion’s Ear is a smaller version of the original Wild Dagga, reaching only about 60cm in height.

It is an important food and nectar plant for Sunbirds, bees and butterflies during autumn and winter. It also makes a great container plant and smaller shrub for the garden.

The beautiful, velvety, tawny, yellow-orange flowers are repeated in circles up the length of every long stalk, mostly in autumn, however, ‘Simba’ is known for having flushes out of season.

This is a plant for full sun, in well-drained soil.

Eumorphia prostrata - Silver Cloud adds wonderful contrast and texture to the sunny garden with its evergreen, mounding, silvery grey foliage. Use it in a rockery or a sloped flower bed, and combine with strong, bold textures such as stemmed Aloes (e. g. Aloe marlothii, Aloe ferox, Aloe castanea), Strelitzias or the like.

Aloe cooperi - Cooper’s Aloe is a lovely garden plant and a beautiful addition to a grassland or marsh area.

This very hardy, stemless Aloe has beautifully ornamental leaves and spikes of apricot or yellow, tubular flowers that attract nectar-feeding birds such as Sunbirds and White-eyes.

ALL COLOURS Tecoma [=Tecomaria] capensis - Cape-honeysuckle
This hardy, evergreen, fast-growing, colourful, rambling shrub has attractive, bright-green foliage. The beautiful, large spikes of funnel-shaped orange, yellow, red or tangerine flowers attract Sunbirds, other nectar feeding birds, bees and butterflies to the garden. Cape Honeysuckle also has many traditional uses. This plant can be trained into a standard, used as a screening plant, clipped into a formal hedge or simply used as a beautiful shrub. If pruned to the size required, this essentially large shrub can be used in a small garden.

The Egyptian geese also have 3 babies on the dam and we have seen the Malachite Kingfisher.

It is the first time we have had Aloe reitzii (Reitz’s Aloe) blooming in the nursery.

It has incredibly long spikes of flowers that are breath-taking. An added bonus is that it is very frost hardy.

It is the beginning of the Aloe season as the Aloe fosteri (Foster’s Aloe) are also budding.

I am looking forward to this as the birds and insects just flock to the flowers.

One of my Mom's sought-after cottages at Random Harvest has just come up for letting. It is a well-maintained, beautiful big, 2 bedroomed home, with a carport, outside store room and its own little garden. Security is excellent, with night patrols and a gate guard.

Would suit quiet living, nature loving person / people with no pets. (We have dogs that accompany our security and for this reason we cannot allow pets).
For more information and to view the cottage, please contact David on 072 562 3396.

I just had to finish the newsletter with a close-up of the grasses I saw in the early morning sun.

I was so taken with their beauty.

Lucky me to have these moments in my life.