“May you never lay your head down without a hand to hold, may you never make your bed out in the cold’, the beautiful words of John Martyn remind us that the seasons are changing and we all have challenges.
May always arrives with a huge golden burst of the magnificent Mexican sunflowers, which although they look wonderful and we can appreciate their beauty, don’t belong here as the name indicates. Because they are fast-growing and aggressive, and compete against our equally gorgeous indigenous plants, they really need elimination. Classified Category 1B: May not be owned, grown, moved, sold, given as a gift or dumped into waterways. Must be controlled and eliminated wherever possible.
Clearly local authorities and those responsible for this duty are not managing nor winning the battle. The scale of the infestation is ever-increasing and requires calm strategic management of available resources to remove (destroy on site?) and replace with the beautiful indigenous options like Tall March Senecio (Eng)/Inkanga (Zulu) which look similar, but don’t take over.
This plant features as our May indigenous gem in the The Green Net 2025 biodiversity calendar as a fine example of how we can substitute invaders with indigenous, and the reasoning behind the excellent information we share on each page. The last stock of calendars is on the shelves and we call on all concerned gardeners to grab a copy for only R50 from our various distributors. Although we might be halfway through the year, the information never goes stale and many people are filing the pages for future garden plans and planting seasons.
TGN will be in Shelly Beach at the Lutheran Plant and Garden Fair this Saturday with the last lot, or ask at: Pennington Conservancy, Pumula Superette, Folly Fields (Umzumbe), Locals and South Coast Garden Centre (Southport), Pickled Chicken’s Coop (Tweni), The Good Health Shop (St Mike’s), Froggy Pond (Uvongo), The Bloom Pot (Ramsgate), Southbroom Conservancy, Irie Market (Marina Beach), Secret Sithela and Munster Motor Museum, The Farm Stall (Port Edward), or Leopard Rock (Oribi).
We all need to take responsibility for what we grow in our gardens, what is on the pavements and in the parks, wherever we can help – this is a way for you to actively contribute to supporting local – people and plants.
“Oh please won’t you, and please won’t you bear it in mind, Love is a lesson to learn in our time…”
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