New Clubview post office garden

As I drove down Lyttleton road past the post office I was often saddened at the lack of care of the building and it's surrounding area. One day as I was driving by, I noticed that there were a few plants that had been planted by one of the neighbours who felt the same as I did and I decided that I was going to take this idea and expand on it. 

I have an indigenous garden and as all gardeners know, once your garden is established, your plants multiply and you are only too glad to give them away to other enthusiastic gardeners starting out, or create a nursery, as my son did to earn pocket money. I have used these plants from his nursery as part of my community charity and allocated these plants to the Clubview post office as well as the other gardening projects I have been involved in. 

Towards the end of  2020 I got together with some other like-minded gardeners to beautify the island on the corner of Martha and Vd Merwe Str in Eldoraigne. It has been a great project and every first Saturday of the month we get together to weed the flowerbeds. Other projects have been set up since this first project in Eldoraigne and I believe this motivates other neighbours in the area to firstly look at their own gardens and make them more aesthetically pleasing and secondly to look at other areas that need a helping hand.

The Clubview post office has been a great way to continue my gardening. My garden no longer needs constant attention and very seldom needs to be weeded, as my compost keeps the weeds at bay. So I can allocate my gardener to help dig and plant my community projects on his days here. 

(If you wondered what the magic was behind keeping weeds at bay) I have a very large compost heap. All my grass cutting, cutting of plants and horse manure that one of my patients pays me in, all go into the compost  heap. Kitchen vegetable cuttings can also go into the compost heap and once it has broken down into wonderful black nutritious compost, you will then lay it in your flower beds and over your grass in a thin layer of mulch. Do not turn it over into the ground, as the worms will automatically do this for you and you do not disturb the natural goggas in the ground in the first 30 cm of soil. Doing this twice a year, in Autumn and Spring protects your flowers from getting too dry in summer and from the frost in winter. You don't need to water as regularly and your plants grow bigger and better. It is also much easier to weed when you do have the stray weed that grows.

I have used many bags of compost at the Clubview post office for the above reasons. If one had to hire a landscapist to do what has been done at the Clubview post office you would probably have paid about R50 000.

Imagine as you drive down Lyttleton road in Sping. The Wisteria trees on the pavement are all in bloom and the little purple carpet of Veggies too. Further along the pavement you have all year round yellow veggies blooming and the birds and the bees are all flocking to this oasis for food and shelter. Inside the property along the driveway, you have a row of Huilboom trees with beautiful yellow flowers and at their feet, slime lily with long white stems of flowers and pink geraniums all in full bloom with a red veggie combined with little purple veld flowers. 

Around the Post office we have red and white little flowers on the Salvias with Pink Salie, Pom-Pom tree and yellow bulbines with indigenous grasses all swaying in the wind and covered with bees. In the winter we have the aloes and succulents in full bloom towards the back of the post office and opposite them a row of Pom-Pom trees with pretty little pink flowers and at their feet a row of Dietes grandiflora with their pretty white flowers when it rains. These are all the flowers and flower beds i have managed to plant during this rainy season. 

In August or when the next rains start, i will start the next season of digging and planting to continue with this wonderful haven for our wildlife. Not only do we benefit from this beauty but it is good for the environment as it improves our oxygen levels here and helps all in the area.  There are even some tomatoes that have come up from the compost and I will be planting a fig tree and some yellow canary creeper to add variety of plants and more flowers that flower at different times of the season. 

I have managed to plant 23 trees and a large variety of different plants.