Simple Landscape

If an Englishman’s home is his castle, then his lawn is something very precious indeed. I’d imagine that a lawn equivalent that you actually keep in a castle would have to be something like a virginal damsel with one of those pointy hats. Hence you wouldn’t want the local riff raff getting their grubby mitts on either your fair maiden or your closely, cropped turf.

Stretching this tenuous metaphor to it’s very limit is the only way I can explain why some people choose to ‘protect’ the verge outside their house with big white rocks. They are the crenellated, outer bailey wall of today’s semi-detached, dorma bungalow. I hate them.





I took these photo’s whilst on a site visit to a plot adjacent to this narrow drive (generally the less said the better). The problem being that it was so narrow that you couldn’t stop without blocking access to the rest of it. Shame you can’t park up on the verge…

First of all I think this looks a mess. But I also think it’s laying claim to something that is owned by everyone and not just yourself, i.e. the highway verge. It’s akin to people leaving nasty notes on your car when you park outside their, and I’m pleased to hear that some Councils are starting to take action against it.

Our gardens tell us a lot about ourselves - they often are a reflection of our personality - they reveal our tastes, needs, likes, passions, etc. - but they also sometimes show what we obsess about, what irritates us, and our crazy need to control everything around us.

My guess is that the state of our gardens are probably a good measure of our fragile grip on reality!

Lawns are a perfect example of this - if our lawn is perfect, we console ourselves with the fantasy that we at least have control over some small corner of the universe. And maybe in the uneasy state that is the worlds economy, we need to believe we have some control over the universe - as deluded as that may be.

So now that white ant season has hit Durban again, I have a lot more sympathy for the "perfect lawn obsession" that results in the flurry of calls from panicking garden owners asking what can be done to save their lawns from these little "evil" creatures.

There are several ways to deal with termites eating your grass or plants - some more effective than others, but the first step (as in the financial world) is not to panic.

But to deal with them properly its best to understand why they are there...

Most often, they are looking for food. If your lawn has just been laid or recently composted, you may notice an increase in the occurrence of termites. They are present because they have found a new source of food.

They generally also become more noticeable around this time of year, because they are preparing for reproduction and swarming.

I am not a big fan of chemicals, unless the situation is incredibly serious. In most cases applying insecticides is an all-round bad idea - it kills most of the beneficial creatures that live in your soil, and the effects are extremely short-term. They may also make the situation worse in the long term.

The presence of termites is usually easily seen by the fact that the grass starts to look sparse, and small sandy tunnels form above the surface of the soil, or on plants or trees. Make sure that you dont leave anything lying flat on the grass over-night, as the next morning you will usually find the area underneath completely eaten.

Ive found that the best way to deal with them, is to disturb these tunnels whenever they are visible, by using the back of a rake, or better yet, give the areas a good spray with water. They usually dont like too much disturbance, and often will move on.

Gardening - as in life, is all about cycles. Sometimes the only control that we can exert is by being patient, doing the basics, and waiting these negative cycles out. Every now and then though, if we look carefully enough, we can find something positive that can be taken out of these crises. Termites are an essential part of the ecosystem - they create habitats, provide food, and make certain nutrients available. The nests also often help the soils absorption of water.