Weeds are
friends not foes. A weed is simply a plant that, according to us, is not
growing where it belongs. We are so very wrong about this. Go and look at those
“weeds” growing in your pathways; they will more than likely have long and deep
roots, that means they grow in hard soil to oxygenate and loosen. Where soil is
to loose and busy eroding, you will find the opposite, you will find plants
with bushy shallow roots, these roots “fill in/holds together” the soil over a
period of time.
In nature
plants grow at the right place at the right time, the professionals (the ones
with Degrees etc) call these pioneer plants and left to their own devices they
will totally restore the soil.
Stinging Nettle (this
photo was taken at KD)
Stinging
nettle, for example, have an extensive root system, (Fibrous roots) sometimes spreading up to
several meters, trying to hold the soil together, this plants also have
medicinal value – there are various claims, but it does seem to work rather
well against arthritis. You make a tea
from the leaves and drink this, the plant also completely looses the sting once
in is cooked and the leaves are edible. Always have some Bulbine growing in
your garden as well; when you get stung by the nettle, just break some Bulbine
and rub it on, it takes the sting away.
Bulbine
Kakibos
Then there is
Kakibos (Khaki Weed), this stuff grows fast and everywhere, but they are also
high enough to form a windbreak and provide some shade for your plants and they
makes an excellent natural anti insect potion.
You use the whole plant, just not the roots. Throw the plant material in
a container with a lid you can close. Fill the container with water and let the
lot rot for about a month or until you can smell it. Normally people strain
this (to get rid of the small bits of plant material, otherwise they block the
nozzle on the sprayer) and then it gets sprayed onto plants against pests like
grasshoppers, aphids and more… I find
that soaking the soil around the plants also help, so I mostly just take a
bucket and drench the soil. There is a rather interesting story behind how
Kakibos got its name –
During the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) the
British wore Khaki uniforms, having abandoned their bright red uniforms after
the Boers gave them such a hiding during the First Anglo-Boer War (1880-1881).
They thus become known as the Khakis.
The British brought their horses to South Africa. On paper,
these horses were superior to the Boer ponies - but they required supplemental
feeding. The fodder was procured in Argentina and shipped to South Africa. It
contained the seeds of tagetes minuta, a member of the marigold family, though
it does not produce the showy flowers. Soon is was well-established throughout
South Africa in the areas that saw action during the war. It was named khakibos
(Afrikaans) after the khaki-clad soldiers who brought it. In English it is
known as Khaki Bush or Khaki Weed.
So, before
you pull out that weed, think again. I suggest you leave the ones growing
around the beds and in the pathways, only remove the ones in between your
plants. Here the mulch also works well as prevention, seeing that the mulch
blocks the sun, you are less likely to have weeds in between your plants in the
first place.
It is
obviously necessary to thin them out where needed and if things really get too
much, cut their flowers, before they seed, that way there are no new seeds to
spread and make millions of new plants. The same, the cut the flowers before
they seed, applies to any plant that gets out of hand.
The new beds
in the garden are filling up as fast as we can make them. We ran into a bit of
a problem with the water, there are 5 taps, but only one and a half working
hose pipes and seeing that we are planting more, we were just not keeping up anymore.
This problem is now sorted and planting can continue…
Let me share
the following before I forget….
Walking up to
the garden the other morning and look who comes from the other side….
Cheetah enters the road just in front of me
Eyeballing me from less than 20 meters away... to eat or not to eat....
Lucky me, according to
Riaan he (Cheetah) was already very full, he went for a lie-down a little further down the road
This was a very exciting and very scary moment all at the same time, it never really looked like it was feeling like attacking, but this is one of the (it not the) fastest land animal, if it decides to charge from that close you have no chance! I must also add that there is not a single documented case of a Cheetah attacking a fully grown human.
