Sustainable gardening tips for eco-friendly spaces
Composting, mulching and the case against taking green waste off site at all.
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Journal
Notes from the round
What we have learned keeping four hundred Accra gardens, written up by the people who did the keeping.
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Accra has two planting windows and most gardens use neither of them properly. The major rains from April, and the shorter ones from September, are when anything woody wants to go in — a shrub planted in February is being asked to establish a root system in the hardest eight weeks of the year, and it will spend the first season merely surviving.
Before the rains: hedging, trees, anything you want to be permanent. Frangipani, ixora, hibiscus and bougainvillea all take beautifully in the first fortnight of April. Prepare the hole a week ahead, water it once, and let the ground settle before the plant goes in.
After the rains have settled: bedding, herbs, and anything you intend to lift again. Seedlings put out into three days of heavy rain drown as often as they thrive; two weeks into the season the ground is warm, wet and stable, and losses drop to almost nothing.
The one thing that matters more than timing is mulch. Three inches of it holds moisture through harmattan, keeps the weeds down and feeds the soil as it breaks up. We mulch every bed we plant, and it is the reason our replanting rate is as low as it is.
More from the journal
Written by the people doing the work
Watering a lawn properly, and why most people do not
Less often and much deeper — the single change that fixes most tired lawns in Accra.
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The garden year
What to do, and when
The five notes we send clients each year, printed here in full. Use them whether or not you ever ring us.
January
Harmattan. Water deeply twice a week rather than lightly every evening, and do not feed anything — a fed lawn with no water in it scorches.
April
The major rains. Everything woody goes in now. First feed of the year, first scarify, and the cut moves to fortnightly.
July
Peak growth and peak weeds. Mulch every bed you can reach; three inches now saves a month of hand-weeding later in the year.
September
Minor rains. Second planting window, second feed, and the last good chance to lay turf before the ground dries out.
November
Pruning month. Cut back the things that flowered, leave the ones about to. Gutters and drains cleared before the dust arrives.
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