🌼 Grow Some Sunshine in Your Garden! 🌼
☀️ Brighten Your Garden with Rudbeckias
For a feel-good, vibrant garden you can’t beat Rudbekias! There is quite a choice of varieties and most flower from midsummer until Autumn, attracting butterflies to the colourful blooms. During late Autumn they develop large, cone-shaped heads packed with seeds, which the birds love feasting on and it provides a valuable food source for them.
Among the most popular varieties is Black-eyed Susan, with its gorgeous shades of lemon-yellow, orange and bronze daisy-like blooms, which have a black, velvety centre. Rudbekias are low-maintenance, perennial, easy-to-grow plants that thrive in well-drained soil in a sunny position.
🌼 Marigolds – Colourful Companions
Another plant that brings a blaze of summer sunshine to a border is the Marigold. Often used for companion planting to help deter pests from both flowering and vegetable plants, they are also very effective heat- and drought-tolerant plants.
The two most common types of Marigold available are the French Marigold and the African Marigold. Both are annuals with orange and yellow flowers, with the dwarf variety of French Marigold producing the most blooms. The African Marigold, however, is more robust but has fewer flowers.
Generally the dwarf variety is more popular, and the colours range from primrose yellow to deep orange. Marigolds love the sun and will thrive in well-drained soil at the front of flower borders. Pinching back the stems of the Marigold when planting will encourage a bushy plant.
🌞 South Africa’s Sunshine Flower – Gazanias
Native to South Africa, the eye-catching Gazania is loved for its large, vibrant blooms. This drought-tolerant perennial flowers continuously when spent blooms are regularly removed and is a magnet for bees and other pollinating insects attracted to its vivid colours.
Available in shades of orange, yellow, white and bronze, Gazanias perform best in free-draining soil enriched with organic compost, rewarding you with months of spectacular colour.
Village Gardens is an established landscaping and garden design company in Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs, creating beautiful outdoor spaces that balance aesthetics, practicality and environmental sustainability.
Their expertise includes water-wise landscapes, indigenous gardens, edible gardens and outdoor spaces designed to attract and support local wildlife.