Botanical Society News

National Gardens Competition keeps on Growing

Increasing awareness of the need to conserve earth's precious resources and help create a green environment within communities has seen the Pam Golding Properties / Home Loans from ABSA Gardens of Pride competition - held under the auspices of the SA National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) - catch the imagination of South African consumers across all walks of life. The use of indigenous plants and waterwise gardening methods play a key role in the competition, which also seeks to create awareness of the fact that an appealing and well-maintained garden adds value to a property.

Now in its fourth year, this popular national competition includes for the first time a corporate category for businesses, body corporates and sectional title complexes, and in addition, in the Eastern Cape region, the area of Graaff-Reinet in the Karoo is also included.

The categories for the 2006/ 2007 competition, which offers prizes to the value of R150 000, Botanical Society of South Africa membership, and an all expenses paid trip for two to the 2007 Chelsea Flower Show in London (held in May) for the national winner, are as follows:

• Private homes with gardens (ie erf size) smaller than 800sqm - minimum of 60 percent indigenous plant content required

• Private homes with gardens (erf size) larger than 800sqm - minimum of 60 percent indigenous plant content required

• Individual or community township gardens - minimum of 40 percent indigenous plant content required, due to the harsh and challenging conditions experienced in these areas

• Corporate gardens ie business, homeowners' associations as well as body corporates of sectional title complexes - minimum of 60 percent indigenous plant content required

• Schools category, open to schools in the Western Cape and Gauteng which are involved in SANBI's Outreach Greening Programme.

The competition is held in four regions around South Africa, namely:

• Western Cape (Cape Town metropolitan area), with the competition running from 1 July till 30 September 2006, and with regional judging taking place in October 2006

• Eastern Cape (Port Elizabeth, East London, Grahamstown and Graaff-Reinet areas, within a 100km radius, and running from 1 July till 30 September 2006 and with regional judging taking place in October 2006

• Gauteng (Johannesburg and Pretoria areas, within a 100km radius), running from 1 November 2006 till 31 January 2007 and with regional judging in February 2007

• KwaZulu-Natal (Durban, Pietermarizburg and KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, within a 100km radius), also running from 1 November 2006 till 31 January 2007 and with regional judging in February 2007.

The national judging will take place during March 2007. Entry forms, which are available through Pam Golding Properties offices in these areas or from Collette van Aswegen of SANBI (details below) require a description of the garden, motivation of what makes it special, explanation of how its current design, content and beauty has been achieved, and description of what role indigenous plants play in the garden.

For further information call Collette van Aswegen at SANBI on 021 7998756. For further information on the use of indigenous plants and water-wise gardening visit www.plantzafrica.com.

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Growing grass roots

This is the title of the article on the Botanical Society of South Africa published in the Greening the Future supplement of the Mail & Guardian on 3 June 2005. Mail and Gardian Article by Yolandi Groenewald (Adobe pdf, MB).

The submission of the Botanical Society is contained in the document, Mainstreaming Biodiversity that is included as a supplement to the June 2005 issue of Veld & Flora.

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