Seeing my plants blossom takes away the day’s stress
Feb 17, 2006
HAVING a garden or compound with grass and trees growing is more valuable than most people imagine. It is therapy in its own way, as their well-doing takes away one’s stress, says Betty Mayanja, an exterior and interior designer.
By Harriet Birungi
HAVING a garden or compound with grass and trees growing is more valuable than most people imagine. It is therapy in its own way, as their well-doing takes away one’s stress, says Betty Mayanja, an exterior and interior designer and a director of a firm, Plants for Africa.
“To me a garden is therapy after a hectic day. Seeing my plants blossom and grass grow and breathing in fresh air takes away the day’s stress. Coupled with how good the plants are doing, how peaceful and relaxing they are, gives me reason to do more and thus a love relationship when tending them,†reveals Mayanja.
As a way of ensuring that there is proper growth, plants whose root system is tap, should be grown on perimeters of the compound or garden, so that they do not compete with the fibrous-rooted ones in nutrients, by the fact that they are in position to penetrate deeper in search for nutrients.
Alternatively, one can plant such plants by placing them in a drum and later bury in the soil so that their root system and damage to houses is controlled. This, enhanced by using scissors to prune in the rainy season where it doesn’t hurt much, can keep the trees in shape.
Mayanja says, to ensure harmonious plant growth, those that are meant to give off a shade, she planted in perimeters so that the short ones and more so the grass, can grow without interruption and can have an equal share of the sun rays, for better growth. This, has kept the ground cover plants and other short plants green and growing throughout the year.
While watering is inevitable for the plants to survive, especially in the dry season, doing it once every day has proved so effective for her nursery bed and compound. This she does in the evening so that plants can use up the water and be in position to make food the following day.
To limit weeding, using ground cover plants is the most effective way to go. The ground covers prevent weeds from coming up and yet control soil erosion. If grass is used as the ground cover, one can trim twice in a wet month and supplement with urea to give it a thick body and strength. In a dry season, one needs to trim not more than once.
And for pest control, dasban spray has done wonders for Mayanja.
“It is a broad-spectrum pesticide, which kills a number of pests. It is good to spray once every week to prevent re-attacks.
For best results, it is good to mix the pesticide with rapid grow which is a vitamin meant to enhance plant growth by increasing water in-take.
And where mulching is not easily possible, after applying black soil, cow dung and wood dust, one should apply charcoal dust to help keep the plant roots cool as charcoal stores water.
HAVING a garden or compound with grass and trees growing is more valuable than most people imagine. It is therapy in its own way, as their well-doing takes away one’s stress, says Betty Mayanja, an exterior and interior designer and a director of a firm, Plants for Africa.
“To me a garden is therapy after a hectic day. Seeing my plants blossom and grass grow and breathing in fresh air takes away the day’s stress. Coupled with how good the plants are doing, how peaceful and relaxing they are, gives me reason to do more and thus a love relationship when tending them,†reveals Mayanja.
As a way of ensuring that there is proper growth, plants whose root system is tap, should be grown on perimeters of the compound or garden, so that they do not compete with the fibrous-rooted ones in nutrients, by the fact that they are in position to penetrate deeper in search for nutrients.
Alternatively, one can plant such plants by placing them in a drum and later bury in the soil so that their root system and damage to houses is controlled. This, enhanced by using scissors to prune in the rainy season where it doesn’t hurt much, can keep the trees in shape.
Mayanja says, to ensure harmonious plant growth, those that are meant to give off a shade, she planted in perimeters so that the short ones and more so the grass, can grow without interruption and can have an equal share of the sun rays, for better growth. This, has kept the ground cover plants and other short plants green and growing throughout the year.
While watering is inevitable for the plants to survive, especially in the dry season, doing it once every day has proved so effective for her nursery bed and compound. This she does in the evening so that plants can use up the water and be in position to make food the following day.
To limit weeding, using ground cover plants is the most effective way to go. The ground covers prevent weeds from coming up and yet control soil erosion. If grass is used as the ground cover, one can trim twice in a wet month and supplement with urea to give it a thick body and strength. In a dry season, one needs to trim not more than once.
And for pest control, dasban spray has done wonders for Mayanja.
“It is a broad-spectrum pesticide, which kills a number of pests. It is good to spray once every week to prevent re-attacks.
For best results, it is good to mix the pesticide with rapid grow which is a vitamin meant to enhance plant growth by increasing water in-take.
And where mulching is not easily possible, after applying black soil, cow dung and wood dust, one should apply charcoal dust to help keep the plant roots cool as charcoal stores water.