Hillary Mauve

Plumstead’s Khanyisa schoolis a finalist in a national contest, writes Jeanne Viall

sustainability and self-sufficiency.”

Plans are for bamboo to be grown for stakes and for making furniture in the wood workshop. There’s a hole that’s a pond waiting to happen, to bring in frogs and explore aquaculture. A worm farm is planned.

Khanyisa was given money by EduPlant for tools, compost and a sand mix. “They’ve been inspirational. Without support we wouldn’t be near where we are. They asked me to enter few years ago, but I didn’t think we were there yet.”

EduPlant has been operating for 19 years across SA, and is funded by Absa, Engen and the Woolworths Trust, who have committed R12 million to EduPlant over three years since 2009. The winning school will be announced on Thursday.

WILD flower displays along the West Coast this spring seem to have been the best in years.

Nearer to home, the keurtjies lining the Ou Kaapse Weg this month, appeared almost as showy and proliferous. Our good rains in winter have paid off. The keurtjie, or sweet pea bush ( Podalyriacalyptrata) is a valuable shrub for the indigenous, fynbos garden. It is sweetly scented, fast-growing, and with its mauve blooms and silvery foliage, very decorative. Like most fynbos plants it is happiest in well-drained, composted, acidic soil. Plant it as a backdrop to the garden bed, or along a boundary, for it can reach three metres in height.

A smaller version of the keurtjie is the silky podalyria ( Psericea), which has smaller, almost insignificant flowers, but it, too, is an asset in the garden as its silvery foliage makes a fine contrast to greenery. Its ripe seed pods open with a loud snap when watered.

This is a neat little shrub, seldom reaching more than half a metre in height, so is ideal for the smaller garden.

My blue-mauve wisteria, with its glorious, pendant clusters of flowers, has been blooming for about a month already, while its paler companion alongside is only just beginning to awaken