DID YOU KNOW: You can improve your garden’s water retention ability by adding compost? Compost holds water in sandy soil, helps aeration and retention in high clay soil and provides valuable nutrients for the plants.

KITCHEN GARDEN
Having fresh herbs available in your kitchen is as easy as it is luxurious. Give a potted herb garden starter pack as a gift this year. Here’s a list of great herbs to start with:
Sweet Basil: one of the most popular herbs, its intense flavour enhances just about any dish. Basil is also a great natural medicine; it is anti-arthritic, anti-inflammatory, an insect repellent and a deodoriser.
Chives: the subtle onion flavour of chives is a fantastic addition to your fresh ingredient list, chives are also great for digestion and are anti-inflammatory.
Mint: this is so easy to grow and is a lovely complement to numerous cooked dishes and salads. It also peps up a jug of iced water and makes a yummy tea perfect to help aid digestion. What’s more it is a spider, rodent and ant deterrent.
Rosemary and Thyme: both these herbs have the most fragrant aroma, and rosemary’s is particularly abhorrent to mosquitoes. Both are good pain relievers and rosemary is good for bad breath. Besides that, you will find many recipes calling for these versatile herbs. Thyme is anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and filled with vitamin A.

CATCH IT WHILE YOU CAN
Every home should have a watering can – not only does a watering can help you water the parts of your garden that absolutely need it (no unnecessary watering of the pavement while you move the hosepipe), but they are great rain-water catchers – simply place your watering can at the bottom of your gutter downpipes to catch any spare rainwater. Add a pack of seedlings and some pretty gardening gloves to a watering can gift.

TIP: Recycling your water is another way of bucking water restrictions. Use organic and eco-friendly home cleaning products, and you can then re-use dish and bath water for your garden. If you don’t have the option to install a grey-water system, simply make use of buckets and watering cans, emptying your bath into your garden via bucket is a great workout. Keep a bucket close to all taps, so even when you’re washing your hands, the run-off can be saved instead of going down the plug.

LEAD THEM DOWN THE GARDEN PATH
Bring out some creativity in your friends and family by putting together a packet of individually selected pebbles for each of them. Include a picture of a pebbled path, pebble mandala or design they can enjoy making up in their own gardens. These mandalas can be made in the garden or with smaller pebbles can be made inside as well.

BE A FLOWER REVOLUTIONARY
Fire up some flower power by including indigenous flower seeds with all your gifts. Encourage friends and family to seed bomb areas of their town or city that aren’t normally all that pretty. Keep a year-long project going by documenting how each seed bomb grows and spreads – even if it’s just from the delighted smiles of those walking past.

LOCAL IS BEST
All South Africans are by now aware that our water resources are in peril, so saving water has become vital – but that doesn’t mean you need to forgo beauty. There is abundant exquisite flora indigenous to South Africa that will thrive in the average garden. Of course, different areas of SA will yield different environmental conditions, so be sure to ask your local nursery what’s best for your area.

EDIBLE ARRANGEMENT
If you’ve got a veggie patch going, create a beautiful arrangement of fresh veggies as a gift – with the exquisite colours of carrots, beetroot and squashes, you can present a bouquet to rival any florist.
DID YOU KNOW? Growing your own vegetables is fundamentally easy and if you’re water wise, you can keep your veggie patch thriving. If you’re growing root vegetables like carrots or radishes, you’ll need to keep the soil below ground moist. That doesn’t mean you need to water more intensely, though. All you need is a plastic 2L cold drink bottle: Punch two rows of small holes in the bottle and bury it, with just the top of the neck sticking out, in the middle of your root patch. All you need to do is fill up the bottle every so often – the water will seep into the ground soil, keeping your veggies well-watered. This way, you’ll avoid evaporation.

OUTSIDE YOU GO
Get your friends and family outside by planning a ‘go-green’ scavenger hunt. Put together a few clues and tasks to get everyone outside and hunting; for example, your first clue could be ‘if you dig in gently you’ll find the colour of the setting sun – five large or 10 small will do the trick’, to send them out to grab a few carrots from your veggie patch for your festive feast.

Wherever you are this festive season, remember to stay water-wise. Re-use and recycles as much as you can, and teach your children to be aware of how precious water is.