Ten tips to keep it alive and green through El Niño. JOHANNESBURG: Worried about keeping your garden looking lush and lively during El Niño? Don’t be. A few simple steps are all it takes to make sure it stays beautiful and full of life. With Garden Day on Sunday, 18 October, now's the perfect time to get your garden summer-ready. Craig De Necker of the garden design and landscape installation company, The Friendly Plant, says that summer can be a difficult time for garden enthusiasts. Throw in unpredictable water cuts, a particularly dry, hot season and the rising cost of water, and it's easy to see why they're worried about gardens that are gasping. For those going way over the holidays, the worry doubles. Here are his tips for keeping your garden looking its best: Be water-wise 1. Consider replacing thirsty plants with succulents; making sure your garden is water-wise. 2. Although they need very little maintenance, the correct watering method can make a drastic difference to the health of succulents. De Necker recommends a drip irrigation system, which delivers water deep into the soil where it reaches the roots more easily. This matters because this is the part of the plant which is able to absorb water. Watering more deeply actually cuts down on the frequency of irrigation, because it helps absorption; plus, the water will evaporate at a far lower rate than with sprays. 3. Water early or late. Johannesburg Water is asking residents to water gardens only before 6am or after 6pm. Less water is lost to evaporation, and your plants get more of every drop. Water smarter 4. Make sure to adjust your watering technique for sensitive plants, like bonsais or orchids, which need a lot of care. 5. Look out for signs of underwatering, where leaves become dry and brittle. 6. Be careful of overwatering. Look out for drooping leaves. Avoid this by testing the condition of the soil often: although it should not feel dry, it shouldn’t feel muddy, …
Afri Air Publishes Farmer Guides on SACAA Drone Rules and Agras Spraying Drones
Ermelo-based DJI distributor Afri Air helps South African farmers understand SACAA drone rules for farm flights and compare Agras spraying drones with tractors and manned aircraft. ERMELO, South Africa — Afri Air, an authorised DJI distributor, has published two practical guides for farmers considering agricultural drones. The first explains how the South African Civil Aviation Authority's Part 101 rules apply to farm flights, while the second compares the DJI Agras T55, T70P and T100 with tractor rigs and manned aircraft. Together, they help growers make confident decisions on both compliance and equipment before they invest. For many farmers, choosing a drone is the simple part. The more important questions sit around it. Does checking crop health count as private or commercial flying? Which approvals come first, and how should paperwork keep pace with a new purchase? Once the regulatory picture is clear, which spraying method makes the most of every hectare, from waterlogged lands after summer rain to contour banks, hillside orchards and small, irregular blocks that are hard to reach with a boom? The first article, Private vs Commercial Drone Use: Which SACAA Rules Apply to Your Farm?, explores the factor that decides a flight's category, where crop monitoring and spraying fit, the boundaries that apply to every private flight and the commercial pathway step by step. It also matches drones such as the DJI Mavic 3 Multispectral and DJI Agras T70P to each category. The second article, Agras T55, T70P and T100: How Unmanned Drone Spraying Compares to Manned Methods, weighs drones against traditional methods on five factors that matter on South African farms: soil impact, terrain access, input accuracy, operator requirements and running cost. It closes with guidance on choosing between the three Agras models based on block size, terrain and crop type. One insight stands out. A two-year maize trial on sandy loam recorded yield penalties of between 7.6% …
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The Valuator Group Now Values Farms and Game Reserves
As the season turns in October 2026, South African farms and reserves are at their busiest. Seed is going into the ground, vineyards and orchards are starting a fresh growing cycle, and lodges are getting ready for summer visitors. That makes it a good time for owners and managers to check what their operations are really worth. The Valuator Group is a boutique valuation company that works for individuals, corporations and governments across Africa, the Indian Ocean Islands, the Middle East and the UK. It is now drawing attention to its agricultural valuation service, which covers game reserves, game lodges and farms of every size. More than a title deed A working farm or reserve is not one asset. It is a mix of very different ones: land and buildings, lodges and staff accommodation, tractors and processing plant, livestock, crops, storage, vehicles and contents. Each one has to be identified and valued separately. The Valuator Group's agricultural work covers wine, fruit and poultry farms, ranches, reserves and other production facilities. It also covers the packing, manufacturing and cold storage operations that serve the sector. The work starts on site. Valuers walk and drive the property and note every asset they find. They assess buildings, lodges included, together with machinery, livestock, crops, storage, vehicles and contents. Every item is recorded and listed, and the results go into a Valuation Report and Certificate. The owner ends up with one documented record of the whole operation, which can then be used for insurance, financing, planning and governance. Zero on the books, real value on the ground The company makes one point that matters a lot in farming. Many assets appear in company financials at nil value because they have been fully depreciated. Much of that equipment is still running and still adds to the financial health of the business. The Valuator Group's view is that these items should be valued for what they are, for financial …
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The Smart Gardener’s Guide to Weathering an El Niño Summer
A long, hot summer can be glorious if it includes a swimming pool or the ocean, iced drinks and air conditioning. But your garden may be less enthusiastic. After a Northern Hemisphere summer that the World Meteorological Organization reported as the warmest on record, South Africa is now heading into its own hot season, with a strengthening El Niño in the background. The South African Weather Service (SAWS) anticipates above-normal minimum and maximum temperatures across most of the country through spring and early summer, with generally drier, warmer conditions expected as the season develops. Acting on this information and preparing now can make all the difference to your garden when hotter conditions do set in: from improving soil moisture retention and checking irrigation systems to putting smarter watering routines in place. “It’s an easy mistake to react to very hot weather by simply reaching for the hose more often, but more water is not necessarily better,” says Fathima Mathen, Marketing Manager for GARDENA South Africa. “The trick is to water more intelligently using the right equipment to get moisture to the plant where and when it needs it, while wasting as little as possible.” GARDENA’s Micro-Drip System, for example, uses adjustable drip heads and drip watering, which can reduce water use by up to 70% compared with conventional watering methods. Drip lines, inline drippers and soaker hoses can also keep beds, borders and vegetable gardens watered without giving every nearby paving stone a drink too. Timing also matters. Watering during the cooler parts of the day, either very early in the morning or after sunset, helps reduce evaporation. “Plants cope better when watering is consistent too,” adds Mathen. “An automatic water control system takes the guesswork out of watering. These highly efficient watering devices can be scheduled to irrigate gardens at any time of day or night. This is particularly useful when people are busy, away or …
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Planting for the Future
5 KZN schools go head-to-head in Arbour Month Challenge DURBAN – School pride, teamwork and a little healthy competition came alive in Monteseel this Arbour Month when learners from five KwaZulu-Natal schools swapped their classrooms for the great outdoors. Their mission? To plant fruit trees that will help establish a space for ongoing community engagement, personal development and learning, with opportunities for training in tree propagation and caring for the land, all while competing for the title in the annual Husqvarna South Africa Schools Challenge. Hosted at Greenheart Organics in partnership with Food & Trees for Africa, the 2026 event brought together teams from Durban High School, Weston Agricultural College, Glenwood High School, Westville Boys’ High School and Hillcrest High School for an afternoon that tested their teamwork, speed, efficiency and tree-planting skills. First introduced in 2024 as a contest between Durban High School and Weston Agricultural College, the challenge has grown into a five-school event, with new teams adding to the competition and the school spirit on display. And this year, the ante was upped. In the previous two editions, teams competed to dig holes for the trees. This time, they took on the full planting process, from digging and adding compost to planting, mulching and watering. Ground preparation made the soil softer to work with, but the additional tasks demanded more coordination and care from each team. While there could only be one winner, the purpose went beyond school honours. For learners, it was a chance to contribute something practical while learning what it takes to give a newly planted tree a good start. After a fiercely contested challenge, Weston Agricultural College was crowned the 2026 champion, walking away with a Husqvarna blower and a R5,000 voucher to redeem at Husqvarna’s online store. Durban High School secured second place and a R5,000 voucher, while Hillcrest High School …
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Pruned, Felled, Cleared — Now What?
A Guide to Repurposing Garden Waste This Spring It's a familiar scene at this time of year in many gardens: a few branches here, some cuttings there, perhaps a small tree felled in sections, and suddenly the garden looks like it has hosted a very short-lived logging operation. Pruning in spring can leave you with a surprisingly impressive pile of garden waste. The obvious response is to get rid of it. Some municipalities offer scheduled garden-waste collection, while others require residents to take larger quantities to designated dump sites. But before deciding whether to haul it away, there might be other options to consider, says Daren Harvett, Area Business Manager KZN for Husqvarna South Africa. “Woody material can actually serve some useful purposes in the garden and may be worth a second look as a resource rather than garden refuse.” Harvett offers some practical suggestions for repurposing your garden offcuts: Mulch the Waste Smaller volumes of branches and cuttings can be broken down with a pruning saw into pieces suitable for the compost heap or for use directly as mulch around flower beds and borders. Used as surface mulch, shredded garden material helps suppress weeds, retain moisture, and, as it decomposes, enrich the soil with organic matter. “A layer of five to ten centimetres is usually enough: thick enough to block light to weed seedlings, not so thick that it smothers the soil,” he advises. If you're a landscaper, groundskeeper or regularly dealing with larger volumes of cuttings, a woodchipper can make light work of the pile, turning prunings into a readily available source of mulch or compost material. Pile with Purpose For the biodiversity- or sustainability-minded, a neat stack of offcuts tucked into a quiet corner can create a habitat for wildlife: providing shelter for insects and cover for frogs and lizards. “You can create an entire little ecosystem from what might otherwise be thrown away,” notes …
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Afri Air Publishes New Guidance on Targeted Spraying and Drone Selection for South African Grain Farmers
New content from the Ermelo-based DJI distributor addresses how grain farmers can move away from blanket spraying and choose the right Agras platform for their fields. Afri Air, an authorised DJI distributor in South Africa, has published new guidance exploring targeted crop spraying and how to choose between two leading agricultural drone models. ERMELO, South Africa — Afri Air has published two new articles addressing questions that come up repeatedly among South African grain farmers considering agricultural drones. Both pieces look at practical decisions farmers face once they move beyond blanket spraying as a default approach. Grain farmers managing sizeable hectarage often face the same underlying tension: uniform treatment applied across fields that are rarely uniform themselves, and equipment decisions made without a clear sense of how tank size, flow rate, and payload actually translate into a working day. Choosing the wrong configuration, or sticking with the wrong spraying approach, tends to show up as wasted input and inefficient coverage rather than an obvious, single failure point. The articles explore flow rate control and nozzle configuration, RTK positioning accuracy, spray tank and payload capacity, spreading and lifting capability, and how to match an aircraft's specification to the actual scale of a farming operation. One of the articles highlights a detail that surprises many farmers comparing aircraft models: tank size does not always correlate directly with spray speed, and the smaller of two compared platforms can, in fact, apply faster per minute than its larger counterpart. For the full breakdown of how targeted spraying works in practice, read How the Agras T55 Drone Helps Grain Farmers Move from Blanket Spraying to Targeted Application. For a complete comparison of the two aircraft covered, read Comparing the Agras T55 with the Agras T70P: What Farmers Should Know. About Afri Air Afri Air is an authorised DJI …
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From Data to Decisions: Improving Feed Quality in Real Time
Bühler Southern Africa will highlight the benefits of precision feed milling at the AFMA Forum 2026, taking place at Sun City from 8 to 10 September. During a panel discussion, Oliver Brägger, Sales Manager, Value Nutrition, Bühler Group, will explain how real-time data and automation can help feed manufacturers better manage raw material variability, optimise production, and improve feed quality. Feed manufacturers must maintain consistent nutritional specifications even though the quality of key raw materials such as grain can vary. Changes in raw material quality will affect nutritional composition, making it more difficult to maintain feed quality while managing costs. Precision feed milling offers a more proactive approach by combining real-time data with automated process control, enabling manufacturers to adjust to variability during production. The AFMA Forum’s 2026 theme, ‘The Feed Factor – The Chain That Feeds a Nation’, highlights the role of feed manufacturing in food security and the wider food value chain. As a critical link between agricultural production and animal protein, the feed industry plays an important role in maintaining the quality, consistency and efficiency of food production. The theme provides a relevant backdrop for discussions around how technology and data can help feed manufacturers respond to variability and strengthen performance across the value chain. From real-time monitoring to automated control Bühler’s precision feed milling approach uses real-time monitoring and inline analytics to provide feed manufacturers with continuous visibility into raw material information. This data can support automated formulation and recipe adjustment, rather than relying solely on fixed assumptions. “Precision feed milling is about moving from reacting to variability to actively managing it in real time,” comments Brägger. “By turning data into actionable insights, manufacturers can make better decisions, improve feed consistency and …
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H2O Guru Puts Irrigation Water Testing in Focus for Spring
Spring planting is underway across large parts of South Africa, and H2O Guru has moved its irrigation package to the top of its September 2026 service list to match. The Pretoria based laboratory is encouraging farms, smallholdings, nurseries, estates and packhouses to test the water they intend to pump throughout summer now, ahead of committing it to a full season of crops, instead of waiting until trouble appears in the field. The logic is grounded and unglamorous. Water used for irrigation in this country comes from boreholes, dams, rivers, canals, storage tanks and recycled supplies, and its composition seldom stays fixed. As H2O Guru notes on its own website, water chemistry can differ markedly from one site to the next, even between neighbouring properties, since groundwater is influenced by geology, borehole depth, recharge conditions, nearby agriculture and industry, sewage systems, and the materials used in borehole construction and plumbing. Municipal and stored water can drift too, affected by pipework, tanks, corrosion and blending with other sources. For that reason, a sample pulled last summer says little about what the pump is producing this spring, and that gap is exactly why scheduled water testing beats the occasional check. What the irrigation package measures The Irrigation Water package is priced at R1 885 including VAT, and laboratory results with analysis are currently returned in roughly five to seven working days. Testing is performed under SANS241 by a SANAS accredited laboratory carrying facility number T0647. The list of parameters in the irrigation package is intentionally wider than a basic potability check, since fitness to drink and fitness to irrigate are separate questions. It takes in EC, pH, COD, SAR, Langelier, Ryznar, TSS, fluoride, chloride, sulphate, ammonia nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, nitrite nitrogen, alkalinity, carbonate, bicarbonate, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, boron, manganese, iron, phosphorus, faecal …
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Johannesburg Gets a Taste of Babylonstoren as Hyde Park Corner Blooms for Spring
Babylonstoren in Bloom at Made for the Season at Hyde Park Corner. For 13 days this September, Johannesburg shoppers can experience a little of Babylonstoren without leaving the city as the celebrated Cape Winelands farm takes over Hyde Park Corner’s Centre Court with a spring installation created especially for the occasion. Open to the public from 2 to 14 September, Babylonstoren in Bloom is the centrepiece of Hyde Park Corner’s Made for the Season campaign and marks Babylonstoren’s first activation of this kind in a shopping centre. Inspired by Babylonstoren’s distinctive Puff Adder walkway, the installation brings together the farm’s love of gardens, design and seasonal beauty in a setting that gives visitors plenty to see, smell, sample and take home. A selection of Babylonstoren bath and body products, home fragrance, linen, décor, honey, pantry favourites, wine and gift items will be available to sample and purchase throughout the activation. The collection draws on the farm and its gardens, with many of the products made using ingredients and materials grown or created there. Adding a burst of spring colour to Centre Court will be a display of clivias running alongside the Babylonstoren installation including the first double clivia in South Africa called The Hyde Park Double, grown and bred by independent Clivia grower, André Swart. Clivias also have a natural connection to the Babylonstoren farm, where clivias are one of the garden’s much-anticipated spring highlights and form part of the seasonal planting along the original Puff Adder walkway. “Babylonstoren has such a distinctive sense of place that people recognise immediately, whether through its gardens, its food or the beautiful products that come from the farm,” says Tevye Block, General Manager of Hyde Park Corner. “Bringing a taste of that experience to Johannesburg gives our customers something genuinely special to discover at Hyde Park Corner this spring. “Made for the …