South Africa's large areas of semi-desert scrub and grassland might suggest a certain poverty of plant life. Aside from the fact that a tract of pristine grassland can hold up to 60 grass species, nothing could be further from the truth.There are five major habitat types in South Africa: fynbos, forest, Karoo, grassland, and savannah. The country can also be divided into seven biomes, or ecological life zones, with distinct environmental conditions and related sets of plant and animal life: Nama Karoo, succulent Karoo, fynbos, forest, thicket, savanna, and grassland.Whichever classification is used, some 10% of the world's flowering species are found in South Africa, the only country in the world with an entire plant kingdom inside its borders: the Cape Floristic Kingdom, which contains 8 600 species, 68% of them endemic. The Cape Peninsula alone boasts more plant species than the whole of Great Britain.Fynbos:This southwestern area of South Africa is the home of the fynbos, which is composed of ericas (heathers), proteas and the grass-like restios. Most spectacular in flower are the proteas, which include the king protea - the national flower - and others of broadly similar shape, the pincushion leucospermum types and spiky leucadendrons. The colour
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Tags: Flowering Plants, Pincushion, South African Plants
Organic gardening has increasingly become an important part of the curriculum in schools around the world. Teachers at every grade level find themselves teaching it to students, and sometimes being called on to give a speech to a group of parents. As a career educator and principal, I know the difficulty of opening up time for speech preparation, and offer this organic gardening speech for your use. Feel free to edit it to fit your needs.Organic Gardening SpeechHow selfish are you? On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, how selfish would you rate yourself? If you are the least bit selfish, you might be interested in organic gardening.An organic gardening speech might seem more appropriate coming from a Home Economics teacher, but I am just selfish enough that I love organic gardening. I want to share that love with you and with your children.ImagineI want you to come with me, in imagination, to a time and place before the Industrial Revolution. The year is 1707. It is late summer. We find ourselves walking the streets of a small town. Houses are spaced well apart for privacy. Land stretches out behind each house. As we look, we 
Garden planning is an avocation that can be carried to extremes. I have heard rumors that there are actually places that pay people to plan gardens for them. No one would be that silly. Imagine being paid to do something that is well, an obsession.Personally I have perfected garden planning. It is considered high art when I undertake flower garden design! I post do not disturb "genius at work" signs in preparation. Pictures of flower garden ideas drift like colors in your mind. Formal gardens, whimsical gardens, oriental gardens, rock gardens.All the garden types you can dream of are at your fingertips, if not actually in your yard! Somehow the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew come to my mind as a attainable garden goal. Better homes and gardens has a wonderful tool to help you plan layouts and colors. better homes and gardens flower garden planner. [http://url123.com/6nqeq] It’s a fun way to spend a blustery afternoon.Planning the layout and textures of gardens is very diverting. I can spend hours making lists from the garden catalogs. These usually arrive just in time to take my mind off of winter. Winter is relative after all. In Florida the land of sunshine, just 
The development of land involves the removal of native plant life and could cause harm, if not destroy the natural biology that exists in the soils. In most cases the plant life is replace by a landscape of grass, shrubs, trees and flowers that aren't native to the area. These new landscapes tend to evolve themselves into a sterile environment that doesn't fit into the natural ecosystem. It is an environment create by humans and not one provided by nature naturally.The use of chemicals to provide nutrients to this new plant life, herbicides to control weed problems and pesticides to control the pests can do more harm than good. They not only destroy the natural biology of the soil, and a quick fix for plant nutrition, they can pollute the air we breath and the water we drink, where as the natural biology in soils will do just the opposite.A good healthy organic soil structure is one that is developed naturally. Letting the organic matter and the natural organisms in the soil work together to provide a healthy soil structure for plant life to thrive in. This natural process can provide plant life the nutrients they need to thrive, create 
Outside TV systems are a must have for this summers sports matches from soccer, cricket, motor racing and even cricket, if you are not planning to view these events in your back yard or beer garden, you should be ashamed of yourself.So ok, if you have been with us on the trek through the last two articles you will know that we have looked at outside speakers and the choices involved with the screen itself, as well as securing them from vandalism and the weather with a weatherproof LCD cabinet. Now we turn our attention to the actual TV connection and getting from the house to the garden.TV signal Connection.In your house you will have either a set top box from Sky or whoever supplies you with this service, from this box you will have to extend the signal to the location outside in your back yard. There are two types data cabled and wireless.Networked solutions.The first one is hard wired, this will involve running a signal wire from the set top box to your display outside, the main thing to remember is that you must put the cable in some trunking, dig a trench in your back yard and