The Montague Gardens/Marconi Beam Improvement District (MMID) is currently planting succulents in the area to bloom in August and September to beautify the main thoroughfare.
According to Alda van Niekerk, projects-coordinator, the MMID has been planting vygies (Carbobrotus) in several areas for the past three years to green Montague Gardens and make the area look more inviting.
“Carbobrotus grows very easily, needs very little maintenance and water, and repels weeds. With Cape Town going through the major drought at the time this was the best option to achieve our goal and also to not add a lot of maintenance to our mandated schedule.
The plant list includes Othonna capensis, Delosperma cooperii and Sedium, all of these have some different colours that will allow a good colour spectrum when they flower,” she says.
Existing areas that have been planted with Carbobrotus were earmarked, where these were added to fill in spots. This was twofold in that the MMID were planning to fill in the gaps before the wetter season, but also the already established vygie plants now help protect the new seedlings.
Locations were chosen along Montague Drive – the main thoroughfare, specifically the entrance intersections – at the Marconi Road intersection at Atlantic Studios, the Freedom Way intersection at the Caltex garage and at the grey stone wall of Woolworths distribution centre on the corner of Bosmansdam Road.
“Initially the decision to green Montague Gardens was made around three years ago with other initiatives that have been part of that bigger plan. We have planted a total of 86 trees, covered seven verges with Carbobrotus and initiated the MMID Green club where we install a “club board” on verges where property owners take the initiative to maintain their own verges.
“Now recently it was decided that we must add some colour to the area, and this is the first round of doing that. One must bear in mind that the MMID is not a garden service but tops up services by the City of Cape Town and that the City allows us to plant with the understanding that we water and maintain the areas. Therefor the process has to be spread out to allow our team to be able to maintain the watering schedule along with the other services during the day,” Van Niekerk adds.
A total of 162 plants were planted last week on the three mentioned sites and the plants are not sponsored but is payed for from the MMID urban budget.
