South Africa is for the most part and especially away from the coast, a low rainfall area. Broadly regarding quantities of rain its dry in the west getting wetter as you go south, and wet in the east getting drier as you go south. The timing of the rain is broadly similar, in the west is winter rainfall, then come transitional zones of late summer in the drier north, and all year rain on the wet south coast, proceeding north-eastwards to the summer rainfall regions. The intersection with temperatures provides Mediterranean in the west (with the caveat that its a dry Mediterranean) than the hot arid interior and the cool subtropical ribbon on the south coast, and lastly warm semi-arid on the eastern interior and warm sub-tropical on the entire east coast and north eastern border.
So we already know what our common gardening problems will be: dry gardens and the summer to winter rainfall transition making certain adapted plants non-viable in either the west or the east. Many of the staples that grow all over Africa like sorgum do not thrive in the winter rainfall regions, without irrigation, but the winter rainfall regions can support vineyards and olive groves and an incredibly diverse Flora with its own 'Kingdom' though this is of course a construct, the Cape Floral Kingdom. I learned to grow succulents in the summer rainfall region of Tshwane, learned to take cuttings of wild berry bearing shrubs in icy, dark Germany and learned to garden ecologically in the western Cape. The Cape has the compounded problem of dryness amd heat in the summer, and lots of sand over most of greater Cape Town. To grow food plants from wetter regions of the earth would require excess irrigation, that turns into a threat and helps create drought in our region. To grow a garden, and especially a vegetable garden, we reqire compensatory mechanisms to cope with this problem in the garden. These turn out to be mechanisms that universally solve the problems of all dry climates, and all soil types, fortunately, otherwise I'd be speaking to a tiny group of gardeners in the tiny Mediterranean climate zone regions of the world. These magic secrets that solve so many gardening problems centre around maintenance of the earth's skin or geoderm (mulching, composting, covering and shading the earth, developing a 'canopy', usingtree shade, etc.) and using native or climate adapted plants.
So we already know what our common gardening problems will be: dry gardens and the summer to winter rainfall transition making certain adapted plants non-viable in either the west or the east. Many of the staples that grow all over Africa like sorgum do not thrive in the winter rainfall regions, without irrigation, but the winter rainfall regions can support vineyards and olive groves and an incredibly diverse Flora with its own 'Kingdom' though this is of course a construct, the Cape Floral Kingdom. I learned to grow succulents in the summer rainfall region of Tshwane, learned to take cuttings of wild berry bearing shrubs in icy, dark Germany and learned to garden ecologically in the western Cape. The Cape has the compounded problem of dryness amd heat in the summer, and lots of sand over most of greater Cape Town. To grow food plants from wetter regions of the earth would require excess irrigation, that turns into a threat and helps create drought in our region. To grow a garden, and especially a vegetable garden, we reqire compensatory mechanisms to cope with this problem in the garden. These turn out to be mechanisms that universally solve the problems of all dry climates, and all soil types, fortunately, otherwise I'd be speaking to a tiny group of gardeners in the tiny Mediterranean climate zone regions of the world. These magic secrets that solve so many gardening problems centre around maintenance of the earth's skin or geoderm (mulching, composting, covering and shading the earth, developing a 'canopy', usingtree shade, etc.) and using native or climate adapted plants.