Book excerpt: This handy pocket guide introduces local gardening enthusiasts to some of southern Africa’s most beautiful, beneficial and easy-to-care-for indigenous plants, giving guidance on how best to use them and how to ensure that they flourish. It offers: a selection of 145 garden-friendly, low-maintenance trees, shrubs and bedding plants perfectly adapted to our local soils and weather conditions, text that’s direct and simple, Full-colour photographs that show plant details and ‘in context’ planting, Icons indicating at a glance whether a species is evergreen or deciduous, frost-hardy, suitable for a sunny or shaded position, fast or slow-growing, water wise, fragrant and attractive to insects or birds. An essential handbook for easy-care beautiful gardening.