Thousands of low-priced, healthy young plants in neat black plastics holders nestle in shady glades in the Lusaka City Council nursery, awaiting customers who seldom come because so few people know they are there.

The nursery hides modestly behind bougainvilleas on Mwatusanga Road, off Independence Avenue just before Woodlands roundabout. (To make it more difficult, the road sign has joined dozens of others in town by falling down and not being replaced by L.C.C)

At the nursery, trained horticulturalist Gift Marufu will guide you round the various sections – shrubs, hedges, trees, pot plants, fruit trees and flowering plants. Perennial and annual flowers can be bought by the clump from beds, while cut flowers are also available.

If you haven’t a clue about plants but know what you need – a plant that likes shade or full sun; something evergreen and fast growing; a creeper to cover a wall – Gift Marufu will advise you. Ask for him personally, as the garden labourers are not so well informed.

Personally I go for the big bougainvillea in every colour, that they will get out of big tubs for you. Take a big basin to take such a plant home, because it comes with a big chunk of good soil, and have a hole ready for it at home for immediate planting.

The nursery is open weekdays only from 8 am to 4.30 pm, including lunch hour. It also provides tree cutting services at a reasonable fee, so if you have a dead or dying big tree looming over your premises, call on them.

More and more ugly walls are disfiguring our suburbs, but they can be improved by whitewashing or painting and planting shrubs and lawn in front of them. On the inside, you can grow creepers and climbers, which eventually grow up and spill over the wall to the road side.

White walls and blazing bougainvillea could help give our suburbs a Mediterranean air – we have the weather for it, so let’s tackle these grim fortifications with the help of the L.C.C nurseries.

By Toni Tilley