Getting back into it… 🏡
✈️If you’ve been away on holiday, you might have returned to a very weedy garden and hopefully not too many plant casualties. Weeding of all beds thoroughly would be recommended before the weeds switch to seed you can also look at topping up the mulch if needed. Keep weeding throughout the month to stay on top of things.
🌱Deadhead summer annuals, replace spent ones or fill gaps in beds with new seedlings that are not too ‘thirsty’ and will endure the heat. Feed all annuals in beds, baskets and containers every fortnight with an organic liquid fertilizer.
🌹Check on your rose bushes
Keep an eye for any signs of black spot, aphids, red spider mite and chafer beetles and spray fortnightly if needed. Fertilise with a balanced rose fertilizer and water deeply 3 times per week (about 15L per week), unless it rains sufficiently.
🌹Give rose bushes a light pruning this month to encourage another flush of flowers. We have been blessed with much needed rain which, unfortunately with the good rains it also leaches nutrients out of the soil.
🌿Fertilise the whole garden this month with organic flower power for flowering and fruiting plants and 8:1:5 for other foliage plants and lawns.
🌸If you’re adding new plants to your garden, plant them early in the morning or in the late afternoon. Water thoroughly before and after planting. It is best to wait until autumn to transplant existing shrubs and perennials.
🍃Also look at Trimming and shaping your unruly topiaries, evergreen hedges and standards.
🐛Keep an eye out for lawn caterpillar, mole crickets or fungus in the lawn and treat if necessary.
🏡Don’t mow the lawn too short – keeping the grass blades slightly longer as it will protect the roots against the heat and dry winds.
🌿Fertilise lawn now with a balanced fertilizer like 5:1:5 or 2:3:2 to promote a well-developed rootsystem and continue watering twice a week, unless it rains.
•Pests
🪰Regularly check all your plants for aphids, white fly and fungal disease and spray fortnightly with an organic pesticide ie organcide, or organcide plus. Also look at Putting out snail pellets or traps ie sluggem pellets.
🐛Also, don’t let your guard down for lily borers are still on the go. They’re is still alot of pests that can do damage out and about. Spray the affected plants and keep an eye afterwards to see if repeated applications are necessary.
🐜Ants are also out in full force now. Take the necessary precautions to control them.
•Watering
💦Water the garden preferably in the early morning or, if not possible, late afternoon (adhering to water restrictions for your area) and rather water deeply, less often than a quick sprinkling every day. Water plants in pots and baskets every day if in sunny postions, and every second to third day for those that are in shaded areas.
⛈Now is also the perfect time to take advantage of summer rainfall and invest in a rainwater tank to harvest our precious rainwater to be used throughout your home and garden, and to help save on your water bill!
•Fruit & Vegetables
🌽It’s piping hot out there and vegetables and herbs could take strain in the heat of the day. Provide some relief by constructing a simple, portable structure from stakes or plastic pipe and 40 – 50% shade cloth, that can be moved around where needed to protect more sun-sensitive plants like lettuce, brinjal, peppers and most herbs.
🥦Give all vegetables and herbs a quick boost with a liquid fertiliser and follow up with an organic, slow release fertiliser like flower power which should last them through the rest of the season. Water well and top up the mulch layer around plants if necessary.
🥔Harvest your potatoes that were planted in early spring when all the leaves have died down. A second batch of seed potatoes can be planted now for early winter harvesting. Try and Harvest all vegetables regularly to promote production.
🍅Make a final planting of tomato seedlings. You can still plant seedlings of beans, sweet corn, leeks, cucumber and zucchini if you provide protection from the hot sun.
🥬Look at Planting a variety of loose-leaf lettuces in a semi-shade position or amongst taller veg like Swiss chard or runner beans. For your salads to have texture and color.
🌾Remove all spent or diseased vegetables and look at adding compost to the beds that are lying fallow to enrich the soil in preparation for the cooler weather crops of autumn and winter.
🥦Keep an eye out for seeds for the cooler seasons on the shelves at Tuingenoot. Cabbage, cauliflower and Brussel sprouts can be sown now in sowing trays.
🌻Have some fun with your kids and plant some sunflower seeds in the vegetable patch. They will pop up in no time and they grow fast and very tall – just the kind of thing kids like. Birds will also love it when the flowers go to seed.
🌳If necessary, thin out the fruits on your citrus trees and water the trees twice a week if rain is insufficient.
🪰Continue spraying or putting out bait against fruit fly. Collect fallen fruit around the fruit trees and dispose of it in the refuse to prevent fruit flies from breeding.
🌼Start sowing cool-season annuals and biannuals for winter and spring colour. Try larkspurs, foxgloves, aquilegias, delphiniums, pansies and Primula malacoides in seed trays, as they take time to mature into strong seedlings to plant out.
🌺Pull out the old flowering stems of Inca lilies with a firm tug. If the plants have stopped flowering you can dig up some roots and new shoots and replant them in other parts of the garden to spread the flowering cheer of these easy-to-grow perennials.
HAPPY GARDENING FROM ALL OF US AT TUINGENOOT 🌷🌼🪴🌺🌻🌳🥬🍅🌹🌴🏡
