This winter has been a typically one that we expect here in our part of the world. Having our cold nights and mornings to help keep the pests at bay, whilst during midday on the Highveld its usually pleasant and sunny, enough to get into our gardens and get some tasks done. To most of us at this time the garden is also a refuge – a place to ‘earth’ ourselves and find some calm in our busy lives.
The Month of July is Pruning Month
• You can look at Pruning your roses towards the end of July or the beginning of August. Treat bare stems with a fungicide / insecticide cocktail to kill insect eggs and fungus spores. Feed with a rose food of your choice. Top up the mulch layer, keeping stems free of mulch, and water weekly early in the morning.
• Deciduous fruit trees, bushes and vines must be pruned earlier this month during their dormant season, this will ensure great growth when the season kicks in.
• Semi-hardy and tender shrubs should rather be pruned in September after the danger of frost has passed. This includes plants like Hibiscus, Gardenia, Solanum and Duranta.
• Don’t prune spring-flowering shrubs until they have finished flowering or you will remove most of the flowering bud sites.
• You can look at trimming and cutting back woody bits on autumn flowering climbers.
• Herbaceous perennials like bergamot, salvias, catmint, Echinacea and Penstemon as well as ornamental grasses can be cut back now.
General July Garden Tasks
• Ensure that your tender plants are well protected from frost by covering with frost cover, available per meter or in pre-packed sizes. This will protect your plants to a temperature of -3°C, while allowing enough filtered light and the correct moisture balance for optimum growth.
• Continue watering your garden in the early day to allow for the soil to dry out and warm up a bit before nightfall sets in.
• You can still look at planting more colourful winter flowering annuals to instantly and effortlessly fill gaps in garden beds, plump up hanging baskets or pots and generally liven up the garden. Choose from the many winter annuals available at Tuingenoot, e.g. Calendula, Viola, Pansy, Primula, Primrose, Petunia, Bellis perennis, Snapdragons and the stunning, frilly Ornamental Kale. Pick flowers and dead head regularly to encourage continuous flowering. You can also look at applying a foliar feed fortnightly.
• July is also the best time for planting and transplanting rose bushes and deciduous trees, like maples or birches while they are dormant. This will give them enough time to settle and will reward you with their beautiful bright foliage next autumn.
• Winter flowering Aloes will add instant colour and attract nectar feeding birds. Aloes can be prone to white scale that, if not controlled, will spread rapidly. Check regularly and treat with an appropriate product ie koinor and complete from Protek.
• Weeds will show themselves quite clearly now against the dormant deciduous lawn. You can use this opportunity to manually remove as many of them as possible.
• For the birds lovers continue feeding our feathered friends as food is in short supply during these winter months. Keep your bird baths topped up and clean.
• July is the perfect time to do all those little things you don’t get to do during the winter months for example repairing and sharpening of tools, installing or fixing water features, paving and retaining walls or create that special corner in the garden you’ve been meaning to.
In the Vegetable and Fruit Garden
• Plan and prepare beds for your spring vegetables. Enrich the soil quality by spreading a thick layer of good quality compost throughout the vegetable patch.
• You can look at planting another batch of cabbage, Asian greens, Swiss Chard, carrots, radish and lettuce and do a last sowing peas.
• Remember that winter is the perfect time to plant new deciduous fruit trees. Pick your favourites from the large selection available here at Tuingenoot.
• Brassicas tend to be prone to aphids, so check them regularly and spray immediately, if needed, with an organic aphicide, you can use things like neem oil.
• Water the vegetable garden thoroughly once a week and apply 6:3:4 or 8:1:5 fertilisers to leafy veg and herbs.
• Replenish the mulch layer around your citrus trees. After fruiting, prune out any dead branches and spindly growth. Cut off water shoots at the base of the tree.
Indoor Plants for July
• Bringing the garden indoors with a stunning selection of flowering and non-flowering indoor plants available at Tuingenoot. Combine that with our large selection of indoor pots and you have a perfect way of livening up your home and beating the winter blues – it’s the perfect opportunity to choose your favorite indoor plants and start creating or enhancing your home and office jungle!
• Cut down on watering of indoor plants in the cooler weather.
• Feed flowering indoor plants fortnightly with a liquid fertilizer and water when needed, you can look at fertiliser like seagro, or Nitrosol.
July is mainly a time to relax, recharge and reflect – particularly on what great new ideas you want to implement in your garden in spring…enjoy!
