Let us welcome one of the most beautiful months of the year with flowers galore, and your very own potential summer harvest of fresh veggies and herbs beginning to grow up in the veggie patch! Along with a beautiful display of falling blossoms followed by tiny fruits on the fruit trees are an early promise of something sweet to feast on later.
The first strawberries should be getting their lipstick on shyly amongst the leaves, and the sweet scent of star jasmine is in the air. October is also time to feed all your plants and to protect your mid-spring treasures against pests and weeds.
Visiting our nursery, you will find seedling tables groaning under annual and vegetable seedlings, our floors heavily stocked with perennials in season, groundcovers, ornamental grasses and all your other gardening goodies for spring and summer, to help create and maintain those beautiful gardens.
If you are looking for instant colour go for calibrachoas which display a mass of miniature petunia-like flowers. Finding them on our floors won’t be hard, all you have to do is to fill all your containers, hanging baskets and window boxes with them. They are value for money as they flower endlessly in full sun and you will be surprised at the large range of colours and growth habits.
Hot tip: Look at feediing calibrachoas twice a month with a water-soluble fertiliser to keep them in full flower and do not over water, as they don’t favour constant soggy soil.
October is known as ‘rose month’ and the iconic ‘Iceberg‘ is probably the best-selling rose ever! Hard on its heels is a cousin called ‘Burgundy Iceberg‘ – equally free-flowering with blooms in rich jewel-like colours of burgundy with disease-resistant, healthy foliage. If you are a fan of roses, this is a must have – even if it is only one in a pot!
Combat fungal disease on your roses and encourage strong root systems by watering deeply, early in the morning.
Newsflash on Seedlings!
Are you ready-to-plant annuals from seedling trays? They definitely are the fastest and cheapest way to turn any garden into a garden of colour, and at this time of year you are spoilt for choice.
Flowering seedlings that you can look at planting today include for a sunny position are: petunias, dianthus allysum, gazanias, penstemons, Chrysanthemum, Sunpatiens and celosias.
In shady areas, plant seedlings of New Guinea Impatiens, begonias, impatiens, hypoestes and coleus.
For Seedling success be sure to do the following:
- Plant in compost enriched soil.
- Do not pull them out by their stems – rather push them gently out of their punnet from below, with a pencil or stick and firm them down gently in a planting hole that fits the size of their root balls.
- Remember to put out cutworm bait after planting young seedlings to help protect them.
- Pinching off their growth tips as they go along, to make them bushier.
- Be sure to water them regularly afterwards.
- Always Dead-head to support continual flowering.
Be a pro when you sow
When it comes to summer-flowering annuals and most summer vegetables and herbs they can be sown now, seen that night temperatures are higher. Here are some tips when sowing:
- Large seeds – place a piece of chicken wire over the seed tray to make a planting template for sowing evenly. Use one seed per hole.
- Small seeds – fine seeds such as petunia or lobelia can stick to your fingers and are difficult to spread out evenly. Mix them with some dry sand in an old spice bottle and shake the mix lightly over the moistened soil.
Flowers that can be sown now include annuals like: cosmos, marigolds, portulacas, zinnias and sunflowers.
Bright and beautiful
Remember to add ornamental grasses to your garden as they will supply a lovely show in late summer and autumn.
Perennials to plant include the following: agapanthus, gauras, nemesias, osteospermums and geraniums of all kinds. Also go for gypsophila and why not try masses of pretty but tough angelonias. Plant more summer-loving perennials like alstroemerias, cupheas, penstemons, Aquilegia and echinaceas.
Why not Plant Amaryllis in pots: Use a good quality potting soil that drains well and pots that are just a little bigger than the bulb’s own width. Take note of the planting depth: The bulb’s ‘shoulder’ must protrude above the soil surface and the ‘nose’ of the bulb should reach just above the pot’s rim. Keep the pots in a warm, well-lit position and the soil always moist.
A Stalwart of the October garden must be Trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine). This hardy and versatile creeper with its glossy dark green foliage and aromatic, pure white flowers, can be used to trail over pergolas and fences and if planted in mass, as a fast-covering ground cover under trees. It also grows fantastically in pots and can even be pruned into a weeping standard.
Lawn care:
- Look at correcting those small irritations on the lawn (like bald patches) now, you can do this by digging out a piece of turf surrounding the bare patch, and replacing it with one of the same size and shape taken from a less visible part of the lawn. Fill in the excavated piece from where you took the turf, with fine compost, level and re-seed, or plant a few runners of plugs to cover the area again.
- Hollows and bumps can be fixed by cutting out the turf in the affected areas and either taking some soil away in the case of bumps, or adding some compost to level out a hollow. Gently re-place the piece of turf and stamp down lightly with the back of a spade.
- In shady or other areas where it is difficult to grow the usual lawn types, you can consider the following alternatives which are flat growing, fairly hard-wearing and need no mowing ground covers: wonderlawn, penny royal – are both great for wet and shady areas and cynodon for sun and drier conditions.
- Regular feeding of lawns with a granular lawn fertiliser spreader (should be used according to instructions given on the product) and by hand out of a bucket for garden beds.
Spectacular succulents: Clean up succulents like echeverias and Kalanchoe which will have stopped flowering, and divide and replant the babies in other parts of the garden or in bare areas.
Hunger busting!
Thinking about a veggie garden? Here is a guide of easy-to-grow vegetables to sow and plant now:
Carrots – sow seeds directly several times from spring to autumn to ensure a continuous harvest. The soil must be cultivated deeply to make it loose and friable.
Green beans – plant seeds that are the bush types these plants are easier to manage in the long run.
Cucumbers – sow the seeds directly into the soil. The plants will need sturdy stakes to keep the fruit off the ground.
Squashes and baby marrows – sow the seeds directly. As soon as they emerge, they need to be thinned out to allow ample space for you to trail them up some obelisks made of poles. You can also trail them over a wire fence if you have.
Lettuce – keep on planting lettuce seedlings to have a readily available source for those summer salads – there is a large range available in trays from Tuingenoot.
Radishes – Look at sowing small amounts directly to the prepared bed throughout summer.
Sweet peppers – Plant your favorites, they are available as seedlings for your convenience.
Tomatoes – Did you know? Tomato seedlings should be planted deeper than they originally grew in their nursery trays. The plants will be more anchored and sturdier and roots will develop along the buried portion of the stem. Be sure to pinch off the lower leaves when you plant them.
Spinach – plant a few rows of spinach every few weeks to ensure a continuous supply.
Feed your young veggies every two weeks with a water-soluble fertiliser and keep a sharp eye on germinating weeds between the rows.
Put out snail bait amongst strawberry plants and provide a mulch of saw dust, bark chip to help prevent the fruit from touching the soil. Pick the fruit frequently to encourage new ones.
Water all citrus trees deeply, once a week. Also look at thinning out peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums when they are about pea-size, this will help give a better yield. They will also need a second application of a general fertiliser suitable for fruiting plants look at using flower power or gwano pellets. Continue spraying and baiting against fruit fly and codling moth.
You can also sow more parsley, chives and basil seeds in pots to keep on a sunny kitchen windowsill.
REMEMBER Sunday, 15 October, is SA Garden Day – time to put down your tools, take it easy, have a garden party, bask on your balcony, visit your favourite garden centre … whatever rocks your daisies! It’s all about celebrating, enjoying and patting yourself on the back for all the hard work done in your garden.
