Tackle Weeds and Nourish Your Soil
1: Get to grips with some serious hard weeding, ensuring all weed roots are removed and keep weeding throughout the growing season. Add plenty of compost on both new and existing beds, don’t dig it in as this will cause weeds to germinate.
Reimagine Your Garden Layout
2: Consider changes that could be made to improve the layout of the garden — new paths, seating areas, new flower borders, a new area to grow some healthy, tasty edibles or maybe a complete revamp of the whole outside plot.
Divide and Replant Overcrowded Perennials
3: Overcrowded perennials like Agapanthus, Dietes, Canna and Bulbinella can be divided now and replanted around borders.
Plant Summer Flowering Bulbs for Vibrant Colour
4: Summer flowering bulbs will produce a glorious display of colour if planted in groups. Try Watsonia in a variety of striking colours, Ixia (African corn lily), the ever-popular Dierama (Angels Fishing Rod) with its slender, arching stems, and Crocosmia, some varieties of which can grow to 2m tall. Other choices could include Gladioli, Amaryllis, Canna lilies, Eucomis (‘Pineapple flower’) and Liatrus.
Choose Drought-Tolerant Indigenous Plants
5: Grow some indigenous plant varieties that are drought-tolerant and suit local environments. Being fast-growing, they will soon fill flower borders with colour. Vibrant Gazanias, Osteopermums, Vygies and Diascias are very attractive to pollinators like bees and butterflies.
Sow Vegetables for a Festive Season Harvest
6: In the vegetable plot, seed potatoes planted in August and September will be ready to be harvested in December. If space is limited, use potato sacks or large bins with drainage holes. Beetroot, Radishes, Carrots, Bush and Runner Beans can be sown directly into prepared seed beds.
Repot Root-Bound Container Plants
7: Check containers for plant roots appearing through drainage holes, as this means the plant is root bound and has outgrown the container. Repot the plant in a size larger container with fresh compost and some fertiliser, watering well.
