What flowers during January?
Summer-flowering annuals – visit your local nursery
Perennials: Daylilies, Begonia, Impatiens, perennial Salvia, Verbena, Tulbaghia, Phlox, Vinca, Vygies, Nierembergia, Cuphea, Canna, Gomphrena, Ageratum, Portulaca, Limonium
Shrubs: Coleonema, Felicia, Gardenia, Heliotrope, Hibiscus, Hydrangea, Roses, Spiraea, Strelitzia, Tecomaria, Viburnum
Climbers: Pandorea, Mandevilla, Bougainvillea
General Maintenance
- Prune overgrown shrubs back by a quarter, except those that will flower and produce berries in winter and spring, and deciduous climbers like Wisteria and ornamental vines.
- Trim leggy annuals, mulch with compost and foliar feed
- Tug out old flower stems of Inca lilies
- Feed flower beds with chicken manure, give a thorough soaking once a week and mulch to help plants cope with hot, dry conditions
- Feed Dahlias with liquid fertilizer and stake taller varieties. Keep a lookout for red spider mite
- Deadhead flowering plants regularly – plants allowed to produce seed put all their energy into this and stop flowering
- Mist-spray houseplants on hot days to provide extra moisture
- Rotate indoor and shady patio plants towards the light to ensure even leaf growth
- Remove and replace tired annuals, or cut back, feed and mulch
- When planning a new bed, group plants according to the water needs
To get rid of flies in your home:
- Garden hygiene – regularly remove rotting fruit and vegetables lying on the ground and pick up dog poop on the lawn every day. Consider a commercial composter to turn garden waste into compost, a worm farm to recycle things like vegetable peels into worm tea, and a tight-sealing bokashi bin to ferment all material like cooked food, safely and without emanating odours. Clear out anything that can hold standing water like the wheelbarrow. Leaving standing water around can also invite mosquitoes to breed.
- Use repellent herbs – fill up pots on your patio, at the backdoor, and even on a sunny kitchen windowsill with herbs like rosemary, lavender, mint, lemongrass and basil. Flies do not like them. You can also buy essential oils extracted from these herbs. Mix with a little water in a spray bottle and spritz your rooms frequently.
- Use pyrethrin based insecticides as fly repellents. Pyrethrin originates from chrysanthemum flowers and is biodegradable – it breaks down on exposure to light or oxygen.
Roses
- Water roses sufficiently, deadhead, and keep them well mulched
- Chafer beetles – large black and yellow – destroy the flowers. Try to catch by hand, and spray the Ludwigs range
- Keep feeding with 8:1:5
- Spray against black spot, red spider mite, mildew and aphids. Try the range of Ludwigs products
- Scale and Australian mealybug must be kept at bay. Try the systemic Makhro Agro Koinor if natural options fail. Add a drop of dishwashing liquid
What to sow?
- Alyssum, Marigolds, Portulacas, Zinnia, Celosia, Cosmos, Gypsophila, sunflowers
What to plant?
- Celosia, Salvia, Petunia, Impatiens, Vinca, Begonias, Marigolds, Portulaca.
Plant annual seedlings out in the late afternoon to give them the benefit of a cool night.
For shady areas:
- Paper Reed ‘Little Giant’ is a new and compact form of Egyptian papyrus with sturdy green stems that are topped with large tufted “mop heads” making it ideally suited to smaller gardens. It is more shade-tolerant than regular Cyperus papyrus. Plant it next to, or into, the water feature.
- ‘Tea Cups’ (Colocasia esculenta) is a magnificent elephant ear with dark green upturned leaves that form a cup. The leaf-petioles are dark, purplish-black which creates a striking contrast in the pond or garden. Grow in part shade to full sun in moist soil, or in water about 15cm deep.
- Common rush (Juncus effusus) is a reed that produces multiple culms arranged in dense tufts that grow about 1 meter tall. The narrow, smooth stems are rounded with pointed tips and no obvious leaves. These lustrous green culms are strong but flexible. In the summertime, unobtrusive coppery inflorescences appear along the side of the culms. This ornamental rush adapts to a wide variety of growing conditions but is found most often in sunny wetlands or water gardens. It performs well in full sun to part shade, planted in standing water to 15cm deep or moist soil. The common rush provides cover and nesting sites for wetland birds and other wildlife, so definitely a must-have in your garden.
PLANT COMBINATIONS – orange, blue, white
Try the new variegated Lavender – Lavandula heterophylla ‘Meerlo’ (available from Tulbagh Nursery in Clanwilliam), and add the beautiful orange Crocosmia to that. To extend the variegated theme, use Liriope muscari variegated in front. Other options to add: Orange Tecomaria, Salvia Black and Bloom, Buddleya davidii ‘Black Knight, white Iceberg roses, Limonium perezzi, Scabiosa blue.
Lawn
- Watch out for lawn caterpillar, treat with Margaret Roberts Organic Insecticide. Leave a damp towel overnight on infected areas, grey-green caterpillars sheltering underneath tell the story
- You’ve likely heard the numerous recommendations for using Bt pest control, or Bacillus thuringiensis, in the home garden. But what exactly is this and how does using Bt in the garden work? What is Bacillus Thuringiensis? Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is actually a naturally occurring bacterium, common in some soils, that causes disease in certain insects, most notably leaf and needle feeding caterpillars. It was first discovered in the early 1900s. The French were the first to advocate using Bt in the garden and by the 1960s, Bacillus thuringiensis products were available on the open market and were readily embraced by the organic gardening community. Controlling pests with Bacillus thuringiensis is dependent on its active ingredient, a crystal protein, which paralyzes the digestive system of the insect. The infected insect stops feeding and starves to death
Read more at Gardening Know How: Bt Pest Control: Info For Controlling Pests With Bacillus Thuringiensis https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/pesticides/using-bacillus-thuringiensis.htm - If the lawn grew out of control while you were on holiday, cut at maximum height and lower the blade with each cut. Shade grasses should be cut at a minimum of 8cm. Water well
- Feed lawns with Neutrog Sudden Impact
- Dollar Spot fungus is a problem in kukuyu lawns, when you see the lawn dying in small patches, spray with Koinor or Bumper
Vegetable Garden
What to do?
- Pull out veggies that are past their prime or diseased
- Weed and tidy overgrown beds. Leave the weed to create a mulch, but remove if the seedheads are mature
- Fertilize with a foliar feed, and chicken manure … preferably cow poo!
- Control infestations of whitefly, thrips, aphids and other pests with an organic spray like Ludwig’s insecticide if you don’t make your own
- Renew mulch on beds
- To green up yellow leaves of citrus trees, sprinkle Epsom salts around the drip line and foliar feed with trace elements
- Feed mangoes,avocados, lemons and granadilla vine
- Spray apricots, cherries, nectarines, peaches and plums against fruit fly
- Spray apples, pears and quinces against codling moth
- Treat grapevines against downy mildew
- Waterblommetjie tubers can be divided and replanted into containers or water baskets
- Spray chilli peppers, tomatoes and beans with a fine mist every day to increase fruit set
What to sow?
Beans, brinjals, broccoli, brussel sprouts, beetroot, carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, squashes, leeks, sweetcorn, radishes, spinach, tomatoes, green pepper, parsley, herbs, radishes Cape gooseberries, globe artichokes, cabbage, kohlrabi, lettuce
What to plant?
Tomatoes, chillies, basil, lettuce, celery, parsley, brinjal, chives, oregano, marjoram, thyme, sage, coriander, potatoes