July is all about colourful comforts in the garden and enjoying the hearty harvest winter has to offer. Keep your beds looking lush with a sensational selection of flowers available from your GCA Garden Centre. Don’t forget your July maintenance to help your garden stay in top shape and ready for the last cold stretch. Enjoy the journey with your landscape and take some time to appreciate the remarkable changes of Mother Nature.

Beat the winter blues

• Surround yourself with colourful comforts available at nurseries now: primose, alyssum/lobularia, violas, pansies, verbena, Primula malacoides, Primula obconica, Primula acaulis, and ornamental kale.
• Robust succulents: Aloe Hedgehog, aloe Ferrox, and aloe Speciosa.
• Gems: Krantz aloe, Basuto kraal aloe, nandina, viburnum, camellia, holly and Elaeagnus.
• Indoor babies: Move indoor plants to warmer parts of the house if needed. Also check that your plants are getting enough light.

A flying reminder: Help the birds out and ensure your birdbath and bird feeder is well-stocked. Food is scarce for the flyers during the winter months.

Everything edible

• Garden centre treasures: Fig, olive, grape, cherry, peach, plum, and apple trees are available at GCA Garden Centres from July.
• Harvest now: Horseradish, asparagus, celeriac, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and waterblommetjies.
• Split & divide: Divide your asparagus and rhubarb now for a larger yield and remember to mulch well after transplanting.
• Support: Stake broad beans and Brussels sprouts to give them more support and increase growth.
• Feed: Remember to feed your winter veg seedlings with nutritious fertilisers and compost. Also, feed your spring bulbs and clivias now.
• Mulch up: Much beds well to retain warmth and moisture.
• Water down: Be careful of overwatering during winter every 3^rd day should be sufficient.

Top tip: Use bird netting or frost cover sheets to deter birds while also allowing light and air into the veggie garden.

Perfect pruning & maintenance

A little off the top: Deciduous shrubs, golden shower, barleria, ribbon bush, wild dagga, westringia, and hydrangeas. Also cut back bougainvilleas that have finished flowering.

Hard pruning: Fruit trees should be pruned substantially to adjust their structure and to remove any sick or diseased branches. At least 40% of the tree should be pruned out, especially low growing rootstock suckers and water sprouts. Also, remove any grey, non-fruiting shoots but leave the reddish 1-year-old shoots.

Cut away: All dead wood, diseased branches and leaves, large trees casting unwanted shade. Remember to add all this organic matter to the compost heap.

Check your tools: Sharpen your garden blades, lawnmower blades, and replace any old pruning shears. Remember to get your lawnmower and edge cutters serviced too, spring is going to be busy!

Rose care: Start pruning roses at the end of the month and spray with Kumulus afterwards. Feed them with a rose fertiliser and apply a new layer of mulch around the bushes. Also transplant roses that need to be moved now. Seal pruning wounds and spray with fungicide as wasps like to lay eggs in newly pruned, soft areas.

Fertilise your rose bush roots after pruning with bonemeal, compost, or phosphate. Most rose fertilisers have a low middle number that is ideal for root feeding.

Top tip: Visit your GCA Garden Centre for advice on products to help seal pruning wounds as well as which sprays and fertilisers to use after fruit tree and rose pruning.

There’s much on the maintenance to-do list this month, for which you will be well rewarded! Make sure your beds are ready to brave the cold and bring in some colour with balmy blooms. A little pruning maintenance and mulch goes a long way in helping your bushes and trees through harsh winter climate changes. Head over to your GCA Garden Centre and see what other inspirations await you.