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Posts Tagged ‘ Phlox ’

April in the Garden Checklist Gardening Checklist

Posted on: March 9th, 2021 by Shahnee Stockigt No Comments

Like the calm before the cool, winter preparations are smooth sailing this month with Life is a Garden’s crisp April checklist. Gardening during the cooler months definitely has its own challenges, but also so many exciting flowers and veggies to look forward to. Did someone say spring bulbs already? Head over to your GCA Garden Centre and let’s plant right in!

 

Chillax with flowers
  • Bulba-licious beauties: You can plant all spring-flowering bulbs now, hooray! Bulbs with fingers or claws, like ranunculi, should be planted with their fingers pointing downwards. Try plating small bulbs like anemone, leucojum, muscari, lachenalia, tritonia, and ranunculus, or larger bulbs such as hyacinth, freesia, and Dutch iris.
  • Pretty and pleasing: April is the perfect time to buy and plant out pretty primula, poppy, pansy, and gazania seedlings.
  • Indoor inspiration: Spathiphyllum, known also as Peace lily, is an easy-care, low-light houseplant with majestic, long-lasting white blooms.
Leucojum
Ranunculus
Dutch Iris
Primula
Spathiphyllum Peace lily
  • Colourful corners: Try planting a corner of ericas, restios, leucadendrons, and Proteas – they provide stunning autumn and winter colour.
  • Balmy blooms: Plant cool-season annuals at the base of bare-stemmed bushes. Choose sun lovers like alyssum, calendulas, dwarf snapdragons, lobelias, Namaqualand daisies, phlox, and pansies.
  • Bedding babe: Available in many bright hues, Cineraria enjoy moist soil in semi-shade beds.
  • Pot of purple: Lavender is waiting to perk up your patio pots with an easy-going purple flush.
leucadendrons
Lobelias
Cineraria
Lavender
Feeding and frost
  • Feed aloes and flowering succulents for a glorious winter show.
  • If you’re living in a frost-prone area, be sure to purchase some frost protection from your GCA Garden Centre before winter arrives in full force.
  • Continue feeding your evergreen cool-season lawn to ensure it remains lush during winter.

 

In the grow-zone
  • Grow garlic bulbs, which you can purchase from your GCA Garden Centre. Pick a sunny spot with well-drained soil and plant the cloves about 15cm apart in drills of about 7cm deep.
  • Plant a lemon tree now to enjoy summer lemonade on the rocks!
  • Veggies to be sown now include: peas, parsnips, carrots, onion ‘Texas Grano’ (short-day varieties), beetroot ‘Bulls Blood’ (the leaves provide extra vitamins for winter), broad beans, winter cauliflower, and good old broccoli.

 

Green steam ahead
  • Start sowing herb seeds in windowsill containers. Avoid leaving your babies near glass overnight as the cold chill may affect their growth.
  • Revitalise your veggie beds to boost winter crops and give roots added nutrients. Mix in a hearty dose of compost to your soil with a handful of organic bone meal.
  • Prune back old canes of raspberries and blackberries that have finished fruiting.
  • Feed citrus trees with a general fertiliser and a handful of Epsom salts.
Garlic bulbs
Lemon tree
Sow herb seeds
Prune rasberries

Enjoy your time chilling out and ticking off your April checklist. Ride the wave of cool-season thrills and all that’s up for grabs in the garden. Whether you’re maintaining, sowing, planting, or pruning, there’s always something to do in the backyard. Life is a Garden – welcome the refreshing autumn breeze into yours.

January in the Garden Checklist January Check List

Posted on: December 21st, 2020 by Shahnee Stockigt No Comments
January in the Garden Life is a Garden

The new year is always a great time to start afresh and get back into the garden. Remove any tired or spent annuals and fill the gaps with new babies that will flower into autumn. Planting fresh herbs and veggies will also help you stick to those healthy New Year’s resolutions. Happy 2021, dear green fingers, and please do remember that your Life is A Garden!

What to do in the January garden
  • There is still enough time to sow Eschsholzia, Lobelia, and Phlox for an abundance of summer and autumn colour.
  • Water regularly during dry spells.
  • Put out snail bait after rainfall or after watering in the evening.
  • If yellow patches appear on the lawn, this is an almost sure sign of lawn caterpillar, also known as armyworm.
January Check list
Snail Bait
Lawn Caterpillar Army worm
January checklist

Tip: Use a thick, moist towel placed over a patch at night. If lawn caterpillars are the culprit, they will still be foraging on the lawn in the morning when you lift the towel. Consult your local GCA Garden Centre for a remedy.

  • Colourful Begonias are available in trays to liven up semi-shade and shady areas.
  • Deadhead hydrangeas and use the beautiful blooms in dry arrangements.
  • A light summer pruning of your roses will help to extend quality flowering into late autumn.
  • Gently prune lavender plants that have stopped flowering to encourage an autumn flush.
  • Mulch, mulch, mulch to beat the heat and save water.
January Checklist
January checklist
What to do in the January veggie garden
  • Most veggies need 60 to 90 days to harvest so if we are sowing in January, we need to think about what we will eat fresh from the garden in March and April. Never sow the whole seed packet at once as it literally contains from around 50 to several hundred seeds, so rather sow in 14-day intervals to achieve a continuous harvest.
  • If your mint, basil or sage is looking tired and leggy, re-sow them now.
  • Plant sweet peppers as seedlings - they are tasty in summer salads and many other dishes.
  • Keep protecting your fruit and veggies from fruit flies.
  • Feed your fruit trees, granadillas and veggies.

Tip: Never fertilise a plant when it is dry.

  • Try some of the decorative edibles in your flower beds for a change. The pretty red, pink, white and yellow stems of Swiss chard are very colourful. The fine-textured, ferny purple leaves of bronze fennel are a wonderful contrast to bolder textured foliage in the garden. Their purple colour is also stunning when placed near shrubs with lime green leaves like Duranta ‘Sheena’s Gold’.
  • Keep the herb garden full by planting chives, oregano, marjoram, thyme, sage and coriander.
January check list
January checklist
January Checklist
January checklist
January checklist
January Checklist

Look out for plants wilting in the summer heat, especially in dry weather. Give plants a deep watering at night and mulch around them. There are also water retention products that you can use – these will be are available at your local GCA Garden Centre. Remember, you can always get great gardening advice at your GCA Garden Centre.

September in the Garden September Check List

Posted on: August 27th, 2020 by Shahnee Stockigt No Comments

September always kicks off with Arbor Week and this year it officially kicks off on Monday 31 August and runs until Friday 4 September.

  • Common tree of the year is the Cape ash or essenhout Ekebergia capensis, which is a stunning, lush evergreen tree that grows in many parts of the country, except the regions with heavy frost. It has fragrant flowers and its fruit attracts many birds and mammals.
  • The second tree of the year is the baobab or kremetart Adansonia digitata. Also known as the upside-down tree, it dominates the Limpopo landscape with its swollen trunk and limbs. It yields the coveted cream-of-tartar fruits and can be grown in frost-free areas.

Tip: The initiative of Arbor Week is to promote the greening of communities. Celebrate Arbor Week by planting either of the above two trees or any other trees or shrubs. If they are indigenous and water-wise that would be a bonus. It is said that Life is a Garden … so create yours and celebrate the plants you love most.

Life is a Garden - Cape ash or essenhout Ekebergia capensis
Life is a Garden - baobab or kremetart Adansonia digitata
Sow edibles

There is a multitude of both flowering and edible seeds that can be sown now. Visit your local GCA Garden Centre to see the range and perhaps consider one or more of the many tomato varieties available to sow now:

  • Roma – Firm, fleshy with few seeds. Great for canning and cooking. Fairly long shelf life. High yields, it requires a trellis or stakes.
  • Heinz – Large fruit with rich tomato flavour. One of the first tomatoes to be used to make Heinz ketchup. Requires a trellis or stakes
  • Cherry tomatoes – Several on the market. Bite-size and has a delicious flavour, is small and round and can be eaten whole in salads.
  • Cherry yellow pear – An heirloom variety with small yellow pear-shaped fruit.
  • Oxheart – Another Heirloom tomato with enormous heart-shaped fruit. Mild, sweet flavour. Requires staking.

Tip: There are rainbow coloured cherry tomatoes such as Green Zebra, Clear Pink, Black striped and even Green Sausage seeds available for those of you that want to be a little different and create a talking point at the dinner table.

Life is a Garden sow tomatoes
Life is a Garden - Heinz
Life is a Garden sow tomatoes
Life is a Garden - Sow tomatoes
What to Plant

Our indigenous Clivias are favourites worldwide and it’s not difficult to see why when they bloom in September.

  • Beautiful trumpet-shaped flowers
  • Clivias do well in pots.
  • They readily multiply and spread to fill shady beds.

Tip: There are many different hybrid Clivias. If you are a Clivia fan or would like to see some of the more unusual Clivias, take some time off and visit a local Clivia show this spring.

Read more: https://www.lifeisagarden.co.za/clivias-for-shade

What to Spray
  • Spray your fruit trees preventatively every 2 weeks for Codling Moths and Fruit Flies.
  • Only start spraying after about 80% of the flower petals have dropped so that you give the bees enough time to pollinate the flowers.
  • Make sure you alternate the insecticides you use so that the fruit fly cannot build up a resistance to anyone insecticide. Ask your local GCA Garden Centre for assistance.

Tip: It would be wise to use spraying in conjunction with a fruit fly trap.

What to Spray
  • Spray your fruit trees preventatively every 2 weeks for Codling Moths and Fruit Flies.
  • Only start spraying after about 80% of the flower petals have dropped so that you give the bees enough time to pollinate the flowers.
  • Make sure you alternate the insecticides you use so that the fruit fly cannot build up a resistance to anyone insecticide. Ask your local GCA Garden Centre for assistance.

Tip: It would be wise to use spraying in conjunction with a fruit fly trap.

What to Feed
  • Spring is the correct time to feed the plant roots to activate good root growth at the beginning of the season. Good roots make good, strong plants. This is most applicable to lawns and leafy plants.
  • Flowering plants, shrubs and fruit trees will benefit from early season fertilising too. Your local GCA Garden Centre can advise you on the best fertilisers to use.

Tip: When you ask your local GCA Garden Centre for advice be sure to mention your preference for either chemical or organic fertiliser.

Bedding plants

Focus on annual Phlox

  • The flowers are mostly flat and star-shaped in a variety of colours including violet, pink, blue, red, white and cream. Flowers are fragrant and should be deadheaded regularly to encourage more flowers.
  • Phlox prefers full sun to light shade, require good drainage and well-composted soils.

Tip: Phlox are easy to care for as long as you understand that they prefer moist soil and that drying out too much hinders growth and flowering.

Balcony or pot plants

Cape daisies or Osteospermums:

  • Indigenous eye-catching flowers in a range of colours.
  • Easy to grow.
  • They flower freely and love to cascade over the sides of pots or troughs.

Read more: https://www.lifeisagarden.co.za/osteospermum

Focus on annual Phlox
Water-wise

Its heritage month so why not brag about our own indigenous plants a little?

  • Cape honeysuckles Tecoma capensis:
    • Flower mostly in autumn but sometimes flower sporadically throughout the year.
    • Can be used as a formal or informal hedge.
    • Flower colour ranges from red, yellow,orange and salmon.
    • Attract birds and butterflies.
  • Both the kingfisher daisy (Felicia bergeriana) and the blue marguerite (Felicia ammelloides) have:
    • Striking small blue daisy-like blue flowers with button-like yellow centres.
    • Both have variegated forms and are all gems in the front of garden borders or in mixed containers.
Inland gardening

Spring fever is in the air, here are a few things you may forget to look at in the garden:

  • New beds on a slope and newly terraced areas should be planted up with groundcovers so that they can bind the soil before the summer rains.
  • Consider beautiful arches, arbour benches, obelisks and other decorative items that will add a new dimension or feature to your garden.

Tip: Spring is the time that garden centres feature new and exciting products as well as loads of explosively colourful plants – do yourself a favour and go into your favourite GCA Garden Centre…. you will not be disappointed!

Coastal gardening

The bulk of spring planting is almost behind us and that gives you a little breathing space to look at:

  • Removing any rust on metal features in the garden before the summer rains start, (excludes the Cape winter rainfall region).

Tip: Baking soda and steel wool are a home remedy you may want to try.