We love spring! When you see the garden coming to life and flowers and fresh leaves appear like magic overnight it always gets one going and lets you know something exciting is on the way.
Crazy about Daisies
Osteospurmum also known as Cape Daisies are the darling of the spring in the garden and have become very popular as bedding plants, either to put in the border or in containers. Osteospurmum require full sun for the flowers to fully open. Keep well watered, especially the first two weeks after planting!
For best results feed your Osteospurmum with a general fertiliser such as Multifeed Flowergro. This will help promote flowering. Remove wilted flowers on a regular basis to prolong flowering.
Get the grass green on your side
Spring treatment for Kikuyu lawns:
Scarify to remove the dead mat. This can be done with a rotary lawnmower set low.
- Aerate with a garden fork especially in compacted high traffic areas. To solve drainage problems, coarse river sand mixed with compost can be brushed into these holes.
Top dress with Lawn Dressing and rake level. This will help the condition of the soil under the lawn and help with moisture retention through early summer. Lawn Dressing is like composting the lawn and Top Soil will raise the level of you lawn. One bag of Lawn Dressing covers 3 to 4m2
Feed with Wonder Organic Lawn fertiliser every four to six weeks. With “Bio-Carbon Green Boost” this organic fertiliser is kind to the environment and 10KG will cover an area of around 200m2 making it very economical to use. Organic fertiliser is slow release and can be used safely with any irrigation method but must be well watered at application to activate.
For quick release fertiliser on well-irrigated lawns we recommend Wonder Tub 7:1:3 Lawn and Foliage fertiliser repeated every six to eight weeks.
Grow your own Veggies
Growing your own veggies is like shopping in your own backyard! This time of the year the summer veggie range is huge and what should you plant? We recommend that you plant what you know your family will eat, there is no point in growing beans or cabbage and no one eats them. To grow the best veggies pick a spot that gets around five hours or more of sun a day. With liberal composting and feeding with Organic Vita-Boost they will reward you with a good crop. Using an organic fertiliser means they will be tougher which improves the taste for you and makes them more pest hardy as the tougher plants are harder work to eat so insects are less prevalent. If you do get a few pests you can spray with Oleum which is a safe spray on all your edibles.
Gardening with a cause
Last summer we helped one of our suppliers donate over thirty thousand rand to Child Welfare SA and this year the project is on again with a great range being offered each month. For every Emerald Collection plant sold R1 will go to the children.
The August selection includes different daisies as well as the ever popular blue Statice and red dwarf Tea Bush. The range gas been specially selected by Child Welfare green ambassador Tanya Visser from the Gardener to provide ongoing colour and easy gardening all year.