How to maintain a South African garden in February

Keep both your ornamental and edible gardens happy with these tips.

Ornamental garden:

• Use the hose pipe and water all those drought-hardy plants that helped you save water throughout the summer.
• Acid-loving plants with yellowing leaves need a mineral boost. Spray them with Trelmix and mulch with peat.
• Control rose aphids by dosing plants with a systemic insecticide such as Efekto Aphicide or Kombat Aphids.
• Prune all your overgrown shrubs, especially in temperate and subtropical climes.
• Lightly prune roses towards the end of the month to encourage a wonderful autumn flower flush. Feed and mulch the bushes at the same time.
• Continue feeding summer bulbs to enable them to store enough food to flower again.

Edible garden:

• You can start sowing seeds for spring and autumn crops such as lettuce and onions.
• Start preparing strawberry beds by digging in well-rotted kraal manure or compost and a few handfuls of general fertiliser.
• Feed all deciduous fruit trees once the harvest is over and renew the mulch around their roots.
• Feed lemon trees with 3:1:5 or an organic fertiliser and water regularly.
• Potatoes can be dug up now, cleaned and stored.