Granny Mouse Country House & Spa, with its distinctive “home-away-from-home” feel and serene and picturesque location along the Lions River, is known for its beautiful garden setting. “The kind of garden guests would love to roll up and transplant at home” says General Manager, Sean Granger. “It’s certainly a tranquil hideaway that’s perfect for soothing away the stresses and strains of daily life- or for celebrating Garden Day with a garden party.
This Garden Day, why not take a break from the hard work of planting, watering, weeding, and mulching, and enjoy the beauty of your garden and everything it has to offer. This could be as small as relaxing with a good book in your favourite spot to creating a flower crown to wear. Or for a more social scene, you could invite your neighbours over for sundowners in the veggie garden, throw a tea party with your besties, have cake at your closest community garden or simply host a braai on the lawn. The options are endless.
Before you get cosy in your garden, or send out the invitations, make sure your garden is looking its best for the summer season:
· Spread a generous layer of compost throughout the garden as well as areas where new planting will be done. Compost acts as a soil conditioner as well as mulch, ensuring a nourishing, moist, weed-free environment to grow happy, healthy plants.
· The days are (slowly) heating up and, for most of South Africa, the rain should start soon. Good for the plants, yes, but equally good for weeds. Weed your garden regularly before the weeds have a chance to take over or go into seed. Mulch as much as possible. It not only keeps the soil moist and cool, but also keeps those pesky weeds at bay.
· Keep a lookout for slugs and snails. Spread an organic snail bait or put out snail traps around and under plants in the early evening.
· If you have laid down lawn dressing during the early spring months, your lawn should be looking green and lush by the time October arrives.
· During the warmer months, let your lawn grow a little longer, as the length will help shade the roots and this will reduce the amount of water it will require. If the new growth has a yellow tinge, then fertilise it with some 5:1:5 and water well after fertilising.
· If you need a new lawn, look at installing instant lawn sods. But do not take short cuts when it comes to soil preparation. Dig the area over to remove all weeds and stones. Add copious amounts of compost and bone meal and rake until smooth and level. Water the soil lightly before laying the sods tightly together, filling any cracks with fine compost or commercial lawn dressing.
· To ensure that your summer garden is full of flowers and bursts of colour, now is the time to sow seeds and plant seedlings. Easy flowers to grow from seeds include alyssum, asters, celosia, cosmos, lobelia marigolds, nasturtiums, zinnias and sunflowers.
· Summer seedlings to plant now include impatiens, begonias, bedding dahlias, dianthus, gazanias, petunias, salvias and verbena. Also, to keep your summer-flowering shrubs such as hydrangeas, hibiscus and fuchsias in good form, it is a good time to fertilise them now with 3:1:5 or 5:1:5 fertiliser. Be sure to prune back any spring-flowering shrubs that have faded, and you can also fertilise these, such as camellias and azaleas, with 5:1:5 to keep them looking at their best.
· Look at buying tall annuals like aquilegia, campanula, and delphinium in colour pots to fill up bare spots in mixed beds. Border your flower beds spectacularly with Carex ‘Evergold’, a clump-forming ornamental grass with narrow yellow and white, green-edged leaves.
Hot tip: Petunias are insanely popular as a summer bedding plants but can’t be planted in the same place every season. It is better to rotate certain annuals to prevent the build-up of dominating pests or soil pathogens.
· Look at trying out different chilli varieties. They are always fun to grow!
· This is the perfect time to sow seeds of summer vegetables into prepared beds, such as carrots, beetroots, beans, pumpkin, marrows, cucumbers, rocket and radishes.
· For tomatoes, eggplant, chillies, green peppers and lettuce, it is easier to sow the seeds into seed trays and wait until they germinate before you plant them into the beddings, or even simpler, buy already grown seedlings from your local nursery. Putting a thin layer of straw over the sown seeds will help prevent the beds from drying out in the warm weather.
· This is a good time to plant annual herbs such as mint, sweet basil, coriander, dill and oregano. You can also look at planting herbs that your pets will love, such as pet grass, catnip and borage. To keep the herbs growing well, pick them regularly and feed them twice a month with a liquid fertiliser at half the recommended strength. As mints can be invasive, rather plant them in pots. You can sink them, pot and all, into the soil as the mint will not mind being kept prisoner. Plant all the mints for cooling summer cordials.
· It is during October when your roses should be putting on a marvellous display. It is wonderful to decorate your home with roses that have been picked from your own gardens, however, remember as long as they go straight into a vase of cold water, and also remember not to pick more than 50% of the flowers off any particular rose plant as this will seriously set the plant back, and can cause root shock.
For those that don’t mind watching nature take care of itself, no major fuss needs to be put over the aphids that are on your roses in the beginning – they are not harmful and provide great food for ladybirds and birds alike. Water your roses at least twice a week in the warm weather.
Article Courtesy of www.sanda-marketing.com
