Add a little colour to your garden

Gardening in May is like putting a baby to bed, you clean it up by removing all the refuse, feed it to make it strong for cold months ahead, play around a while by planting something new and kiss it good night and cover it warmly with an organic blanket, before putting out the light.

Prime time

The leaves of heavenly bamboos (Nandina domestica and N. ‘Pygmaea’) will start turning rusty red.

Camellia sasanqua hybrids, which can tolerate more sun than the japonicas, will be in flower.

In the indigenous patch you will have much eye candy with wild dagga, ribbon bush, Cape honeysuckle and the very elegant Strelitzia reginae (bird of paradise), what more can one ask of late autumn?

Food gardening

Sow broad beans, radishes, spinach, peas, kale, broccoli, kohlrabi, cauliflower, leeks, cabbages, carrots and lettuce.

Pests and problems

Roses – keep on spraying against fungal disease to stop the plants from defoliating.

Keep a sharp eye on aphids, which will be appearing on new growth, and clear up all fallen fruit and old vegetable plants that have stopped producing.

Keep on spraying conifers against Italian aphids.

Must do’s

Cut back Michaelmas daisies, obedience plants (Physostegia), penstemons, yarrow (Achillea) and chrysanthemums.

If their clumps have become too thick, you can divide and replant them too. Water and mulch (with acidic compost) camellias, azaleas, rhododendrons and magnolias.

The first spring-flowering bulbs should be up now. Water them well twice a week and start foliar feeding with a water-soluble fertiliser or apply specialised bulb food. Feed sweet peas every fortnight.

Limpopo

Winter colour run: plant pansies and violas to your hearts content.

Remember to feed them regularly with a foliar fertiliser. Keep on deadheading blown flowers and pinching out young seedlings to encourage bushy plants that will stretch your flower harvest.

Hot tip: Plant some bulbs and annuals together in containers that you can move around easily, creating instant spot colour on the patio or in the garden.

Fungal foes: look out for root rot and wilt.

All the dew in the mornings will bring on lawn fungus – keep a watch for brown patches.

Your local nursery can help with the right products to use.

Garden graft: Install tree rings around newly planted trees as this keeps water and nutrients contained around the trees.