The December garden is ablaze with water-wise day lilies and agapanthus, brightly coloured roses, fuchsias and hydrangeas. Remember to remove faded flowers and mow your lawn regularly. It’s also the perfect time to cheer up your outdoor areas with containers full of brightly coloured summer-flowering annuals.

Annuals

• Fill colourless spaces in your garden with summer-flowering bedding plants or plant them in containers and position randomly to create instant colour.
• Sow seeds of fast-growing alyssum, bedding begonia, candytuft, marigold, salvia, Californian poppy, portulaca and nasturtium.
• Feed summer annuals regularly with a balanced fertiliser. Remember to deadhead your plants on a regular basis to keep them flowering for a longer period of time.

Perennials

• Plant seedlings of aquilegia, hollyhock, Michaelmas daisy, tuberous begonias, Shasta daisy, foxgloves, kingfisher daisies, gazanias, Barberton daisies, heliotropium, hypoestes, lobelia cardinalis, catmint, gloriosa daisies and penstemon.

Roses

• With the second flush of rose blooms in full swing, remember to remove spent flowers.
• Water roses regularly and deeply; three or more times a week if the weather is very hot.
• Spread a thick layer of mulch around rose plants, remembering to keep the mulch away from the stem. Apply a handful of granular rose fertiliser once a month and water in well.

Mulch

• The most water-wise TIP for any summer gardener is to mulch. Spread a thick 5cm-deep layer of mulch – chipped bark, pine needles or any other organic material – across bare soil in and around plants and shrubs. This serves to reduce evaporation and to keep the soil cool.

Lawn Care

• Kikuyu lawn needs to be mowed twice a week. Avoid cutting the grass too short; rather lift the blades of the lawnmower. This encourages the grass to grow longer and protects it from scorching.
• Water deeply once a week during hot, dry weather.

Shrubs

• Ensure the soil around camellias is kept moist for a good crop of flowers next winter.
• Hydrangeas flower generously at this time and need regular and thorough watering, particularly on hot days. Spray the undersides of the leaves to discourage red spider mite.
• Daisy bushes are useful for filling gaps. Marguerite daisies are compact and very floriferous. Two long-flowering, indigenous daisies are felicias, with flowers in shades of blue, and Euryops pectinatus, with yellow blooms and grey-green leaves.

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Words and image: Home magazine