Garden To-Do / March
March is the month we wait for. The soil is still warm from summer, the air is cooling, and the harsh edge goes off the sun, which makes early autumn the best planting window of the whole year on this coast. Almost anything planted now settles in beautifully before winter.
Still lovely and mild, with daytime highs around 22 to 23°C easing back from the February peak, and comfortable nights around 16°C. Warm soil plus cooler air is exactly what new plantings want.
The relentless summer easterlies start to ease, though autumn can still produce blowy days and the odd warm berg wind from the interior. New plantings should still be staked and mulched against it.
Autumn brings some of our more reliable rain, often in decent frontal soaks, which is another reason planting now works so well. Keep an eye on new plantings between fronts; the rain helps, but it is not a substitute for watering-in.
Plant trees this month if you can, it is the single best time of year for it here. Dig a generous hole, mix in compost, stake firmly against the wind and mulch in a wide ring. Established trees need less water as the days shorten.
Plant hardy, water-wise and indigenous shrubs now so the autumn rain and warm soil do the establishment work for you. Divide overgrown summer perennials, and give hedges a final shape-up before growth slows.
Change of the guard: as summer annuals fade, plant out winter and spring colour like pansies, violas, snapdragons, stocks and calendulas. Sow bokbaai vygie seed now in sunny, sandy spots for a famous spring show.
The autumn veg garden starts in earnest: sow or plant broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, spinach, carrots, beetroot, lettuce, radishes, turnips and peas. Sow parsley and coriander too, both prefer the cooler months here.
This is the big compost month. Spread a thick layer over all your beds and let the earthworms and soil life work it in, no digging needed. Give the lawn its last feed of the season, and start a leaf pile as the first autumn leaves come down.
Indigenous plant of the month
One of our most handsome and obliging succulents, and a perfect candidate for autumn planting. The pig's ear forms neat clumps of thick, rounded grey-green leaves, usually edged in a fine red line, that look good every single day of the year. Then, in the cooler months, it sends up tall stalks topped with clusters of hanging, orange-red bells that the sunbirds cannot leave alone.
Plant it in full sun in well-drained soil and then largely leave it be, overwatering is the only way most people kill one. It is brilliant in rockeries, in pockets between paving, in containers, or planted en masse on a dry, sunny bank, and it shrugs off wind, salt air and drought, which makes it tailor-made for coastal gardens here. It grows to about a metre and is very easy to multiply from cuttings, so one plant soon becomes a colony to share.
Plant information with thanks to Wildflower Nursery (wildflowernursery.co.za).
See you at the nursery,
Clint
The Farmyard Nursery
Need a hand getting started? WhatsApp us or visit the nursery, and we will point you to the right plants for the season.
