Garden To-Do / September
Spring has arrived, and the first thing most gardeners here notice is not the new growth, it is the damage. After months of winter fronts, salt-laden winds and the odd berg, many plants are carrying burnt leaf edges, browned-off tips and a generally tired look. The good news is that most of it is cosmetic, and September is the month to tidy up, feed the soil, and get the garden moving again.
The days are getting noticeably longer and warmer. Daytime highs climb to around 20 to 21°C, and overnight lows sit around 12 to 13°C, still cool enough that you will not be watering every day. The light changes too; there is a brightness and warmth to September mornings that the garden responds to quickly.
September marks the return of the south-easterlies. The winter frontal pattern is fading, and the prevailing summer wind starts to reassert itself, often gusty in the afternoons. If you have been meaning to stake anything, or if winter loosened a tree in the sand, now is the time to fix it before the wind picks up for summer.
Rain becomes less predictable now. You may still catch the tail end of a winter front, or you may get a dry run into October. Do not assume the rain will keep doing the watering for you; start checking new plantings and anything recently fed, as fertiliser and dry soil is a bad combination.
This is the big one this month. Salt burn from winter storms shows up as brown or crispy leaf edges, especially on the windward side of the plant. The damage itself is done, you cannot green up a burnt leaf, but you can help the plant push past it. Cut away the worst of the damaged growth, give the plant a good deep watering to flush any salt sitting in the root zone, and follow up with a light feed to encourage fresh new leaves. Most established plants bounce back quickly once the warmth kicks in. If a plant is consistently burnt every winter, it is telling you something: either it needs a more sheltered spot, or it is the wrong plant for that position.
Most people do not think about windbreaks until the damage is done, and September, when you are staring at burnt foliage, is the perfect moment to start planning. A well-placed hedge or screen of tough, wind-tolerant shrubs on the prevailing wind side of your garden changes everything for the plants behind it. It does not need to be a solid wall; a permeable screen that filters the wind is actually better than a solid barrier, which creates turbulence on the other side. Good candidates for this coast include Coleonema, Polygala, Carissa, Syzygium, and indigenous milkwoods. Come in and talk to us about what would work for your specific setup.
September is when spring bedding really comes into its own. Petunias, marigolds, impatiens, salvias and gazanias are all ready to go in now, and they will give you colour right through to autumn if you keep them deadheaded and fed. Fill the gaps left by tired winter annuals, refresh your pots and hanging baskets, and give the beds a splash of life after the grey months.
This is the month to get your spring and summer vegetable garden started. Leafy greens like lettuce, spinach and kale can go in now and will crop quickly in the mild weather. Herbs are ready too: basil loves the warming soil, and parsley and coriander are still happy before the real heat arrives. Towards the middle and end of the month, plant tomatoes, peppers and chillies into their final positions in a warm, sheltered spot with good compost worked into the soil. We have a full range of seedlings in the nursery right now.
Buffalo and kikuyu lawns are waking up. Give them a good feed with a balanced lawn fertiliser to kick-start the spring growth, and mow regularly to encourage thickening. If you see bare or thin patches, now is the time to fill them, either by transplanting runners from a thicker area or by laying new turf. Do not scalp the lawn; keep the blade at a moderate height so the grass can shade its own roots as the days get warmer.
Top up mulch on all beds, this is the last comfortable window before the heat and wind of summer start drying things out. Pull weeds before they set seed. Check irrigation systems and fix any leaks or blocked emitters. If you added compost through winter, your soil should be in good shape; if not, a generous layer now still makes a difference. And enjoy the garden, September on the coast is one of the best months to be outside.
Indigenous plant of the month
Right on cue for September, the Polygala fruticosa is coming into its peak flowering, and it will keep going through to November. It carries clusters of bright magenta-purple flowers at the tips of its branches, each one with a distinctive little brush-like tuft that sets it apart from the pea flowers it resembles at first glance. The grey-green foliage is attractive year-round, and the overall habit is neat and compact without needing much pruning.
This is a proper coastal plant, native from the south-western Cape through to KwaZulu-Natal, naturally at home on mountain slopes and coastal hills. It handles sandy, well-drained soil (acid or alkaline), copes with wind and salt air, and is water-wise once established, which ticks every box for a St Francis Bay garden. Use it in a mixed indigenous border, as a filler in a sunny bed, in a large container, or plant a group of them for a mass of purple through spring and summer. It self-seeds freely, and the small seedlings transplant easily, so one plant soon becomes several.
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.
