May in the Garden Checklist

Be a winter-winner this May by getting your garden maintenance in check, sowing cool-season seeds, and flowing with the rhythm of autumn’s last month. As we celebrate Africa Month, let’s honour our ingenious heritage while keeping our green fingers busy. And don’t forget Mother’s Day – Phlebodium makes the perfect indoor plant baby to gift the woman you adore!

Crispy Blooms to Plant

• Bulb up: Celebrate African colour with Sparaxis (Harlequin Flower), Ixia, and Tritonia. Add perennial bulbs like Sweet garlic (Tulbaghia fragrans), Weeping anthericum (Chlorophytum saundersiae), and Red-hot poker (Kniphofia praecox).
• Bush out: Pork bush (Portulacaria afra) is a local hero hedge – drought-resistant, fast-growing, and perfect as a barrier plant.
• Succ in: Aloes are in full swing – try Peri-Peri, Sea Urchin, and Porcupine varieties.
• The 4 P’s: Plant poppies, pansies, petunias, and primulas for cheerful winter colour.
• Rose bed revival: Pick long-stemmed roses now. Reduce watering if plants are in full leaf, but keep spraying. Edge rose beds with winter annuals like pansies, poppies, or compact snapdragons for a burst of colour.
• Split & divide: Japanese Anemones (Anemone japonica) and Obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana) are ready to be divided once flowering stops.

Be wise, fertilise: Winter annuals like stocks and larkspurs thrive with extra nitrogen. Feed with Flower & Fruit, which combines an organic base with slow-release nutrients plus water-soluble boosters for maximum performance.

Eat Like a Winter-Winner

• Eye candy: Plant ornamental kale between winter veggies. Companion plants include beetroot, violas, pansies, onions, nasturtiums, and spinach.
• Mixed masala: Interplant leafy greens and root crops with herbs like lavender, thyme, oregano, parsley, yarrow, and comfrey.
• Cuppa’ your own Joe: Try growing a coffee plant (Coffea arabica) indoors in bright light – imagine grinding your own beans!
• Un-gogga your cabbage: Use chopped-up old basil plants as mulch around cabbages to repel insects.
• If it’s yellow, it ain’t mellow: Remove yellow leaves from brassicas to prevent disease.
• Fruitful advice: Feed avocado trees with Bio Ocean and mulch well. In coastal and lowveld areas, also feed granadillas with Bio Ocean. Plant litchis and citrus, and keep mango trees dry before flowering.

Tricks of the Cool-Season Trade

• Prevent pests: Healthy soil, good drainage, mulch, and regular feeding with Bio Rock Root Builder or Bio Ocean = stronger plants with more flowers, fruits, and veg.
• Spray away: Keep spraying conifers with insecticide.
• Rake it, baby: Rake fallen leaves off lawns to prevent sunlight blockage, then compost them. Coastal gardeners can still apply one more dose of fertiliser before winter sets in.
• Freeze alert: Water between 9 AM and 3 PM to avoid frost damage.

Plants for Good Autumn Foliage

• Large gardens: American Ash, Formosan gum, Water oak, Pin oak, Swamp cypress.
• Medium gardens: Chinese maple, Birch, White stinkwood, Maidenhair tree.
• Small gardens: Washington thorn, Rosebud cherry.
• Berry-bearing beauties: Train Cotoneasters against walls, or try Beauty Berry, Heavenly bamboo, Rose hips, and Guelder rose for vibrant autumn colour.

With Atlantic Fertilisers Bio Ocean and Bio Rock Root Builder in your toolkit, your May garden will be nourished, resilient, and bursting with seasonal charm.