August In Your Garden

This quick checklist is to remind you what to do in your garden in August.

1 Eish! Go for ‘Evka’…

Pelargonium peltatum ‘Evka’ is an ivy geranium with red single flowers and white edged foliage – a fantastic combination that makes this hybrid pop with attractive colour. It has a semi-trailing habit and is ideal for pots, baskets and borders.

Flowering success with all types of pelargoniums relies on at least five hours of sun each day, water only when dry, and feeding as often as every two weeks, as these are hungry plants.

2 Lawns need love now

For the lawn, the low cut, spiking and firm raking, levelling out, generous feeding, and covering with a nutritious blanket of organic lawn dressing is called ‘the spring treatment’ and is normally done in August, while September is still fine for colder areas. This treatment is not recommended for tuft-forming grasses like ‘All Season’s Evergreen’ or ‘Shade Over’ and should only be applied to runner-type lawns like kikuyu and some of the tougher cynodon grasses. Berea or Durban grass should just be mown as you would normally do, before following the rest of the steps for spring treatment.

3 Pruning duties