At Grow Folk, we believe in the transformative power of nature. It’s our mission to help you cultivate a healthier, greener future, whether you’re tending to a sprawling farm or a small urban oasis. This June, let’s embrace the magic of the garden and foster a deeper connection with the living world around us.
Plant Seeds of Love this Youth Day
Many gardeners trace their lifelong passion back to a childhood gift – perhaps a resilient cactus, a miniature bonsai, or a fascinating Venus flytrap. With Youth Day on June 16th, why not spend quality family time amidst the calming embrace of plants and flowers? Instead of hitting the streets, visit your local garden centre with your teenagers. There, you can choose a living gift for them to love and nurture, just as they deserve to be loved and cared for. Imagine the joy of watching something grow, much like the young minds in your life.
Midwinter Magic: Unleash Your Garden’s “Wow” Factor
Don’t let the idea of a “bleak midwinter garden” fool you! June brings an abundance of beauty. Many plants, both indigenous and exotic, burst into bloom during the cooler months. And the foliage? Absolutely spectacular! The colours of plants like conifers, nandinas, and leucadendrons intensify dramatically in the cool air, adding incredible depth and vibrance to your landscape. Want to create a stunning focal point? Let the Carolina Jasmine (Gelsemium sempervirens) trail gracefully over a stylish trellis. Its golden-yellow flower trumpets will provide a dazzling display for many winters to come.
Rose Revival: Nurturing Your Beloved Blooms
If your roses weren’t quite at their best last summer, the culprit might be compacted soil, preventing essential air and water from reaching the roots. To give them a new lease on life:
- Amend the Soil: Gently dig in organic materials like peanut shells (check out our range of soil substrates on growfolk.co.za for other great options!) and quality composts and fertilisers to a depth of at least 30cm around the rose. This will significantly improve drainage and aeration.
- Relocate for Radiance: If other plants are competing for root space, consider transplanting your rose into a container (we have a fantastic selection of planters to suit any style!) and sinking it into the ground, or moving it to a new, sunnier spot with better light and water access.
Feathered Friends & Sweet Treats
Remember our precious birdlife! Regularly top up your bird baths with fresh water. For a special treat, fill a few pine cones with a mix of peanut butter and bird seed and hang them among your tree branches. You can also invest in a feeding table and cover it with straw and leave out pieces of fruit for those sweet-loving feathered friends who might struggle to find natural sources in the neighbourhood.
Inland Gardening: Planting for Spring’s Promise
For our inland gardeners in Gauteng, Free State, North West, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo:
- Dormant Delights: Now’s the perfect time to plant dormant deciduous plants – those that might look like a bunch of sticks now, but are just waiting to burst forth in spring! Get those roses, vines, and fruit trees in the ground and fed. Don’t forget beautiful deciduous blossom trees like flowering peach, plum, cherry, quince, and crab apple – the bees will thank you for their spring blossoms!
- Lawn Love: Avoid walking on frosted lawns to prevent moss and algae growth. Water every two to three weeks and mow as needed. Feed lawns with Bio Ganic for Lawns is an ideal organic food for all lawns. It is suitable for new and established lawns and its slow-release properties help prevent thatch build up.
- Variegated Vigilance: Remove any green growth from variegated plants like coprosma to prevent them from reverting to solid green.
- Clivia Care: Keep your clivias relatively dry now to encourage those beautiful flower spikes.
- Pruning & Protection: Towards the end of June, prune vines, plum, and apricot trees. Then, spray with lime sulphur. Remember to always buy fresh stock, as last year’s supply will have lost its potency, and only use on completely dormant plants.
- Compost Continues: Keep your compost heap active and working well over winter by turning it regularly. If it gets too dry, damp it down after turning.
- Winter Watering: After a cold, dry wind, give your garden a deep drink early in the morning, allowing plants to dry off during the day. Ensure winter-flowering plants, especially camellias and emerging bulbs, are watered regularly for a long-lasting display.
Coastal Gardening: Thriving in the Mild Winter
For our coastal friends in the Western Cape, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal:
- Focal Plant Finesse: Enhance your winter landscape with eye-catching focal plants like flax (Phormium) and cordyline. Neaten them up by removing old flower stalks and leaves from the flax. For cordylines, use a ladder to pull off the skirt of old leaves below the fresh ones, and remove any leftover stringy flower stems from summer.
- Palm Perfection: Give your palms a refresh by removing old leaves where possible.
- Sweet Pea Success: Regularly pick sweet pea flowers to encourage an abundance of new blooms.
- Subtropical Nourishment: In subtropical areas, feed your paw-paw trees, ensuring you water them well before and after.
- Citrus & Solutions: Your lemon trees should also get a feed now (garden citrus trees benefit from feeding in September, January, April, and June/July, while potted ones need more regular foliar fertiliser). If you notice yellowing leaves, correct them with a micro-element mixture from Grow Folk.
- Veggie Boost: Feed broad beans, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, peas, and spinach with a high-nitrogen and high-phosphate granular fertiliser or foliar feed.
- Weed Watch: Keep an eye out for winter grass (Poa annua), an annual weed that germinates on lawns in winter. It appears as small clumps of bright green grass with fine brown seed heads, often overwintering in damp, shady areas. Apply a weed killer if needed. However, if the problem isn’t too severe, leave some of these grass weeds and their seeds for the birds – they love a good feast!
Ready to Grow? Visit Grow Folk Today!
This June, let’s cultivate not just plants, but also well-being and connection. For more in-depth information, specific plant care guides, and a comprehensive range of gardening essentials, head over to our website: https://growfolk.co.za/
Let’s make this autumn and the seasons ahead our most flourishing yet!
Happy Gardening,
The Grow Folk Team
