Gardening in May

Expert tips and advice to help you grow your best garden yet from the gurus at Starke Ayres, West Coast Village.

•    Sow Sweet Peas and choose between the Tall climber variety, Multi flora or the dwarf type, Bijou. Bijou are very fragrant, easy to grow and a very good cut flower for vases or posies.

•    With more occasional rainfall figures it is the perfect time to plant winter veggies like peas, broccoli, broad beans, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, spinach, onions and turnips.

•    Replace summer annuals with fragrant Stocks, tall Delphiniums and Foxgloves for a country garden look. Hardy waterwise Aptenia, Plectranthus madagascariensis or Asystasia gangetica will tolerate shade and some sun.

•    It is still a wonderful time of the year for planting trees, shrubs, perennials and groundcovers. Some fragrant shrub options are Plumeria rubra, Gardenia augusta, Heliotropium arborescens and Brunfelsia pauci ora. Planting trees and shrubs don’t just provide shelter for birds, but also security and a natural food source. Consider planting Halleria lucida, Tecoma capensis and Leonotis leonurus.

•    With our lawns struggling, weeds are going to grow vigorously in the coming season and spraying with Lawntyl will surpress seed germination and stop wintergrass from establishing.

•    Feed flowering and fruiting veg with organic liquid fertilisers containing macro and micro nutrients such as Gorganic or Sea Secret.

•    Indoor plants have become an important part in the décor of homes, not only for their decorative qualities, but also because they are effective in purifying the air. We stock the top ten indoor plants starting with Scindapsus, Syngonium, Spathiphyllum, Monstera deliciosa, Sanseveria, Chamaedorea elegans and Anthuriums.

•    Consider using alternative water sources by installing a greywater system to reuse your bath and shower water in your garden. Tallas Dirty water pumps are perfect for pumping your greywater into the garden. To remove bad odour from greywater use Smell Away. It is a 100 % Natural product and contains billions of bene cial microbes improving the water quality.

•    Install a JOJO tank for the months when rainfall gures are low. They are immediately available in sizes ranging from 260L, 500 l, 750 l and 1000 litres and can be delivered right to your doorstep. Larger sizes are available on order.

FREE TALK:  Highlight your Winter Garden now:  Wed,17 May at
Starke Ayres Garden Centre West Coast Village 10am-11am