Pool Party Prep

Arguably a gardener’s favourite season, spring is a much-welcomed treat after the dormancy of

a long winter. Some of your cold trooper annuals may now be coming to an end, signalling the exciting time to remove those frost covers and help the garden put on a few extra pounds of foliage! Here’s how to get the garden back in shape in preparation for summer pool parties and backyard entertaining.

Quick spring salad sowing

Show off your defrosted green fingers by sowing these yummies in full sun with compostenriched soil and early-morning watering. Simply pick up some seed packets and growing essentials such as compost, potting soil, and fertiliser at your local garden centre and you’re good to go.

Radishes

Sowing to harvest: 25 days Sow seeds 12 mm deep and 2,5 cm apart. When getting ready to harvest, dust some soil away before pulling them out to see their size. Younger radishes have a milder taste compared to more mature ones.

Mixed salad leaves

Sowing to harvest: 21 days Sprinkle seeds 30 cm apart and cover lightly with a thin layer of compost. Lettuce varieties do well in containers too and can handle a bit of shade throughout the day.

Spinach

Sowing to harvest: 30 days Seeds like to be planted in loose soil, 1 cm deep, and 30 cm apart. Grow your spinach in edible containers or raised beds and make sure to add a good dose of nitrogen-rich compost.

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Bring back the birds and the bees

Your garden’s best-kept pollination and pest-control secrets will be keen to get back in the game (and show off a few new additions to the family, hooray!). Welcome back these helpful visitors by planting some spring treats they’ll particularly enjoy.

Essential pollinators: Simply put, your harvest needs the bees and they need us. Create a pollen-rich flower border around your veggie garden with marigolds, sweet alyssum, and cool-season vygies. Allowing herbs to come to flower will give bees added sustenance.

Blooms for birds: Growing indigenous plants means more habitat creation for our local wildlife, while also increasing our native plant species reduced by urbanisation and deforestation. Bushy bulbine (Bulbine abbysinica), blue felicia bush (Felecia amelliodes), and African blood lily (Scadoxus puniceus) are some local bird favourites.

Try this: Egyptian starcluster (Pentas lanceolata) is a stunning butterfly-attracting shrub that produces red, pink, mauve, and white flower clusters in spring and summer.

Get the gin garden going

Enjoy DIY designer cocktails filled with aromatic herbs and flavoursome fruit. Purchase seedling trays from your favourite garden centre to plant straight into the ground or patio containers for easy access. Have fun experimenting with different herb and fruit flavour combinations.

Herbs: Plant dill, chervil, origanum, coriander, mint, rosemary, fennel, basil, anise, and summer savory in composted soil in an area with full sun.

Fruits: Apples, Cape gooseberries, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, pears, pineapples, strawberries, blackberries, and watermelon are all ready for rich soil and full sun.

"Entertaining outdoors or on the patio is what summer is all about – so make yours flourishing and fruitful during spring!"

Heavenly scent

Highly aromatic plants add a whole new dimension to the garden and truly bring the spring and summer spirit to life. Fill beds, edge borders, highlight pathways, or sweeten up patio containers with delightful fragrant shrubs.

Fragrant flowers: Try the spring-flowering sagewood (Buddleja salviifolia), which bears cream to purple sweetly scented flowers, and the mock orange (Philadelphus coronarius) that has lovely white blossoms emitting a rich perfume.

Aromatic foliage: Sage (Salvia officinalis) has wrinkled, aromatic grey-green leaves and purple, blue, or white flowers. Scented-leaf Pelargoniums have small flowers and are grown for their wide variety of leaf scents, such as lemon, orange, rose, peppermint, and nutmeg. These plants release their scent when touched, making them a great choice for kids.

Try this: Pelargonium 'Mozzie Buster' produces the smell of citronella oil, excellent for repelling mosquitoes on those summer nights.

Poolside planting – the dos and don’ts

The last thing you want is to be stressed out by maintenance or constantly needing to replace pool filters because of rotting leaves. To help you out, here are some factors to consider and avoid when creating your poolside paradise this spring.

DON’T: Plant annuals that shed during autumn, littering the pool and surrounding area. DO: Plant evergreens that are always jolly and low maintenance.

DON’T: Grow soft fruit trees like plums and apricots that’ll drop and rot around the space. DO: Go for hard-shelled, non-shedding edible trees such as lemons or lychee.

DON’T: Plant flowers too close to the pool as petals can become a nuisance. DO: Choose evergreen ferns and ornamental grasses that don’t shed.

DON’T: Plant trees with large invasive root systems that may damage pool infrastructure. DO: Rather plant trees in containers to ensure your paving and pool is safe.

Entertaining outdoors or on the patio is what summer is all about – so make yours flourishing and fruitful! Enjoy preparing the garden to host your loved ones this spring, and remember to ask your garden centre assistant for guidance on products and plants. Have fun!