The calendar says spring… but is your garden ready? September has arrived, and this is usually when the gardening excitement really starts. The days are getting longer. We get those beautiful warm afternoons. The nurseries suddenly seem to be overflowing with tomatoes, peppers and all those lovely summer seedlings.

And naturally, we start thinking, right, summer garden. Let’s plant EVERYTHING! But before you grab your seed packets and start filling every empty space in the garden, there is something I really want you to do first. Look at your weather. Because your garden doesn’t know that the calendar says September.

It knows the temperature.

September is when I start watching the weather seriously

This is the time of year when I start paying much closer attention to our forecast. Not just today’s temperature. I want to know what is happening at night. We can have a gorgeous warm spring day that makes us think summer has arrived, followed by a very cold night. And depending on where you live in South Africa, frost may still be a very real possibility. So one of the first things I want you to find out is, when is the average last frost date in my area?

If you live somewhere that experiences frost, don’t rush your tender summer seedlings into the garden simply because September has arrived. Keep checking those nighttime temperatures. If you’re still getting very cold nights, continue raising those tender seedlings somewhere protected and wait a little longer before putting them into their final positions. There is no prize for being the first person in the neighbourhood with a tomato plant in the ground!

I’d much rather plant a little later and have a strong, happy plant.

So, what are we getting excited about planting?

Here is a very simple way I like to think about the change into our warmer growing season. Think flowers. A large group of the vegetables we associate with our summer garden first produce a flower, and from that flower we eventually get the part we’re waiting to harvest.

Tomatoes flower before we get tomatoes. Peppers flower before we get peppers. A cucumber starts with a flower. So does a pumpkin. So does a baby marrow. And this is the exciting group of plants we’re starting to think about as the weather warms.

Depending on your area and temperatures, we’re moving towards tomatoes, peppers, chillies, brinjals, cucumbers, baby marrows, pumpkins, squash, beans, sweetcorn and melons. Some of you may already be able to plant these outside. Some of you should still be starting them in seed trays or keeping young seedlings protected.

And some of you need to wait. That is why your weather matters more than my calendar.

But there are two important exceptions! Here’s where my little “flowers then fruit” rule can catch you out. Peas and broad beans. They flower. Those flowers become pods. But they are cool-season crops, not summer crops. So don’t look at your peas flowering beautifully and think that means you should start another big sowing because we’re entering the season for fruiting vegetables.

If you already have peas and broad beans growing, enjoy them! Let them flower. Let them produce. Keep harvesting. But as temperatures climb, we’re moving away from their preferred growing conditions rather than into them.

And while we’re talking about flowers, please don’t forget to actually plant flowers! We spend so much time deciding where the tomatoes, pumpkins and cucumbers are going that flowers sometimes become an afterthought. But if we’re growing crops that need pollination, I want pollinators visiting my garden. Bees, Hoverflies, and butterflies are all those little garden workers we desperately need.

So when you’re planning your September and summer beds, make space for them too. Plant flowers between your vegetables, along pathways, at the ends of beds and anywhere you have a little gap. Think about plants such as, nasturtiums, marigolds, calendula, alyssum, cosmos and sunflowers.Don’t just create a vegetable garden. Create a garden that is alive.

Don’t pull the winter garden out yet!

This is another mistake that is so easy to make. We get two warm days and suddenly we’re standing there looking at the broccoli thinking, right, out you come. I need that space for tomatoes. Slow down. If your winter vegetables are still healthy and producing, keep harvesting them. Your peas may still be producing. Your broad beans may be flowering. Your brassicas may still have plenty to give you. Spring doesn’t mean we wake up one morning and change the entire garden from winter to summer.

It is a transition. I slowly start opening spaces. One bed finishes and something new goes in. A crop comes out and suddenly I have room for a tomato. The peas finish and that trellis can become somewhere for beans or cucumbers to climb. Let the garden change naturally with the season.

Don’t plant everything on one weekend

I know. The temptation is enormous. You have your seed packets lined up, the weather is beautiful and suddenly you’ve planted 20 lettuces, 15 bean plants and enough baby marrows to feed your entire street. And three months later everything is ready at exactly the same time! This is where succession planting becomes your friend. Instead of sowing all your beans at once, sow some now and another small batch a couple of weeks later.

Do the same with crops you want to harvest continuously. We don’t necessarily want one enormous harvest. We want the garden feeding us for as long as possible.

Herbs can start joining the party too

As conditions warm, we can also start thinking about our summer herbs. Basil is one of the big ones I get excited about when the warmer weather arrives. You can also keep growing herbs such as parsley, chives and dill, and coriander where conditions still suit it. And remember — herbs don’t have to live in a separate herb garden. Tuck them between your vegetables. Put them into containers. Fill little gaps. Let your edible garden become a mixture of vegetables, herbs and flowers.

So what should you do this September?

Before you plant anything, spend a few minutes in your garden.

• Look at where the sun is now.
• Check your weather forecast.
• Look at your nighttime temperatures.
• Find out when your area normally experiences its last frost.
• Look at what is still producing from winter.
• Then look at the empty spaces that are beginning to appear.

You don’t need to plant your entire summer garden this weekend. Start slowly.

Enjoy the weekend, and share with us what you are planting!!

Tash en Warren