If you’ve been following VanZylStead for a while, you’ll know one thing about us… We don’t believe July is a quiet month in the garden. In fact, I honestly think it’s one of the most important months of the year. While many people are waiting for spring before they head back into the veggie garden, we’re doing exactly the opposite. This is the month where we build the foundation for the season ahead. Every hour we spend outside now saves us countless hours later—and usually rewards us with healthier plants, fewer pest problems and much bigger harvests.

So I thought I’d take you along and show you exactly what we’re busy with in our garden this week. Maybe it will inspire you to tackle a few of these jobs in your own garden.

The First Thing We Did Was Feed the Soil

The first job on our list this week was adding a lovely thick layer of compost to all our empty vegetable beds. If you’ve followed us for a while, you’ll know that we don’t dig our compost into the soil. We simply spread it over the surface and let nature do the hard work. Earthworms slowly pull the organic matter down, microorganisms get to work, and over time the soil becomes richer and healthier.

But here’s one thing we’ve started doing that has made an enormous difference… After spreading the compost, we cover it with a layer of dry leaves. Every autumn and winter we collect bags of fallen leaves—sometimes from our own garden and sometimes from neighbours who are only too happy for us to take them away. Those leaves are absolute gold. The layer of leaves protects the compost from being washed away during heavy winter rain, helps prevent nutrients from leaching out of the soil, reduces evaporation on warmer winter days and provides food for all the wonderful fungi, bacteria and earthworms living beneath the surface. As the leaves slowly break down, they become compost themselves. Nature never leaves bare soil.

Walk through a forest and you’ll notice the ground is always covered with leaves, twigs and organic matter. That’s exactly what we’re trying to recreate in our vegetable beds. Healthy soil starts with keeping it covered.

We are using soil from Reliance

We Finally Gave Our Garden Paths Some Love

This week we also tackled something we’ve been putting off for far too long… Our garden paths. After another wet winter, they were looking tired, muddy and a little neglected. Instead of trying to fight the weeds one by one, we rolled out thick layers of newspaper over the entire path before covering everything with fresh woodchips. It instantly transformed the garden. Not only does it look neat and tidy again, but the newspaper blocks light from reaching weed seeds, helping to smother unwanted growth before it even starts. Over time the newspaper simply breaks down into the soil, adding organic matter instead of creating waste. It’s one of those simple gardening tricks that costs almost nothing but works incredibly well.

Some Beds Are Resting This Winter—And That’s Okay

One thing we’ve learnt over the years is that not every garden bed has to produce vegetables every single month of the year. Some of our beds spend most of winter in shade. We’ve tried planting in them before, but everything grows slowly, stays damp for longer and often attracts more pests. Instead of forcing those beds to produce, we’ve decided to let them rest. Just like our paths, we covered the weeds with layers of newspaper before adding a generous layer of compost over the top. We’ll finish those beds with mulch over the next week or two and then simply leave them alone until spring.

Why? Because while they might look empty above ground, they’re incredibly busy below the surface. The newspaper smothers weeds without needing chemicals. The compost feeds soil life. Earthworms move in. Beneficial fungi begin spreading through the soil. By September we’ll have beautiful, weed-free beds filled with rich living soil that’s ready for tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do in the garden is… absolutely nothing.

We’re Building Our Trellises Before We Need Them

Every year I tell myself the same thing. “This season I’m going to build the trellises before the tomatoes need them.” And every year life gets busy! So this year we’re getting ahead. We absolutely love growing pumpkins vertically. Not the giant boerpampoene, but varieties like Jarrahdale, Baby Blue Hubbard and even smaller pumpkins can all be trained onto strong arches. We build ours using simple conduit piping secured into the ground, then cover the arch with sturdy wire mesh. It’s affordable, incredibly strong and lasts for years.

The best part? It saves an enormous amount of space. Instead of pumpkins sprawling across half the garden, they grow up and over the arch, creating a beautiful living tunnel. Even better, the space underneath becomes incredibly productive. The dappled shade created by the pumpkin leaves is the perfect place to grow crops like our Tendergreen Burpless cucumbers during the hottest part of summer. The leaves help protect them from the harsh afternoon sun while still allowing plenty of light through.

We also grow all our climbing green beans on simple bean teepees. Not only do they look beautiful in the garden, but they’re easy to harvest, provide excellent airflow and make the most of vertical space. When you have a smaller garden, growing upwards is one of the smartest ways to increase production.

We use poles from PoleYard for all our teepees and trellises

Our Hoops Are About to Start Working Double Duty

One feature visitors always ask about is the hoops over many of our raised beds. At the moment they’re protecting young crops from birds. Later in the season those exact same hoops become something completely different.As summer temperatures climb, we simply throw shade cloth over them during extreme heat. Tender crops like lettuce, spinach and young seedlings appreciate that little bit of afternoon protection, especially during our hot Cape summers. It’s one structure with two very important jobs. Planning ahead like this saves both time and money.

Compost Is Still One of the Best Investments We’ve Ever Made

If I had to choose one thing that has completely changed the way we garden, it would have to be our Aerobin compost system. Honestly, it has been one of the best investments we’ve ever made. It produces beautiful compost, keeps everything neat and tidy, doesn’t attract pests like open heaps sometimes can, and because it’s enclosed it retains heat exceptionally well, helping material break down faster. If you’ve ever been intimidated by composting, an Aerobin makes the process incredibly simple. We often get asked where people can buy one, so if you’d like more information, simply send us an email and we’ll happily point you in the right direction.

Of course, you don’t need an Aerobin to make fantastic compost. If you’ve got the space, a simple three-bay pallet compost system works wonderfully too. One bay for fresh material. One bay that’s actively composting. One bay with finished compost ready for the garden. The important thing isn’t which system you use. It’s simply that you start.

Every Kitchen Scrap Is Feeding Next Season’s Harvest

Nothing makes me happier than seeing our kitchen scraps return to the garden. Every fruit peel, vegetable trimming and coffee ground has value. Anything we can bury directly in empty beds goes straight into the soil. The rest goes through our Bokashi system before being buried. Winter is actually one of the best times to do this because many of our beds won’t be planted for another six to eight weeks. That gives the fermented material plenty of time to break down before roots reach it. Instead of throwing nutrients into the rubbish bin, we’re returning them exactly where they belong. Our garden feeds us. Now we’re feeding it back.

We’re Growing Fertiliser Too

This year we’re expanding our patches of comfrey and yarrow. People often think of them as just herbs. We think of them as future fertiliser. Comfrey is packed with nutrients and makes one of our favourite liquid fertilisers once spring arrives. Yarrow is another incredible plant that attracts beneficial insects while also producing nutrient-rich foliage that can be added to compost or brewed into liquid feeds. By planting them now, they’ll have plenty of time to establish before we begin harvesting leaves throughout summer. Sometimes the best fertiliser isn’t bought. It’s grown.

Even Our Pollinator Beds Are Working Smarter

One little project I’m especially excited about is adding more ollas to our pollinator beds. If you’ve never heard of an olla before, it’s an unglazed clay pot that’s buried in the soil and filled with water. The water slowly seeps through the porous clay exactly where plant roots need it. There’s almost no evaporation, watering becomes far more efficient and the soil stays evenly moist for much longer. Our pollinator beds are filled with flowers that keep the bees, butterflies and beneficial insects happy throughout the season, so having a reliable watering system there makes a huge difference once the hot weather arrives. It’s one of those old gardening techniques that’s becoming popular again—and for good reason.

Choosing What We’ll Grow This Summer

One of my favourite winter jobs is deciding what we’ll be growing in the months ahead. It’s impossible not to get excited.

This season we’ve chosen 10 Fingers of Naples, one of our absolute favourite sauce tomatoes. The fruits are wonderfully meaty with very little waste, making them perfect for bottling, preserving and turning into rich homemade pasta sauces.

We’re also growing Blue Ridge Mountain, simply because we love its incredible flavour and beautiful heirloom fruit. Alongside it will be Oxheart, a tomato that has earned its place in our garden thanks to its rich, old-fashioned tomato taste and generous harvests.

For cucumbers we’re sticking with two trusted favourites. Tendergreen Burpless produces crisp, sweet cucumbers with tender skins that are perfect straight from the garden, while our Pickling Cucumbers will keep us busy making jars of homemade pickles throughout summer.

Beans are always on the list too. This year we’re planting Contender Bush Beans, a wonderfully reliable variety that produces early and doesn’t need a trellis, making it ideal for smaller spaces. Alongside those, we’ll also be growing climbing beans on our bean teepees for continuous harvesting.

Pumpkins are one of the highlights of our summer garden. Jack Be Little is always fun to grow because those tiny pumpkins are as decorative as they are delicious. We’ll also be planting Jarrahdale, with its beautiful blue-grey skin and sweet flesh that stores exceptionally well, and Baby Blue Hubbard, another squash we love for its rich flavour and long storage life.

For aubergines we’re growing Long Brinjal, which produces slender fruits over a long season, and no summer garden would be complete without Bush Caserta Baby Marrows, one of the quickest and most rewarding vegetables for beginner gardeners.

Peppers are another crop we simply can’t grow enough of. Alexandre Sweet Pepper gives us large, colourful peppers for salads and cooking, while King of the North has proven itself year after year by producing well even when spring temperatures stay cooler for longer. We’ll also be growing Pepperoncini Italiano, perfect for pickling, pizzas and adding a gentle kick to summer meals.

And because no VanZylStead garden would be complete without herbs, we’re planting Marshmallow, a beautiful medicinal herb that attracts pollinators and forms part of the medicinal herb garden we’re continuing to expand.

Just writing this list makes me excited for what’s to come.

Winter Is Quiet… But It Isn’t Sleeping

When people visit our garden in summer, they often comment on the harvests. What they don’t see is everything that happened months earlier. The compost spread in winter. The leaves protecting the soil. The paths refreshed with woodchips. The trellises built before they were needed.The compost quietly breaking down. The herbs growing ready to become fertiliser. The garden may look quiet this time of year, but beneath the surface it’s alive with preparation. And perhaps that’s my biggest encouragement to you this week. Don’t wait for spring to start gardening. Start now. Because the work you do in July is the harvest you’ll enjoy in summer.

If You Enjoy Following Along in Our Garden…

Every month we put together our VanZylStead Digital Magazine, where we share everything we’re learning, experimenting with and growing in far more detail. We don’t just tell you what we’re doing—we explain why we’re doing it, what has worked for us over the years, and the lessons we’ve learnt along the way.

Our July issue is packed with practical information on planning your spring garden, raising stronger seedlings, growing Malabar spinach, medicinal herbs, Bokashi, container gardening, natural living and seasonal jobs for South African gardeners.

If you’d like to garden alongside us throughout the year, we’d love to have you join our growing community.

Happy Gardening Friends

Tash en die Familie