Here are some gardening tips to keep your garden looking well-loved and healthy this August:

If you have not pruned your roses and fruit trees, now is the time to start.

One must not think of pruning as an art, or even something that requires the assistance of an expert. It really is dead easy and something we can all do, even if we do feel a trifle guilty about removing flowers that are still blooming. Remember it's for their own good.

When do you prune? In the temperate regions, (this will apply for the Highveld) roses will be pruned from the middle of July onwards. In very cold areas, you will prune from mid-August to avoid frost damage.

How do you prune?

  • Remove all growth to a height of 60-80cm — about knee height.

  • Remove all stems that are dead, diseased, old or misshapen.

  • Only three to four main stems should remain.

  • Remaining stems are then cut back another 10cm, making sure that they are all the same height.

After pruning care

  • Spread mulch or compost around the rose bushes.

  • Apply fertiliser, like Ludwig's Vigarosa or Wonder Rose.

  • Dig the compost and fertiliser in.

  • Water well.

  • Spray the pruned roses with lime sulphur or Ludwigs insect spray.

Gardening guide

Once you are sure of no late frosts you can prune your fuchsias back.

Don't cut back frost-damaged plants until the danger of frost has passed.

Continue watering and fertilising annuals and bulbs, and continue deadheading winter flowering annuals like poppies and primulas to prolong flowering.

Prepare your summer garden by removing winter-flowering annuals that are looking tired.

Continue watering plants in containers and hanging plants to prevent drying out especially in the highveld where gusty August winds prevail.

Divide and replant any over crowded perennials.

Repot pot plants and other plants that have outgrown their containers. And feed lawns with Wonder Lawns and Foliage or Blade Runner or 5:2:1 SR.

Feed the rest of your garden with a general fertiliser or use an organic alternative like Wonder Organic.

Clean gutters in anticipation of the summer rains, if they occur in your region.

Feed roses, fruit trees and citrus with Wonder Rose Food or Ludwig's Vigarosa.

Watch out for the lily borer on clivias and lily bulbs.

What to plant:

Sow seeds like ageratum, alyssum, aster, Canterbury bells, cleome, cosmos, dianthus, impatiens, lavatera, lobelia, marigold, petunia, salivia, schizanthus, verbena and viola.

Plant seedlings like allysum, begonia, celosia, cosmos, chrysanthemum palidosum, dahlia (bedding), dianthus, lobelia, marigold, impatiens, pansy, petunia and vinca.

Plant vegetable seedlings like celery, lettuce, parsley and spinach.

Plant bulbs like amaryllis, arum, begonia, canna, dahlia, eucomis, galtonia, gladiolis, spider lily, nerine, tigridia and zephyranthus.