Well, summer has arrived - no doubt about it and Cape Town is boasting beautiful blue skies and really hot days.
Yesterday was extremely hot and there was no wind at all.
This lovely for the holiday makers but this very hot weather plays havoc in the garden as we try to keep our plants looking good.
On top of this we still have some water restrictions in place - so no watering with hose pipes or sprinklers.
Gone are the days when we could soak the garden - now it is watering by hand with buckets and watering cans and we can never feel that the plants have had deep watering.
I have made a habit of always raking up leaves throughout the year and putting the leaves back on the garden beds to keep the soil mulched - also any cutting back that I do on plants also gets chopped up and put on to the beds.
I am convinced that many plants would have died had I not done this throughout the year.
Wherever I can, I also use ground cover plants that are very hardy which help to keep the soil cool.
