Gardening in November For me the arrival of November is always a shock to the system. With only 9 Saturdays left until 2018 it is obvious that most of what I wanted to achieve – in the garden and around the home – will simply not happen this year. No use getting hung up on this. Let us focus on …

Gardening in October Desperate times call for desperate measures. We are in the third year of what might be the worst drought the Western Cape has ever experienced. Cape Town has just implemented level 5 water restrictions – limiting households to under 87 litres per person per day. Irrigation farmers are not sure what percentage of their water allocation they …

Gardening in September It’s here. The month every gardener waits for. September is planting time. Sowing time. Getting your hands dirty time. Unfortunately, our Spring excitement will be restrained by the effects of another dry winter. If we do not get substantial Spring rains we are set for harsher water restrictions, higher tariffs and a bleak gardening season. It is …

And then the rain came. In injury time but it did. Some years we get less than others, but one thing we can bet on is that it is going to rain in winter. The surety of winter rains makes the Western Cape on of the most predictable in terms of climate in the country (some say the world). But …

I so wanted to report back on the decent rain we’ve had in May. Unfortunately, that was not to be. Reports vary, but we have only a few weeks’ worth of potable water left in our dams. I’m sure contingency plans are in place, but for the first time ever we are faced with the possibility that our taps will …

May is the month of maybes. It may be hot, it may be cold. It may be wet, it may be dry. Will this be the start of the wet winter we’ve all been praying for? May it be so. The drought is on everyone’s lips. Is this climate change or natural cycles? We don’t know. Will it rain soon? Maybe.