Tips

Celebrate National Birding Day today. Encourage birds to your garden by growing a selection of grasses, aloes, Burchellia bubalina (wild pomegranate), carissa, Halleria lucida (tree fuchsia), Ochna serrulata (Mickey mouse bush), Leonotis leonurus, Olea africana (wild olive), Schotia brachypetala (boerbean), strelitzia and Tecoma capensis (Cape honeysuckle).

Strelitzias make excellent subjects for modern containers and as accent plants in the garden. The blue-green lance-shaped leaves have strong form, and the nectar in the orange and blue flowers attracts birds.

Add bright colour to sunny rockery pockets and between paving stones with portulaca, a heat-resistant annual with succulent leaves and cream, yellow, orange, red and purple cupshaped single or double flowers.

Summer flowering calla lilies (arums) come in pink, lemon, red, burgundy and almost black. Grow them in richly composted soil in a sunny position in the garden, or in potting soil in containers. Mark their position in the garden to avoid damage when they are dormant.

Plant tubers of polianthes (tuberose) near windows and in pots on patios to enjoy their waxy white flowers and rich fragrance. Plant with pointed ends upwards and cover with 5cm of potting soil. Fertilise all summerflowering bulbs once a month with bulb food.

There is no need for bare spaces while permanent plants are growing to full size. Plant lavenders, white, pale and deep pink, lemon and yellow marguerite daisies (argyranthemum), and indigenous blue felicia and yellow euryops daisy to fill these spaces.