Plan your summer garden by making a sketch of the flowerbeds and indicting what colour schemes you wish to create and where to plant what.

Evergreen trees look very lovely in August when many trees have lost their foliage. It could be tricky, though to find plants that grow well under them. Trim the lower branches to let in light, and choose any of the following shade loving plants to add colour and interest: impatiens, begonias, clivias, hostas, hydrangeas and fuchsias, and groundcovers like lamiums, ivies and sutteras.

There is still time to to prune the following shrubs if you have not done so as yet: acalyphas shrubby allamandas Japanesse laurels banksias roses shrimp plants buddleja spp wild pomegranates shuttlecocks beauty berries bottle brushes, magic flowers Chinese plumbagos centradenia spp Marguerite daisies Oxford and Cambridge bushes crotons.

Hydrangeas ribbon bushes yellow bush jasmines Lantana montevidensis wild dagga and tea bushes, mahonias sacred bamboos, coral bushes, senecios serissas bridal wreaths Prune pride of India to shape the tree as well as to encourage flowering during summer

Camellias can also be pruned and shaped once they have finished flowering.

Most of the summer flowering bulbs can be planted towards the end of the month. They include cannas, elephants ears spider lilies George lilies tuberoses galtonias watsonias  schizostylis and storm lilies.

Plant gladiolus corms.

Perennial violets should be in full flower now but remember that they need a sunny position to flower well.

Start watering dahlias

Water and feed hardy – summer flowering annuals regularly.

Feed day lilies and lilliums with a general fertilizer.

Start feeding plants in the rock garden with a balanced general fertilizer as soon as they showing signs of new growth.

Water plants are dominant and can now be lifted to clean the pond.

Feed swamp irises with a mulch of well – rotted kraal manure to ensure lots of flowers in spring.

Cymbidium orchids will start flowering this month.

Repot amaryllis bulbs with well drained potting soil enriched with bone meal or super phosphate

Start to repot plants towards the end of the month.