Southern AfricaSouthern hemisphere
Gardening in South Africa
Two opposite rainfall patterns in one country, plus extraordinary native flora.
The numbers that decide your year
- Growing zones
- Mediterranean Cape to summer-rainfall highveld
- Last spring frost
- August on the highveld
- First autumn frost
- May on the highveld
- Rainfall
- 200–1000 mm, seasonally opposite by region
The local challenge
Water restrictions and knowing whether your rain arrives in summer or winter.
Rules worth knowing
Removing listed invasive species is a legal duty for landowners, and collecting fynbos from the wild is prohibited.
How people actually garden here
- Fynbos planting
- Indigenous gardens
- Water-wise courtyards
- Highveld borders
Native to this country
Plants that evolved here. They ask least of you and give most back to local insects and birds.
Reliable in this climate
Introduced rather than native, but proven in these conditions. Each links to its full encyclopedia entry.
Seasonal jobs
Open the calendarThe calendar reads your device clock and shifts every job six months for the southern hemisphere.
The printed guide
The South Africa Gardening Guide
268 pages written for this country alone: its soil, its frost dates, its rules and the plants that reward the effort. Everything on this page, expanded and in your hands.
- Winter versus summer rainfall
- Gardening with fynbos
- Water-wise design
- Indigenous versus invasive
- Highveld frost planning
- Coastal wind and salt
€9.95268 pages · PDF download