We live in one of the best places on earth. Not politically, not financially, not in terms of safety, but in that we have one of the best climates and it doesn’t take much to turn most of the soil into a viable playground for plants.
South Africa is a great place to grow food.
And when you study your particular biome and climate, and you have taken the time to watch the movement of the sun on your property, you will find that you can grow food all year round, even if you get frost.
Home vegetable gardening in South Africa is the not so lost art that is making a big and necessary return. As food prices soar and as more people feel this ancient urge to return to nature, now is a great time to go back to the very basics.
The Basics of Vegetable Gardening
There are all sorts of reasons to start a vegetable garden, and not all of them are about preparedness or off grid living. Growing your own food, from seed that you have taken the time to start and care for, and in soil that you have prepared yourself, is a special thing. Not only does it teach you old new skills, but it also gives you the healthiest, tastiest treats and it has been proven to sooth stress, anxiety and even depression.
There are a myriad of really good reasons why you should go outside right now and dig up a piece of your lawn or buy some pots to grow veg in. But to make the most of what will become a new way of life, you need to understand a bunch of things like climate, location, soil and more.
When you’ve made your way through this long guide, you will walk away with fresh and helpful knowledge about home vegetable gardening in South Africa for the beginner, and you’ll be ready to start your garden.
Understanding South Africa’s Climate Zones
South Africa is a vast and geographically diverse country with a wide range of climate zones. Understanding these climate zones is without a doubt one of the most important things when you want to be successful with your vegetable gardening. And it is something you need to know before you start your seed or plant selection.
In the western parts of the country, the land is arid and semi-arid , with low rainfall and hot, dry summers. To make things even more difficult, the winters often bring flooding, frost and even snow.
In the eastern parts, where I live, we are bit spoiled. The climate becomes more temperate and humid the further east you go, with higher rainfall levels with most of the rains falling in the summers, meaning our summers are wet and wonderful, but with their own challenges.
In the interior, there is a more continental climate with cold, frosty and sometimes snowy winters and hot sometimes wet summers.
Along the southern coast, a Mediterranean climate prevails, marked by mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers. And along the eastern coast, the climate is much like the rest of the eastern part of the country, although a lot more humid.
These distinct climate zones naturally have a significant impact on the types of vegetables that can thrive in each region and the climate also dictates the timing of planting and harvesting.
Understanding your climate, and keeping in mind that your garden is probably also going to be affected by your even more unique micro climate, is the first step to understanding how you can create a food forest that thrives no matter what.
There are only two places in the country that doesn’t get frost and that is parts of Natal, and most of the Lowveld. This means that if you are growing through winter and you live in a frosty spot, you need to plan accordingly, and you also need to understand that the length of your summer growing season will be dictated by your first frost date.
Choosing the Right Location
Just as the climate you are working with is important, so is choosing the best location to put your garden.
Most seed packets, when you turn them over to look at the planting and growing instructions, will more than likely tell you to plant in the full sun. Experience has taught me that this is a huge simplification and it can be a huge mistake if you should choose to do it, but that depends on your climate.
All plants need sunlight. That is basic primary school knowledge. But while full on winter sunlight is a great thing, too much summer sun can quickly dehydrate and burn up a plant, especially if you live in the east.
The only way to know if you are planting in the right spot is to spend some of your time watching the movement of the sun. Look where it is sunny all day and also look where the sun never gets a chance to reach.
Now consider the veggies that you want to plant.
Some vegetables, like spinach, kale and even broccoli, can do well in a spot that is a little on short on sunlight while vegetables like beans and peppers thrive in the heat, so long as they are getting a good enough amount of water.
The other factor that affects location is the quality of the soil and the kind of drainage the area has.
You get three types of soil: loamy, clay and sandy.
Sandy soil loses water quickly and it can also lack certain nutrients as a result. Clay soil holds too much water and as such it can destroy root systems. Loamy soil is generally a combination of clay and sandy, but then you get different types of loamy soil, with some types being more clay and some being sandier.
Now, if you should need to improve soil, or if you just want to give it a boost once or twice a year, you don’t need to bankrupt yourself with expensive fertilizers.
A good homemade compost or bought compost, along with some manure, can improve just about any soil issue. If the soil is too sandy, lots of compost and some manure will give it more texture and allow it hold more moisture. If the soil has too much clay, lots of compost and some manure (and some sandy soil) will loosen the soil up, letting roots grow while also giving the soil better drainage qualities.
Soil is also affected by the pH level, which while not hugely detrimental if it leans slightly towards the acidic or alkaline, can be helpful to know if you are struggling to grow anything. Neutral soil pH is 7. Anything below 7 is acidic and anything above is alkaline. The best way to check the soil is to run a pH test using the appropriate tools.
Setting Up Your Vegetable Garden
You don’t have to have a big space to grow at least some of your own food.
While you might be dreaming of acres of lush green land to homestead on, if you are living in the city there’s nothing to stop you from learning by adapting to a growing method that suits you. If you do have your own town property or if your landlord is happy with you setting up a garden, you naturally have more options and you can experiment with in ground planting, raised beds or containers.
There are no right or wrong methods, and you can stick to one or try them all.
Each type of garden bed comes with its pros and its cons, but you will only ever know what really works for you if you try each.
Ground Planting
This is by far one of the most challenging gardening methods. When planting in the ground you will have a lot more preparations to do and that can mean a lot of time and effort. Ground planting is what the name says; you will be planting your veg directly into the ground. It is one of the most common types of home vegetable gardening in South Africa, if only because it is the most accessible and it can be the cheapest if you have your own compost source.
When ground planting, you can layer the garden space with cardboard for a couple of weeks, to kill back weeds, plants or grass, and then cover with compost and start planting when the time is right for you.
Raised Beds
Raised bed gardening is another popular method but one that requires a lot more financial investments. With this method you will be planting into raised containers which can be made from wood, like pallets, or corrugated iron. The raised container is then filled with soil and compost. To save money, the container can be layered with branches at the bottom, followed by leaves and then soil and compost.
Over the gardening season, the leaves and branches will break down, and if you carry on topping up the surface, you will end up with a raised bed full of nutritious, rich soil.
Once your beds are in and the soil is ready, you can plant.
Containers
Both ground planting and raised beds are ideal for urban gardens and homestead gardens. Containers however, are ideal for balcony planting or they can be used in combination with the other types. I, for example, use containers in my ground planting area, for my peppers. This allows me to move the peppers should we get a really heavy rainy season.
Container planting can be used for all types of vegetables, even potatoes. With this method, the plants are placed in pots and containers with enough space to allow them to grow a vibrant root system. One down side to container planting is that the containers can dry out quickly, so you don’t really want to place the pots in full, direct, all day sunlight.
With container planting, you can directly start seeds in the pot or transplant your seedlings when you are ready.
Caring for your Soil
Regardless of what gardening method you are choosing to work with, you need to make sure that the soil is well cared for. With each new growing season, there are some really easy things that you should do to ensure that the following season is a great success. If you take the time to nurture your soil, it will reward you by giving you amazing crops.
Ideally, you should start your soil care at the start of autumn, after you have done the last big harvest (if you have a garden going already). Even if you are planting for winter, you can leave a month or so between your plantings to give your soil a chance to be pampered and to catch its breath, so to speak.
The first thing you should do is to clear out the plants that have come to an end. It can be hard to do this, especially if you are still getting a little something from the plant, but to get the garden ready it is necessary.
When you are clearing out plants, you don’t necessarily need to pull them out by the roots. If you are keen to practice the no dig principle, you should cut the plant off at its base and let the roots slowly die, and in doing so replenish the soil. If the plant was healthy, you can let its leaves rot into the ground to provide nourishment. If the plant is diseased, and has ailments such as blight and powdery mildew, you will want to get rid of the plant. Don’t even put it on your compost heap.
Once you have removed the last of the plants, you can compost. Add a layer on top or gently mix it into the top soil and then water well and mulch with a thick layer of straw or leaves. Now is also a good time to put in a little organic fertilizer such as manure. By the time it comes to plant again, the compost and manure will have the soil in the best condition.
You can also plant a cover crop or just leave it for a couple of weeks. Generally those who don’t garden in winter due to bad frosts and snow will choose a tough cover crop which serves to protect the soil, by covering it and also by having its roots loosen the ground. Cover crops will also stop weeds from invading and provide the soil with nutrients.
Garden Tools and Supplies
You don’t need to have every type of garden tool to nurture and aid your flourishing green finger. But having a couple of basic tools can be immensely helpful as you navigate your planting.
To get started, the most helpful tools to add to your shed include a hand spade and a hand fork. Both of these will allow you to work the soil with ease when planting.
You should also include some bigger tools like a large shovel and a garden fork. These will come in useful if you are planning on doing in ground planting. Having a large garden fork will also make things easier if you are building a compost heap. Turning the heap with a large fork rather than trying to do it with a little one will get the task done faster.
You could also benefit from having some mini garden tools, the kind used for miniature meditation gardens or even kids toys. These come in useful when you are planting seed and replanting seedlings.
Having a couple of pressure spay bottles and some garden jugs to mix or create plant food, and to mix things like fungicides should you want to use such potions, will also come in helpful.
Now, when it comes to growing your plants you have two options. You can plant from seed or you can buy seedlings. And if you are growing your own seeds, you will need certain supplies.
These days, both options are pricey, but seed starting is a great skill to learn and you will end up with a lot of left over seed (plus seed that the plant will create that you can collect) so in a way, it is the cheaper option.
Seed starting is a practice that requires patience, and although it is not for everyone, it is incredibly rewarding and will teach you invaluable old wisdom.
If you are going down the seed starting road, you will need to add seed starting supplies to your list of garden goodies. You can do things on a budget by using seeds from your store bought veg, planting the seeds in egg trays, and then planting the resulting seedlings into paper cups, but there are drawbacks to this too. If you can, buy quality seed trays and seedling pots which you can reuse season after season.
You can also save money by saving your own seed from your vegetable garden. Garden seeds are magical all on their own. Just one season of growing can adapt the plant to your unique micro climate and the seeds from these vegetable plants will end up being perfectly compatible with your garden. Seed saving is part of the old wisdom and it is worth taking the time to learn (but that’s a story that needs its own guide).
If you are worried about seed prices, find a local grower or browse online. The seed packets you can buy in shops like Builders Warehouse are always going to be more expensive than buying directly from a seed source. And there’s always a chance that the seed you buy from a mass store has not been stored correctly. I have bought seed that was completely dead after buying from a shop that was a little too warm.
If seed starting is not something you are ready to tackle just yet and you want to have a more or less instant garden with seedlings ready to plant, you can buy started seedlings. These plants are generally at a stage where you can immediately plant them in your garden, without having to buy additional pots. Buying started plants is the more expensive option but a good option if you only want a few plants.
Most garden tools and seed supplies can be bought from your local plant nursery or from a shop like Builders Warehouse, Game, Checkers Hyper, or online from whichever shop is selling (just Google garden tools South Africa or home vegetable gardening tools South Africa).
Choosing Your First Vegetables
At this stage of your home gardening journey, you should be ready to start choosing your very first vegetables. You will find stacks of guides on this website to help you grow the basic things, and depending on where you live in South Africa, you will have a long summer growing season to experiment with your veggie choices.
Easy-to-Grow Vegetables for Beginners in South Africa
Every grower is going to have different experiences with what their easiest vegetables to grow are, so this list might not look like the others you come across. For instance, I was told that broccoli was one of the most difficult plants to grow, but, without knowing this, I actually started out my growing journey with broccoli and had immense success with no experience.
When it comes to growing your own food, you need to find your rhythm, make mistakes, and learn what works for you.
If I was starting home vegetable gardening in South Africa for the very first time right now, before summer, here’s what I would grow:
- Tomatoes (Roma, Yellow Pear, Red Cherry, Money Maker, Window Box, and Rodade)
- Cucumber (Ashley)
- Paprika Peppers
- Butternut (Waltham)
- Green Beans (Climbing Lazy House Wife, Bushy Malelane, Climbing Emergo)
- Zucchini or Baby Marrows
- Herbs (Basil, Dill, Thyme)
- Spring Onions
- Pumpkin (Wee Be Little)
With the exception of the butternut and pumpkins, all of these can be grown using any garden bed method.
And if I was starting my vegetable garden before winter (in a light frost or frost free area), I would grow:
- Broccoli (Sprouting, Parthenon)
- Cauliflower (Snowball)
- Carrots (Chantenay Karoo, Cape Market, Nantes)
- Tomatoes (Roma, Yellow Pear, Red Cherry, Money Maker, Window Box, and Rodade)
- Green Beans (Climbing Lazy House Wife, Bushy Malelane, Climbing Emergo)
- Swiss Card (Rainbow)
- Cabbage (Baby Red)
- Lettuce (All the kinds)
I would also suggest that you add flowers to your garden. In summer plant annuals like Zinnia and Sunflowers and in winter grow Sweet Alyssum. These will encourage pollination as you will be feeding the bees all year round. You should also add perennial basil to your garden. Those blooms will attract all of the bees in your neighbourhood.
Planning Your Garden Layout
When you are planning your garden layout, you need to make sure that whatever your plans entail, the garden will give you a high yield. Even a small container garden can be abundantly blessed with fruits, so never let a lack of space hold you back from growing your own food.
Creating an efficient and productive garden layout is such an important step in your home vegetable gardening journey, especially when you are dealing with South Africa’s sometimes strange and extreme weather conditions.
When planning your garden beds, there are a couple of key factors to consider, but always remember that no garden is ever actually complete. Each season will inspire you with new ideas and so your garden will always be changing.
Layout Design
Having a visual plan is a great way to see how the garden can be created. You can start by sketching a rough layout of your garden space, and in doing so, factor in the size and shape of your garden beds, the pathways, and any additional features like trellises or support structures that you might need for growing tomatoes, butternuts and beans.
Your garden beds should always be easily accessible, allowing you to reach all areas without trampling on your plants.
Companion Planting
Companion planting involves growing different plants together in a way that benefits one another.
In South Africa, this can be especially helpful in natural pest control, for instance, planting marigolds alongside your vegetables can help deter pests. And certain combinations, like planting tomatoes near basil, can even enhance flavour and growth. Research companion planting options that work well in your region to maximise the health and productivity of your garden.
Companion planting can also help you to optimise your space if you are growing in a smaller area.
Spacing
Proper spacing between plants is something I overlooked when I first started out but it is necessary for healthy plant growth and development. Overcrowding can lead to competition for nutrients and sunlight, resulting in stunted growth and it can also increase susceptibility to diseases.
You can use the instructions on the back of a seed packet (if you are planting from seed) as a rough guide to your spacing, but keep in mind that those instructions are often not really for home gardeners, so you can actually plant things a little bit closer together.
Crop Rotation
To maintain soil health and to reduce the risk of pests and diseases, you should plan for crop rotation within your garden beds. If possible, you should avoid planting the same type of vegetable in the same spot season after season. Instead, move them to different areas to disrupt pest cycles and to give the soil a chance to replenish nutrients.
Planting and Caring for Your Vegetables
Plants want to grow.
All they need from you, really, is regular watering, a little plant food from time to time to support their growth, and regular harvesting once they start producing.
You don’t need some sort of wizard-like skills to grow food, even if you are planting from seed. If you think about it, our ancestors all grew their own food, and if it was so impossibly difficult to do, you wouldn’t be here to read this.
Planting seeds is simple, and planting seedlings is even easier.
If you are planting seeds for the first time, you can have a look at my previous guide on the topic here – An Uncomplicated Seed Starting Guide
Seedlings produce two types of leaves. Their first set of leaves, the ones that you will get super excited about when you first see them, are basically just little plant boosters. They are the leaves that the plant uses to get enough sunlight to make enough food to grow their true leaves. The true leaves are the second set of leaves that the plant produces and these leaves mean that the plant is going to be a viable seedling. Once you have at least two sets of true leaves, which generally appear about 4-6 weeks after you planted the seed, you can either move the plant to a bigger pot or you can put it in your garden.
When planting seedlings in the spot that will become their forever home, you will want to give them a strong start.
With most plants, you can dig a whole big enough to fit its entire root system, wet the hole slightly (don’t fill it with water completely) add a bit of compost to the hole, place the plant, and tuck it in firmly with the soil from the hole.
With tomatoes, you can plant the seedling really deep. Start by digging a deep hole, add some water, some compost, an egg (if you want to follow an old wives tale, that seems to have some truth behind it, apparently the addition of calcium prevents blossom end rot), then plant the tomato plant up to its first set of bottom leaves and then cover. If the leaves are touching the ground, you can trim them off to prevent disease.
Tomatoes are amazing in that the entire stem can grow roots. If you plant the stem quite deep, you will anchor the tomato plant in such a way that it will be less susceptible to just falling over and breaking, something that they are notorious for doing.
Watering, Maintenance and Care
In South Africa, water is always going to be an issue. We seem to either get too much water or too little, and when it comes to home vegetable gardening, you need to be water wise.
When planting your seedlings, the final step in your process should be to mulch around them. Mulching using straw or leaves will help to keep the water in, which is really helpful during the summer.
During a heavier rainy season, you don’t really need to worry too much about having a strict watering schedule. Nature will take care of your garden for you.
When you are in a dry season, and if it is really hot and you haven’t mulched, you could need to water your garden at least once a day. Watering in the morning is usually best as it gives the leaves time to dry. Watering in the evening in summer is not a bad idea, because it will give the plants time to fully absorb the water and it will still be warm enough for the water to dry off the leaves.
If you have mulched thickly, you can reduce your water to once every second day or just 3 times a week.
Remember, even if the top is dry, the soil beneath might still have adequate moisture. If you are wondering if the plants need water, you can stick your finger into the soil and feel for moisture, or you can look at the plants leaves. Drooping leaves can be a sign that the plant needs water, but some plants, like pumpkins, will have drooping leaves when they are getting hot.
Plants should be watered deeply, and not just sprinkled. Make sure that you spend a minute or two at the base of each plant to ensure that the water actually reaches the root system.
Since not everyone has a borehole and since municipal water prices are insanely high, if home vegetable gardening is something you want to get into, think about investing in rain water tanks. Not only does this mean “free” water for the garden, but having a full tank will also protect you from a collapsing water infrastructure.
When it comes to plant care, you should commit some time to trimming off dead leaves and stems, and making sure that the garden beds are mostly free from weeds. By the end of summer, your garden will be an overgrown, weed infested jungle, and that’s okay. But at the start of the season, you can try to stay ahead of the weeds as they will compete with your vegetables for water and nutrients.
Every 6 weeks or so, and especially when your plants are putting on flowers and fruits, you should give your plants some food. Plant food from the shops is getting pricey but you can make a compost tea or a banana tea that will work just as well.
Gardening Tips for Success
The garden is a never ending work in progress. Even if you have been at it for 20 years, the garden still has the capacity to surprise.
My advice is probably not something new, and I constantly have to remind myself that while something might be amazing to me, it is probably not really all that amazing or new to someone else.
In my experience, here’s some advice I wish I had had when I started out:
- Don’t overwhelm yourself with veg varieties. Start with vegetables you actually eat and grow from there.
- Have a reliable water source. You don’t want to feel guilty or worried about the bill each time you open a garden tap to water and you don’t want to stress out about having no rain. It is worth investing in the rain water tank even though it looks expensive on the surface.
- Have a nutrient rich, loose soil foundation. No dig gardens are wonderful, but my ground was so hard that the method wasn’t really working for me. If you are planting in ground, do proper prep work to ensure that your plants have the best possible start.
- Make a compost heap. Placing garden refuse into bags for rubbish collection is something we should all stop doing. Having a compost heap saves money and you will have more control over what goes into your garden. It is also a perfect way to create your very own compost teas. Starting a compost heap costs absolutely nothing, and will actually end up saving you time and money.
- Store your seeds properly. Keep seeds in a cool, dark place, away from heat and humidity. Seeds have a long shelf life, much longer than the date on the back of the packet, so long as they are properly stored.
- You are guaranteed to kill plants and your plants are guaranteed to die for no reason. This is just part of nature and part of gardening. Make peace with it and learn from any mistakes you make.
- Your garden is yours. Don’t compare your journey to anyone else’s. You will eventually plant like a pro and have the garden of your dreams, but only if you don’t give up.
It can be easy to become overwhelmed by your garden, and just like the seasons, your energy and your delight in your garden will ebb and flow. Move with these energies and know that any low moments will pass.
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We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world and any soil can be turned into a fertile oasis for plants. Home vegetable gardening in South Africa is for anyone dedicated and interested enough, and it is the perfect way to start learning more about the food system and what we are buying and consuming, while also being the sort of hobby that will lower your stress and bring you back to nature.
Aside from reading online resources and articles, I encourage you to find old second hand books. I have been collecting second hand gardening books myself and I have learned a great deal from them. I also think that you should join South African gardening Facebook groups. Those community spaces are packed full of information and community members go out of their way to encourage and inspire each other. Finally, look for gardening Youtube channels, both South African and abroad, if only to look at the beautiful possibilities of what this life can be.
Take your garden one step at a time, and you will never look back.
Happy digging friend!
