Our country is in dire need of natural healing, more so in our major cities and other centres of frighteningly dense population. For decades, city/town planners have worked against nature rather than working with it and the horrific consequences of their amassed errors is all too clear. In reality, sensible and sustainable solutions lie in the hands of people and not in the heads and voices of those who ‘pull the strings’.

As gardeners, we get to serious grips with bringing nature back into our urban sprawls in a natural way and without chemical methods. Where better to start than in our own homes, gardens, streets and neighbourhoods.

It may be that your home is in a high-rise apartment block or in a small house with only a cemented courtyard for outdoor space, but that doesn’t exclude you from making your contribution to green-ness: indoor plants, plants in free-standing pots/containers, plants in hanging baskets on balconies, on rooftops and alongside driveways, all contribute to reintroducing nature into the everyday lives of those who, in congested inner-cities, rarely see the incredible glories of the natural world.

Creating a green environment around us is calming and de-stressing

Those of us lucky enough to have a garden space must consider increasingly serious water shortages and fill every single square inch with carefully selected, climatically suitable, preferably indigenous plants — edible or otherwise — as a personal contribution towards combating climate change and towards making the world both breathable and beautiful for all.

With this in mind, here is your October selection of seeds for sowing this month:

Vegetables to sow this month include the following: a good supply of crunchy winter cabbages and some succulent spring varieties too; cauliflowers, fast- growing purple broccoli, calabresse, green onions, beetroot, carrots — try extra sweet purple ones if possible — turnips, rutabaga, mustard, giant red mustard for cooking and salads, mustard mizuna, lots of crunchy and fancy-coloured lettuces, endive, kale, red Russian and Italian black kale, spinach, Swiss chard/leaf beet, peas, broad beans, climbing beans, bush beans, succulent celery, onions, Chinese and Japanese salad greens, winter radish and French breakfast radish by the score. Potatoes can be planted in barrels, buckets and in the garden, too. In plains and coastal regions you may like to sow some tomatoes but don’t forget to give them adequate protection on chilly winter nights.

In the herb garden: regular green mint, apple mint, peppermint and other kinds of mint can all be sown now; as can coriander, chives, garlic chives, Welsh onions, fast-maturing types of lavender, rosemary, thyme in all its versions, lemon balm, Italian parsley, curly leaved parsley, sage, fennel, aniseed, dill, chamomile, oregano, marjoram, watercress, land cress, blue- and white-flowered borage, lovage and cumin (zeera).

Edible flowers to add colour, interest and zip to salads and sweet dishes, plus, to brighten up even the darkest of winter days include: fast-growing bush, trailing and climbing nasturtiums with regular green leaves or variegated and purple leaved ones as well, sweet smelling — and tasting — wallflowers, ‘pelargoniums, carnations, Sweet Williams, dianthus (pinks), bellis, heart-faced pansies and violas and those ever- popular, bright and cheery calendulas in every place possible.

For those with flower seeds in mind: get growing with Sweet Williams, sweet sultan, dwarf and tall cornflowers, good old-fashioned petunias with their delicate perfume and endurance, antirrhinums of all heights, colours and forms, blue, white, pink and scarlet bush or trailing lobelia, godetia, allysum, seas of blue ageratum, nigella, verbena, coreopsis and annual chrysanthemums.

Then, preferably towards the end of the month, there are literally dozens of different kinds of annual poppies to get creative with, along with larkspur and those gorgeously perfumed favourites, sweet peas.

The last half of October is also perfect for planting bulbs and corms such as tulips, daffodils, nargis, Dutch iris, Dutch hyacinths, anemones, ranunculous, sparaxis, crocus, grape hyacinths, freesias, amaryllis, begonias, arum lily, Asiatic and Oriental lilies, cooperanthes, Madonna lilies, hermerocallis, tuberose and zephranthes.

Flower of the month: tulip — or Tulipa to give its botanical name — is an increasingly popular bulbous plant that is simple to grow in pots/containers or directly in the garden. Bulbs are usually imported from Holland and should be available in gardening stores any day now. There are many different colours and types of tulips, including double and ‘parrot’ flowered ones which may be of tall, medium or dwarf height. Healthy tulip bulbs are firm to the touch and are encased in shiny, reddish-brown skin. Soil/compost must be medium rich and well drained, otherwise the bulbs may rot. Plant the bulbs, pointed end up, 2 to 3 inches deep and 3 to 4 inches apart, in clumps for an impressive show. Spring flowering, the magnificent blooms don’t last long in our climate — especially if temperatures rise early — but they are still worth growing for the sheer pleasure of their fleeting beauty.

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. It is important to include your location. Answers to selected questions will appear in a future issue of the magazine. This takes time. The writer does not respond directly by e-mail. E-mails with attachments will not be opened. Commercial inquiries will be ignored.

Published in Dawn, EOS, October 1st, 2017