My August Garden

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My August Garden

Lisa Hunter • August 2, 2021

The last official month of summer is the perfect time to enjoy your garden while it’s still at its best. Children are on school holiday, lawns are in full use, and there’s plenty of delicious fruit and veg to fill your dinner plate. See our guide below for all the jobs to keep on top of:

Timely Tips: August isn't the time to take your eye off the ball in the garden. Here are some of the main jobs:

Top up ponds and bird baths regularly.
Water fruit and veg plants daily.
Prune all summer flowering shrubs once the blooms are finished.
Keep on top of weeds as they compete with your crops for nutrients and water.

In the flower garden

Water evergreen shrubs like camellias and rhododendrons thoroughly this month to make sure that next year's buds develop well.
Keep patio container plants well-watered and feed with a liquid fertiliser every fortnight.
Dead-head annual bedding plants and perennials to encourage them to flower into the autumn and stop them self-seeding.
Cut back faded perennials to keep borders tidy.
Cut back herbs now to encourage a new flush of tasty leaves you can harvest before the frost.
Collect ripened seeds and store them for next year. Leaving some seed heads in place can be attractive and allows the plant to self-seed in the surrounding soil.
Prune climbing roses and rambling roses once they've finished flowering (unless they’re repeat-flowerers in which case leave them).

In the vegetable garden

The vegetable garden comes into its own in August, with plenty of delicious home grown produce to harvest. Here are some tasks to keep you busy this month:

Water sweetcorn plants regularly and feed with tomato food to get the best cobs.
Apply a high-potash fertiliser such as tomato food once fruits start to form on peppers, cucumber and aubergine plants.
Pinch out the tips of your runner bean plants once they reach the top of their support. This encourages side-shooting and more beans at a manageable height for picking.
Limit the fruits on a squash plant to about three, but make sure these fruits are well established before pinching out the surplus.
Spring-sown carrots and beetroot will be ready to harvest now although they can be left in the ground to keep growing.
Continue to harvest second early potatoes now — perfect for salads!
Sweetcorn is ready to harvest when you can pop a corn with your thumbnail and the juices are milky.
Keep harvesting courgettes before they become too big!
Clear away any diseased and spent foliage around your veg plants to discourage pests and diseases spreading.

In the fruit garden

Here are the main jobs to do in your fruit garden this month:

If you have plants fruiting in containers, make sure you give them a high potash liquid feed to keep them healthy and productive.
Remember to feed your lemon tree (and other citrus fruit trees) throughout summer with a special citrus fertiliser.
Plant out any rooted runners of strawberries for a good crop next year.
Keep birds and squirrels off your berries with netting or old net curtains.
Harvest your fruit trees — cherries, plums, peaches, nectarines and apricots should all be ripe now! Early varieties of apple trees will be ready towards the end of the month.
Prune the fruited stems of your blackcurrant bushes after harvesting.

In the greenhouse

Here are the main jobs to do in your greenhouse this month:

Check plants daily and water them if the soil is dry.
Damp down your greenhouse on hot days to increase humidity and deter red spider mites.
Open vents and doors on warm days.
Use blinds or apply shade paint to prevent the greenhouse from overheating in sunny weather.

Looking after your lawn

Here’s how to look after your grass this month:

Don't worry if your lawn is looking brown, the autumn rains will soon make it green again.
Don't feed your lawn with a high-nitrogen fertiliser now as this will encourage lots of lush new growth which is easily damaged by autumn weather.
Lawn growth slows down in late summer so raise the cutting height of your lawn mower to help the grass cope.
If your lawn is infested by ants, brush out the nests on a dry day. Always brush them away before mowing.

For more advice, tips and to order your plants, vegetable seeds and shrubs, visit Moss End Garden Village today and we’d be only too happy to help.

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