Now in the depths of summer, August brings about a garden in full bloom. Although your to-do list is similar to July, you can still potter around in your garden and keep it looking in beautiful condition. If you are feeling especially motivated, you can even start planning which bulbs you would like to plant in time for Christmas!
Bulbs
You can now start adding more flowers to your garden by planting spring bulbs, such as daffodils, which should bloom in time for next year. If you want a more seasonal plant, you can begin planting potted bulbs such as hyacinths in time for Christmas. Make sure you have prepared bulbs that are ready to bloom quickly in time for the festive season. Place them in a cool and sunless area of your garden and when the roots have developed, bring them indoors.
Established Flowers
The flowers that you have grown successfully will require continuous care and attention to ensure good flower growth next year. For example, big and beautiful flowers such as camellias and rhododendrons will need a good watering during August to keep their blooms strong and vibrant.
Annual bedding plants and perennials need to be dead-headed during August. This will encourage new flowers and stop them self-seeding. Self-seeding, if not properly managed, can result in plants dropping seeds in random areas so that they could potentially disrupt other plants that are growing in their own space.
Keep looking after your roses to ensure their long life. We recommend feeding roses with Doff Rose Feed which contains seaweed and magnesium to promote healthy growth. Prune climbing and rambling roses once they have finished flowering to keep them tidy and pretty.
August is a good month for collecting seed from flowering plants. Collect seeds, dry them out on a kitchen towel and store in labelled envelopes. Make sure that the collected seeds aren’t kept in humid or warm temperatures as these conditions can cause them to rot and die.
If you have a wisteria display, this will need to be pruned this month. Pruning will help to control the growth and improve flowering. Cut back the green shoots of the new year growth to five or six leaves.
Greenhouse Maintenance
Continue to be vigilant when monitoring your greenhouse! The hot weather will have impacted on the conditions inside so the best way to maintain the greenhouse is to damp it down. Soak the floor; the dampness will help plants to grow better.
Look after greenhouse plants by removing yellowing leaves; if left unchecked, these leaves will promote diseases. You can always use a fungicide to cure diseased flowers. RoseClear Ultra is a systemic insecticide and fungicide that kills aphids, controls blackspot, powdery mildew and rust and protects for up to 21 days to prevent further attacks.
Maintain ventilation and close windows in the evening to keep out the colder air; your greenhouse plants depend on you!
August Vegetables
Your vegetable patch may start to look a bit more crowded this month. Beetroot and carrot should now be taking up space. Maintain order by harvesting the large, ripe vegetables and thin out crowded rows. Pick out the largest ones to make room for the smaller ones to grow. The crops you have harvested can be cooked.
During August, it is very important to maintain watering and liquid feeding your vegetables. Tomatoes must not be allowed to dry out, as this will cause splits in the fruits. They will need feeding every two weeks as the fruits continue to grow. Cucumbers also need their watering maintained and fed every two weeks, as with the tomatoes.
If you are growing beans and peas, continue to pick crops daily to avoid ending up with stringy beans or mealy peas. Keep them well watered and you will continue to encourage more crops.
Potato stalks will now have died back. You do not need to dig these unless you need them, as they will continue to keep well in the soil.
If you are growing lettuce, continue planting a few seeds every couple of weeks to ensure continuous crops. Perpetual spinach will also continue to grow if you cut the leaves carefully, ensuring not to cut the growing point. The leaves will regenerate for a second harvest within a month.
Finally, if you are growing herbs, you should start to cut these back. This will give you a new flush of tasty crops.
Keep an eye on courgettes and runner beans; they grow very quickly at this time of year and will need to be harvested regularly.
Continue to water your established vegetables and dig out nearby weeds to prevent pests and disease from contaminating your crops.
August Fruits
You will see, during August, that your strawberries are producing a number of runners to give you new plants. Pin each runner into a pot of multipurpose compost approx 3.5” (9 cm) deep and keep the pots well watered. Once these runners have established root growth, you can cut them from the parent plant.
If you are growing raspberries, you should now see flowers and fruits on year old canes. Cut back the canes to ground level once they have finished fruiting as this will allow new young canes to grow. Keep approx 6 – 8 per plant and remove the weaker stems at ground level. Next, tie new shoots to wires for support during winter. In February, trim the long canes to the top wire leaving a bud 4” (10cm) above.
Keeping Your Lawn Healthy
Your lawn will be needing a regular mowing but remember that you don't need to mow as much in hotter weather.
You can use a fertilizer to keep your lawn in good condition. We recommended using Miracle-Gro Evergreen Autumn Lawn Care which works to kill moss while helping the lawn to withstand harsh weather conditions.
In addition, you could use the EverGreen Handy Spreader which allows you to easily spread lawn feed without too much effort on your part!
Your efforts from the previous months will have resulted in a beautiful and well-kept garden for you to enjoy. Make the most of August to keep your garden in lovely condition but start looking ahead to the winter months where the work will continue!