Gardening Tips for the month of AUGUST – Late Summer

1. Water and feed your Hanging Baskets – Water everyday – Feed as per your feed instructions
2. You can carry out minor lawn repairs (re-seeding small areas, refilling any divots, dinks or dokes) in August if not too hot – Keep mowing the grass, not too short
3. SOW Pansy and Viola seed for October planting- Keep them cool whilst germinating, less than 21c
4. SOW perennial seed – Most herbaceous plants can be sown now, check seed packets for details
5. Sweetcorn should be ripe for picking
6. Onions can be lifted and dried out when ready
7. Carry on harvesting and sowing salad crops
8. Courgettes are normally ready in August
9. August is last month for sowing Beetroot for autumn fall harvest
10. Aphids and White fly can still be a big problem, keep on the look out
11. Ventilate the Greenhouse whenever necessary, must keep air circulating
12. Powdery mildew on roses could be showing, especially in dry sheltered places, walls etc
13. Tomato plants need plenty of water and feeding
14. Water all containers patio plant pots regularly, don’t forget, if your going away on vacation holiday then get someone to water for you
15. Watch out for Black spot on the Roses
16. Carrots should be coming on, pull them when they are big enough for eating…lovely
17. Dead head and remove decaying foliage from Bedding plants
18. Dead head and tidy your Hanging Baskets and Patio pots
19. Do not splash water on your growing tomato’s – Can cause Blossom end rot
20. WEEDING – you must keep on top of them
21. You might find some cuttings taken early last month have rooted, if so, pot them on
22. It’s worth taking more cuttings if you have the material, especially herbs, and the mother plants could use a feed
23. The Blueberries should just be turning colour mid August, pick when they are a nice dark blue
24. Plenty of flowers available for cutting (lovely in a vase on the breakfast table, great start to the day) and it makes the plant produce more
25. It’s never too late in the year to apply a mulch around the plants or on the borders
26. If you haven’t already, turn the compost
27. If your really keen on growing, August is a good time to go look at any allotments you might be considering taking on. At this time of year people are often disillusioned and might be willing to let you take it over, or they might know of one
28. August is a good time to sow green manuring plants on any ground that may be laying dormant over winter
29. Vine weevil damage is likely to show up in August – If plants, especially in pots start to look sick for no apparent reason, lift them out of the pot and check for the vine weevil grubs around the roots
30. If a plant needs it, light pruning is OK in August, roses might need looking at, cut back dead and dying flowering stems and trim back any unruly stems
31. Around middle to late August you can take Pelargonium cuttings, healthy shoots only, they root quickly, a couple of weeks
32. Late August is a good time for initial preparation for a new lawn, even digging over or rotovating an area
33. Late August is a good time to propagate Clematis by layering
34. Lavender can be lightly trimmed if the flowers are fading
35. If you propagated any strawberry runners by layering during July, they should be ready for cutting free from the parent plant
36. August end is a good time for taking Pinks cuttings
37. Gather any seeds that are ripe if needed
38. Watch the weather- August can produce extremes.

Gardening Ideas for the month of AUGUST

• Got some wood? – Feeling a bit handy? – Why not make a Potting bench or a garden seat?

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