In August, the garden and greenhouse will be in full production. It’s a popular time to enjoy entertaining outdoors making use of the barbecue.
Vegetables
Outside
August and September are the months when carrots, cucumbers, brassicas, tomatoes and courgettes are ready to be picked and eaten.
Thin vegetable seedlings including lettuce, spinach and other sowings made last month.
Make Successional sowings of mustard, cress and radishes.
Sow stump rooted carrots early in the month in a sheltered place ready for the autumn.
Sow spring cabbages.
Lift early beetroot – should be no larger than a tennis ball as they don’t improve with size. Store in a cool shed or cellar.
Lift second early potatoes – best to lift as you require them.
Continue to blanch leeks – need about 300mm (12”) of blanched stem.
In the Greenhouse
Clear out spent cucumbers especially if you have a good supply in frames. Clear when they cease to bear freely.
Fruit and Berries
Outside
August is a time that blackberries will be in abundance. It can be worth protecting them from birds with netting.
Apricots will be in their prime.
There is a vast array of tomatoes and they can be one of the most pleasurable fruit to grow as many commercially grown varieties have lost their flavour due to overproduction.
Continue to feed and train the plants and pinch out the tops when they have made four trusses of flowers.
Plums, damsons and greengages will now be ready for picking. They can be eaten as they come off the tree, cooked or baked or preserved as jam or jelly.
Think about making a new strawberry bed – choose a good open position and well manured soil. Place about 300mm (12”) apart and remove some if they get overcrowded.
Kill woolly aphids on apple and other fruit trees. This can be done by rubbing away with a brush and soapy water or using a forceful jet of water (mixing a few drops of washing up liquid makes a good organic spray).
Pick and summer prune apples and pears as they ripen – they should come away easily if they are ready to be picked.
Flowers and Shrubs
Outside
Continue to remove any faded flowers and runners throughout the month from all bedding, herbaceous plants and roses.
You should have a mass of bloom in August and fuchsias particularly can be predominant at this time of year.
Consider hydrangeas for pot cultivation
Continue to trim hedges and topiary specimens – late trimming may result in soft autumn growth which will get damaged by frost.
Cut back pelargoniums – shorten all growth to 25mm (1”) – the shoots you cut off can be used as cuttings.
Cut back violas and pansies for propagation.
August is often a time you will see your sunflowers in bloom – a favourite with children throughout the land.
Prune hydrangeas – they should have finished flowering by now. Cut off faded flower trusses and remove any thin, weak looking stems. If there are any branches that are still producing blooms, leave these.
If you have some half hardy annual seeds left over, plant them in pots or containers for autumn and winter flowering.
In the greenhouse
Take pelargonium cuttings – choose 100-125mm (4-5”) shoots and sever just below a joint. Insert around edge of a well drained 100-125mm pots filled with sandy compost.
Continue to take shrub cuttings – keep in a shaded frame and water well.
Repot and start arum lilies.
Pot wintering flowering begonias from any roots taken in April – use 125mm (5”) pots and shade from direct sunlight.
Pot freesias for a supply for Christmas – place 6 corns in a 125mm (5”) pot.
Pot tachenalias for late winter or spring flowering – or they could be placed in hanging baskets.
Sow schizanthus – sow thinly in well drained seed boxes using soil or peat based compost.
Pot early narcissus bulbs in pots in a light greenhouse or frame.
Lawns
Lawns will still need to be cut at least on a fortnightly basis
Other Jobs
Be careful of watering requirements if you are away on holiday in the month – try and get a friend, neighbour or family to help or, if funds permit, consider an automatic system.
August and September are good months to plant conifers but make sure you are aware of their mature heights and any impact on yours or neighbouring property foundations.