Guest post by Erin aka @hortihunny
This month might bring further unsettled weather after the recent washout in July, but there’s plenty of work to be done in your gardens. Vegetables should be ready for harvest, flowers should be looking their best, especially after all that rain, and we can now start planning our autumnal and spring blooms.
- Harvest Fruit and Vegetables from the garden
August is one of the busiest months for harvesting in the garden. Collect veg such as carrots, runner beans, beetroot, broccoli, cucumbers, courgettes, potatoes (early and maincrop), lettuce, spinach, sweetcorn, onions
- Cut flower garden
Keep picking cut flowers to encourage more blooms for posies in your house/to give to friends and family. With these flowers, the more you cut, the more they grow! Continue deadheading flowers to ensure they look lovely, promote new growth, and encourage more blooms
- Sow vegetable seeds/seedlings for crops in autumn and winter
Spinach, chard, beetroot, salad mixes, radishes, pak choi, cabbages and turnips. Sow flower seeds for early flowering next year. Feverfew, cornflower, calendula, forget me not, sweet william, wallflower, viola, pansies.
- Tomatoes galore!
Continue pinching out tomatoes for more fruit. Tie the bushes up if needed to keep them nice and strong. Water them regularly and feed them. If you have too many tomatoes, make chutneys or roast them with garlic and pop them in the freezer for a handy and quick pasta sauce!
- Watering
Don’t neglect your plants, especially in dry spells! Keep an eye on containers as they dry out quickly. If you’re going away, give your plants a good watering before you go and ask friends/family to water them if needed. (Always a bonus if you can use grey water/recycled rainwater!)
- Trimming hedges
Privet, box, beech, and yew hedges can be trimmed to keep them tidy. Always remember to check for nesting birds before you get going! If there is sign of birds, hold off until they’ve flown.
- Collect seeds from this year’s plants
Seed collecting is a cost effective and sustainable way to gather seeds to plant for next year. Collect on a dry day whenever possible as this helps to prevent them rotting. Store in a cool dark place in paper packaging (try to re-use old paper envelopes or paper bags). If you want to try this, @the_carol_klein has fantastic guides for collecting seeds.
- Propagate/take cuttings of your favourite plants
Snip the top few centimetres of new growth from plants. Take off the bottom few leaves and push into a pot of moist, gritty compost. Water well and put in a sunny spot
For our full range of mulches, top dressing for lawns, topsoils, and composts, check out our shop or give us a call. Happy gardening!
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Builder’s Bag Kelpie Compost£72.00 inc VAT -
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