Top Ten Gardening Jobs for August
The long, dry summer may have been a struggle for allotment holders battling to keep up with watering – but hot weather is also keeping some garden nuisances at bay.
As National Allotments Week beckons, horticultural expert and allotment holder Mike Thurlow, of the National Allotment Society, says there are some advantages of a hot, sunny summer to ‘grow your own’ gangs nationwide, provided you keep your crops well watered.
“The heatwave seems to have slowed the insect population down. On the open ground, there haven’t been as many aphids. We had a short burst of greenfly earlier on in the year, which came to nothing, and not much since then,” he observes. “Just be aware that aphids have a second burst of activity towards the end of summer, so be prepared.”
“We haven’t had as many slug and snail problems this year, as they’re likely to have gone underground, but once it cools, there will be more, so you need to be vigilant when the rain arrives.”
A slug attacking Lettuces
Listed below are your top 10 gardening jobs for the month of August.
With the warm weather watering and feeding are an essential job!
1. Prune Wisteria – follow this video guide
2. Don’t delay summer pruning restricted fruits
3. Deadhead flowering plants regularly
4. Watering! Particularly containers, and new plants – preferably with grey recycled water or stored rainwater if you have any!
5. Collect seed from favourite plants
6. Harvest sweetcorn, courgettes onions and other vegetables as they become ready
7. Continue cutting out old fruited canes on raspberries
8. Lift and pot up rooted strawberry runners
9. Keep ponds and water features topped up
10. Feed the soil with green manures
Harvest onions
Keep baskets happy
Don’t neglect hanging baskets – deadheading, watering and feeding will help them last through until autumn. Every time you pass your baskets, do a bit of deadheading and it won’t seem such an arduous task!
Keep them well watered
Feed containers, and even tired border perennials, with a liquid tomato food each week to encourage them to bloom into the early autumn.
How is your garden looking after the heatwave?
