Jobs for August
Posted: Tuesday 13th August 2024
General gardening jobs:
• In the greenhouse: continue to open the door/ windows during (any?) warm days and spray the floor with water to ensure a damp atmosphere to deter whitefly. Continue feeding Tomatoes, Peppers, Chillies and Melons with Tomato feed – always follow the instructions on the bottle. Too much fertiliser is bad for the plants!
• Continue to dead head bedding plants regularly to keep them flowering. When dead heading Roses cut back to the first or second pair of leaves.
• Continue to water pots/ hanging basket, veg and anything recently planted in the borders. Water in the morning, or at night, so that it does not evaporate in any hot weather. Give any plants in the border a thorough watering once a week rather than daily as it encourages the roots to go deeper into the soil and cope better with hot conditions.
• Continue to keep on top of the weeding in the borders by hoeing or hand weeding.
• Continue to watch for pest damage and disease.
• Continue to cut grass weekly but avoid cutting wet lawns if you are using an electric powered mower!
• Keep Camellias and Rhododendrons / Azaleas in pots watered (if you can use rain water) as they need moisture to help them form flowering buds for next year.
• Hedges can be trimmed but check for any nesting birds – it is illegal to disturb nesting birds.
• Prune the ‘whippy’ stems on Wisteria back to five or six leaves from the beginning of the stem.
• Take photographs of your borders to see what’s in flower and for a chance to look at what grew well and how to improve it next year.
Vegetable / Fruit growing
• Check courgettes regularly and harvest when 4 to 5 inches long – this ensures a longer cropping period.
• Continue to harvest lettuce and radish.
• Start lifting early potatoes and continue sowing fast growing crops like radish, rocket and lettuce.