It’s August, the holidays are here, and it’s time to really make the most of your garden! Your garden is flourishing with late summer flowers there’s plenty to harvest in the vegetable plot and your containers and hanging baskets are spilling over with a waterfall of blooms. Keep your garden looking great this month with our top tips:
Top 15 Gardening Tips for August
1. Continue to remove any dead flowers from annuals and perennials to encourage them to flower into autumn and stop them from self-seeding.
2. Continue harvesting fruit and vegetables as they ripen to encourage growth.
3. If there is room in the garden, you can start your winter plants, such as winter kale, brussels sprouts, turnips, and parsley—plus, more beets, carrots, and broccoli. This goes for salads too! Plant more spinach, lettuce, and arugula now to give you fresh salad leaves into autumn!
4. If the weather is dry, water camellias and rhododendrons regularly as they start developing their flower buds for next year’s display.
5. Trim faded lavender flowers to keep the plants looking tidy, taking care not to cut too far back into old wood. Check down the stems to see where new leaf buds appear and cut above these.
6. Summer prune wisteria, cutting back all this year’s long whispy shoots to 5-6 leaves from the main framework. As well as keeping the plant under control, this encourages it to produce flower buds for next year.
7. Water container plants regularly in dry weather and feed flowering plants biweekly with a high-quality fertilizer like the NurseryLand 16-10-10 Container Food Mix . When feeding container plants, always water them first so that the compost is damp – this improves nutrient uptake and avoids damage to the roots.
8. Annuals like poppies will be setting seed now. Collect the seed in paper envelopes for sowing next spring – and don’t forget to label the envelopes!
9. Remember your garden wildlife when the weather is hot. Keep bird baths and ponds topped up to give birds and insects somewhere to drink and cool off.
10. While summer annuals start to fade, start to plant some cooler weather favourites for a beautiful autumn display like Asters, Pansies, and Rudbeckia
11. Finish dividing clumps of bearded Iris now so they have time to form roots and flower buds for next year before the cold weather arrives.
12. Stake all top-heavy dahlias to avoid damage as they continue to grow into the fall
13. Mow the lawn less often if the weather is dry, and raise the blade height on your lawnmower to help the grass cope.
14. Now’s the time to prune climbing roses. Remove one in every three old stems and tie any loose growth into supports. Shorten side shoots by approximately two-thirds.
15. Fertilize squash, cucumbers, and broccoli to keep production going as long as possible. We highly recommend using the NurseryLand 12-16-12 Vegetable, Flower & Garden mix. This professional quality fertilizer packs a big punch - just sprinkle around your new or existing plantings every 6-8 weeks during the growing season!
Whether you're looking to transition your summer garden into fall, need a few filler plants, or some new gardening tools we have got everything you need! Come stop by in person today.
