10 gardening tips for August
If you’re wondering what to grow and what to do in the garden in August, check out this video of 10 tips from Eden Project gardener Catherine Cutler.
It’s now that you can harvest vegetables such as courgettes, as well as herbs.
- Keep watering and feeding your plants throughout this typically hot and dry month.
- If you go on holiday, ask a friend to keep up the watering, feeding, deadheading, and harvesting in your garden. You could even repay them with produce from your garden.
- When your courgettes start fruiting make sure you keep harvesting them. That way you’ll get young, tender courgettes rather than giant marrows.
- Pick off cabbage white caterpillars from your cabbages and other brassicas. You can prevent the butterflies from laying their eggs in the first place by covering your plants with a fine mesh.
- Plant out brassicas, such as kale and sprouts, now and they’ll be ready in the winter. Planting them deeply promotes strong growth.
- There’s still time to sow quick-growing veg, such as spinach. You can sow the seeds quite thickly and then pull out the thinner shoots. This is a great way of using up spare patches in your garden.
- Prevent slug and snail damage to your plants by using wildlife-friendly slug pellets, which won’t harm other visitors to your garden.
- Harvest your herbs, such as coriander, dill and basil, and use them in your cooking.
- Sow seeds for biennial plants that will flower next year, such as foxgloves and forget-me-nots.
- Enjoy your garden! Make the most of the good weather to enjoy the fruits of your labour.
With thanks to Catherine Cutler.
