Garden Notes for August 2022.

August is a month of transition between the secure days of summer and the onset of autumn. It is also a special month in Capel with our Summer Show being held on the third Saturday of the month. This year it is as late, Saturday 20 August, so there is extra growing time for the exhibits and also time for those special plants to just go over before the Show Day! Those of you growing dahlias will probably appreciate the extra time (we are rather early for this class, most of the specialist shows are not scheduled until September). Others, like me, who can never get the timing right will watch our lettuces go to seed, and our asters start to get mildew, but whatever happens there will always be something that will look good.

August is the month to get hedges into order. One of my wiser and older gardening friends was saying that either he was shrinking or the hedges were getting taller, and it is probably true that the latter effect was happening – although we do seem to shrink with age as well. So it is always best to cut a little bit deeper, perhaps an inch or so (25 mm) to stop the established hedges from growing that extra little bit each year. If you have a tall hedge, do make sure that you have a stable platform to cut the top and use protective headgear and goggles particularly when using powered hedge trimmers. Collect all the trimmings and compost them if you can. If not, bag them up and take them for recycling. I have come across a simple gadget that makes bagging up simplicity itself. Usually I am a sucker for gadgets that never work (at least, when I try to use them) but this one really does the job. It is called the ‘Bosmere Bin Bag Loader’, and is a flexible but rigid black plastic sheet that you put inside any suitable bag, preferably one of the big garden bags, but it works with ordinary black plastic bags. The bag stands up and you have a shoot that you can tip the leaves/grass cuttings/rubbish straight into the bag with virtually no spillage. I found the one we use at AVS Fencing Supplies in Rudgwick, even better they had it on a discount too!

Spring cabbage can be sown in the middle of the month; good varieties are Pixie, Flower of Spring or Wheeler’s Imperial. Onions that are reaching maturity should have their stems bent over and the bulbs partially lifted with a fork to encourage full ripening. Well ripened bulbs are much more likely to keep right through the winter.

If you have experienced an attack of potato blight, remember that outdoor tomatoes are vulnerable. Either spray regularly with a copper fungicide, or remove the affected foliage and burn it as soon as possible.

Planting up strawberry runners in the later part of August will help provide a good crop next year. If you are buying plants in, make sure that they are certified virus-free stock, as strawberries are very prone to virus disease.

Towards the end of the month, rambler roses that have finished flowering should be pruned. Disentangle the growth from the trellis (use gloves for this!) and cut out all the stems that have carried flowers. It is much easier to do this if you untie all the stems before you start the pruning. All the new stems made this year should be retained and tied back into place.

Regards
Chris