August Growing Tips
What's going on in August?
August is all about managing your garden through the Summer heat. Keep watering and tending where needed, but still use the (hopefully) sunny weather to get outside and enjoy your new-found passion.
If you’ve got little ones around, then the August holidays are a fantastic opportunity to really get them engaged with growing fruit and vegetables. There should be at least something in your harvest that they’ll want to eat, so use it as an opportunity to talk to them about sustainable growing, understanding where their food comes from, and how you’re now cutting down on food miles. These guys are the growing generation of tomorrow.
Just about everything in the ground should be ready for harvesting this month – it’s a busy time in the veg patch!
The weather in August
August sees similar temperatures to July, along with the same sort of sticky summer days. Of course, a period of sultry weather is often followed by thunder storms, that are particularly common this month. Again, the short, heavy bursts of rain don’t actually do much for the soil as it falls, but can be useful if you’re collecting water in butts to use in the following days,
August actually sees the number of sunny days decrease as it can often be warm yet overcast. However, those sunny days will be intense so don’t forget your shade where required. And of course the Factor 50 suncream!
Main things to accomplish
If you’re going away this month, just make sure you’ve harvested/ sown/ fed everything you need to do before leaving. It would be a real shame to let all of that hard work in June/ July go to waste if you’re not harvesting when required.
There’s still plenty of sowing to be done as we start to look to Autumn and Winter crops. We can harvest home grown fruits, or get out and forage wild fruits – there’s loads of choice.
Digging Deeper into jobs for this month
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Prep
- Remove any shading by the end of the month
- Tidy Sheds/ Greenhouses. Clear out any dead leaves and fruit
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Sowing & Planting
SOW OUTSIDE
Rocket, Lettuce, Radish, Spinach, Salad Onions, Parsley
PLANT INSIDE
Pot up Chives
PLANT OUTSIDE
Brussel Sprouts, Kale, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Strawberry plants
-
Tending
- Water vegetables regularly
- Keep weeding regularly
- Use physical barriers to stop pests from getting at crops
- Earth Up Celery
- Prune/ Thin out Apples, Pears
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Harvesting
- Just about everything is ready to harvest now
- Keep harvesting whilst vegetables are young - they taste better!
- Harvest early Apples, Pears
- Forage Blackberries, Elderberries
- Freeze Beans straight after harvesting
-
Eating
- Make Hedgerow Jam with Blackberries & Elderberries
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Inspiration for things to do this month
Coffee Grounds: The organic superfood for your fruit and vegetable plants
Don’t let those gorgeous aromatic grounds go to waste!
Build a Compost Heap
Turn kitchen and garden waste into free soil with this simple compost heap build!
Radish and Fennel Salad Recipe
Use up excess Radishes with this delicious summery salad.