The holidays are here, and now’s the time to enjoy your garden and all the results of your hard work throughout the year. There’s still plenty to do, so follow our top 15 garden tips for august to keep things looking great!
Top 15 garden tips for August
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Keep deadheading dahlias and roses to keep the flowers coming until autumn. However, if your roses are the types that develop colourful hips in winter (e.g. rugosa roses), then leave the flowers to fade on the plants and don’t cut them off.
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Water camellias and rhododendrons regularly this month, as they are developing their buds for next year’s flowers.
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Once lavender has finished flowering, cut back the faded flower heads to keep the plant in good shape. Take care not to cut back too hard, as lavender won’t grow back if you cut into the old wood.
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Prune rambling roses now. Take out one in every three flowering stems on established plants to keep the plant under control. Tie in any loose stems if needed.
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Give your wisteria its summer prune if you didn’t do it last month. Cut back all this year’s long whippy stems to within 5-6 leaves of the main woody framework. This helps keep the plant under control and encourages it to form plenty of buds for next year’s flowers.
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Water container plants regularly, especially in hot weather, and feed flowering plants weekly with a liquid high-potash feed such as tomato feed. Container-grown tomatoes and peppers will also benefit from a weekly high-potash feed.
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As annuals like poppies, cornflowers and nigella set seeds, collect them in paper bags and store them for sowing in spring.
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Keep ponds and bird baths topped up to give your garden wildlife somewhere to bathe and drink.
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Plant autumn flowering bulbs like nerines and colchicums, and start ordering your spring bulbs now so that you’re ready when autumn arrives.
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Cut back basil, mint and thyme for a flush of new growth before autumn.
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As strawberry plants send out runners, peg them down in individual pots or on the ground to create new plants. If you don’t need any new strawberry plants, cut the runners off to preserve the mother plant’s energy.
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Prune summer-fruiting raspberries, cutting back all fruit-bearing canes to ground level.
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Keep picking courgettes, runner beans and French beans. Tomatoes, potatoes and beetroots should also be ready to harvest now, and when onion and shallot leaves turn yellow and flop over, it’s time to harvest them too.
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Keep on sowing for those autumn and winter salads. Rocket, mizuna, pak choi and lamb’s lettuce can all be sown now.
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Hedgehogs are starting to fatten up before hibernating, and you can help by leaving out food for them. Meat-based cat or dog food is best; don’t leave bread or milk.
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