garden Borders and beyond
Let's celebrate the warmth of this month as the garden is now in full bloom, with heat loving summer flowers such as dahlias, zinnias and sunflowers strutting their stuff.
Panicle hydrangeas are now in bloom, taking over the limelight as the mophead hydrangeas flowers reach their maturity and start to fade. It is time to tidy up early summer blooming plants by deadheading faded blooms and pruning/shaping.
Flowering annuals such as petunias, dahlias, cosmos and zinnias will keep blooming till fall if you deadhead the spent flowers. Don’t prune back shrubs after mid August to ensure that the new growth will have sufficient time to harden off to survive the winter.
Ensure that plants are given a deep watering every week, more frequently if your soil is sandy, until the fall rains come. Bearded irises can be moved and transplanted this month, provided you give them a good watering until they are settled into their new spots.
in the vegetable patch
The growing season is on!
In the vegetable patch. This is the time to keep up with harvesting your vegetables, unless you want baseball-bat-sized zucchinis and tough beans. Lettuces that are still in the ground have probably bolted, so it is time to pull them out and start a new crop of lettuces to mature in the cooler fall months.
It is not too late to start another crop of carrots, spinach, radishes, Chinese cabbage and beets, and fast maturing salad greens in early August. Late August is a good time to sow arugula, mustards and Asian greens that tend to bolt in hot weather. Potatoes, shallots and onions can be dug up as the foliage dies back. Cure the onions and shallots in a covered, well ventilated area if you wish to store them. If sowing seeds in the hot weather, make sure the soil is kept moist to ensure good germination. That may mean watering twice a day until the seedlings come up.
Helpful August Gardening Tips
Enjoy this popular monthly column by AGC member and gardener extraordinaire Kian S.