Most of August’s gardening jobs are all about KEEPING THINGS GOING! Cutting back, watering, harvesting to encourage more produce…. Just trying to keep the show on the road.
Especially for Caroline who’s got a big Open Gardens event this weekend in the Highlands (link at the end). There are a few tasks that are specific to this time of year though – hedge trimming, tidying up the herb bed and sowing perennials, for instance…
Happy hedges
‘A hedge between keeps friendships green’ goes the saying. There’s plenty of truth in that little thought for sure, but how about looking after the hedge itself? The nesting season is basically over for another year, and this is a great time to give your hedges a good, neat trim-up, so that they look spruce for the winter ahead. They are unlikely to put on much now in the way of new growth and will retain their sharper appearance until next spring. Any tender new growth that does start up can harden up a bit before winter. If you have a beech hedge as we do, trimming in August keeps them ‘young’ and will therefore retain their warm brown leaves through the winter – it keeps our cottage garden that little bit cosier.
It is annoyingly hard to keep a straight level line along the top of a hedge. You spend two hours getting an immaculately coiffeur-ed surface the length of your privet and then find that you have achieved a rather ludicrous green ski-slope instead. If you tie a level string at either end, it’s easier to stay straight with the hedgetrimmer by cutting everything above that line. Just try to avoid cutting the string!
We have found that it’s worth spreading a tarpaulin or old dustsheet under the hedge before starting to cut to collect the cuttings and push them off the top as you work your way along.
Start from the bottom and work upwards, holding the blades in parallel with the sides, and finishing with the top. Try to cut the hedge sides to a ‘batter’: the edges gently sloping inwards from a wide base. Not only is your hedge less likely to splay outwards especially under a heavy snowfall, but it lets more light reach the lower branches.
Also trim newly-planted hedges now, lightly cutting off the top to make each plant branch out. And if you’re into topiary, late August is also the time to tidy up your peacocks and funky oriental-looking cloud-pruned evergreens with clippers, shears or secateurs.
Listen to Nature
My sisters were having a conversation this morning about which past Great Plant this Month to add to this week’s blog: Laura wanted to use a plant that Louise talked about in September a while back, because her own specimen has been in full flower for about three weeks already. Caroline protested that we haven’t ALL had a gloriously hot summer like us soft southerners!
For once I didn’t wade into this discussion with my threepenny’ worth, but it did get me thinking about how important observation is to a gardener. Nature will TELL you what needs doing and when, if you stop to listen to it. There are massive differences between one garden and the next – type of soil, amount of shade, micro-climates, etc. etc. and weather patterns vary enormously up and down the country.
One size doesn’t and can’t fit all. So the canny gardener waits and watches. For instance, if the annual weed seeds are starting to germinate in the borders, you know that you can start sowing seeds outside; if your neighbour’s garden is full of rhododendrons, the chances are that your soil is acidic too…….I pontificate every two weeks about what you should be doing in your garden, but if you look, listen and feel what is happening in your own patch each day, Mother Nature will give you your cues.
By the way, I hope you have all got a copy of Louise’s lovely book A Plant for Each Week of the Year? It’s a compilation of 52 of her marvellous articles about specific plants and it’s been so popular we are now on our xxxxx reprint! It would make a smashing present for a gardening friend – or yourself. Find it in our shop by clicking on the link at the bottom of this article.
Sowing perennial flowers
The main seed-sowing season is well-and-truly over of course, but August and September can be great months to sow the seeds of hardy perennial plants – Aquilegia, lupins, grasses, delphiniums, asters (as in our feature pic this week), Phlox, Monarda, Perovskia, Echinacea, salvias…. the list of candidates is a long one!
You can gather your own seeds from the garden as I was talking about in my last column, but remember that named varieties of these plants very rarely come true from seed.
Seeds sown now will generally germinate before the winter and can be grown on inside in pots or outside in nursery rows. They will make good strong plants by spring and be ready to be moved into their final flowering positions. I made a short video on how to do this – the link is at the bottom.
Gardening shorts
- Stressed basil, leaf beet, chard or rocket crops can start to bolt (elongating and starting to form flower-buds). The recent hot weather in the south has certainly caused several of mine to do this. It is probably worth trying to rescue the plants by cutting off the flowering stems right down to the base and giving them a hefty drink of water. It should mean that you can harvest their leaves for at least a few more weeks. And if they really are past it, then do sow more rocket, spinach and salad seeds now for crops in autumn.
- If the leaves of your spud plants turn brown and start to shrivel up, they’ve got blight. Cut them off pronto, but don’t put them on the compost heap. Harvest the crop asap and clear any other potato plant material to lessen the chance of the disease overwintering. Fancy your own fresh tatties for Christmas? You can plant especially cold-treated ones in containers of compost (with drainage holes, of course) now. Grow them in a frost-free place through autumn and early winter, to have an impressive fresh homegrown addition to your festive feasts.
- I wonder if your herb-patch is starting to look a bit woolly and floppy by now – ours certainly is! – This is a good time to cut it back and encourage fresh new leaves to form before the end of the summer. Do this with all sorts of things like thyme, marjoram, rosemary, chives, sage and mint. If you want to intensify the flavour of your herbs (and who doesn’t?!), try not to let them flower.
💚 The costs of keeping our site working and safe are going up. We want to go on sharing everything for free without adverts, but if you enjoy our weekly posts, the price of a cup of coffee would be extremely helpful in paying the bills! Thank you 💚
Here’s the link to StrathPetal the garden event in the Highlands which includes Caroline’s garden!
In this video, I give a little demonstration on how to sow perennial seeds to give you lovely plants for your borders next year.
Here’s a late summer shrub that a magnet for bees and butterflies but in Louise’s opinion, is prettier and dies more gracefully than a buddleja. That’s why it’s one of her Great Plants of the Month:
Click on the pic to find out more about Louise Sims’ beautiful little book on plants – the perfect read on your summer break, and still at a excellent price!
