The changeable weather this summer has certainly kept the grass green and growing!
Along with keeping that under control, there are plenty of other gardening tasks to keep us busy such as sowing perennial seeds, harvesting spuds, or propagating succulents…
Sowing perennials
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, Phlox (as in our feature pic this week), Monarda, Perovskia, Echinacea, salvias….. – the list of candidates is a long one!
You might even be able to gather your own seeds from the garden to do this, but remember that named varieties of these plants won’t 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 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.
Spud-u-like
I hope you’ve been keeping watch for any tell-tale brown spots on the foliage of your potato crop, uh-oh, potato blight. If you see any, cut down the foliage to ground level to prevent it spreading (burn this material if you can), but leave the potatoes in the soil for 2-3 weeks. The spuds won’t get any bigger after you’ve removed the top growth, but you may have saved some or all of this smaller yield. Only use the potatoes that are firm all over and look free of the disease.
When your maincrop potato plants are starting to go yellow and fall over, it’s time to harvest the potatoes beneath them. Do this carefully – It’s agonizing to find that you have put your spade or fork straight through the middle of a big one! I have been having a bit of help with this job from my six-year-old grandson, who was the one who actually planted the seed potatoes back in April!
When you’ve lifted them, store them somewhere cool, dry and dark. Light will turn them green (Laura, with her science-hat on, will tell you that this is the presence of Solanine) and render them dangerous to eat.
I grow a weird variety called Pink Fir Apple, which is a long knobby maincrop variety with rosy pink skin and cream-coloured waxy flesh. It looks whacky, I grant you, but dug from the garden, boiled, sliced and served with olive oil or butter in a summer salad…..as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says of them, ‘pure potato heaven!’
Propagate succulents
Here’s a nice little job if you’re into succulents. August is a good time to split the offsets from the main plant to make new houseleeks (Sempervivum), or the closely related but tender echeverias.
Turn the pot upside-down, and tap the rim to drop the plant out into your other hand.
Pull apart or snip off the little rosettes round the side, making sure that each has a short stem or some roots.
Plant the offsets into pots of gritty compost then leave them a couple of days for the cut stems to callus over a little before you water them in gently – remember that these plants hate sitting in damp soil. They will quickly make new roots and grow away happily.
Gardening shorts
* Trim off all the flowered stems of your lavender now that they have faded, but don’t cut into the dark woody bits at the base of the plant because these won’t regenerate next year – make sure you leave a little bit of green stem there, ALTHOUGH if you look right into the centre of the plant and see tiny green shoots on the old wood, then chop them back at will – and you will get lovely new shoots from the base.
* Has your clay soil cracked in the dryness or heat of summer? Before pelting rain closes them again, how about turning a negative into a positive, by pouring grit or fine gravel into the cracks, which will massively improve the drainage and porosity of a clay soil? Failing that, at least fill the cracks with good compost which will aid the soil composition.
* Keep tight lids on water butts or they will become havens for breeding mosquitoes. Some gardeners even put a thin layer of washing up liquid over the surface of the water to deter them.
*Prune wisteria shoots back to 5 leaves from the woody framework to ensure fabulous flowers next year.
*Water camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas well now, for really good flowers next spring – they are already creating their buds for the show.
- Have you got a maximum/minimum thermometer? Lots and lots of gardeners find it incredibly useful to measure the range of temperatures in their greenhouses or gardens. Knowing how cold (or hot) a particular growing environment may get, can inform your horticultural plans hugely. We have some excellent ones in our online shop so do have a look.
Here is the link to the video on sowing perennials.
This beautiful semi-evergreen hardy perennial makes wonderful dried flowers which really retain their colour. That’s just one of the reasons that it’s Louise’s Great Plant this month……..
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2 replies on “Spuds, sowing and succulents – Growhow tips for August”
Thank you for all your brilliant, sensible (and witty) advice. Yes, Pink Fir Apple potatoes are wonderful! I planted 6 tubers in 2 largeish pots this year and have just tipped out a small sackful of the gorgeous things. You don’t need a big plot for these tasty lovelies.
You’re too kind, Anna! That is such a good way of growing spuds in a small space – in fact I’ve become a big fan of growing vegetables in all sorts of containers – it just gives you so much more control over your crop, I find. We 3Growbags have known about Pink Fir Apple potatoes for a very long time: they were our Dad’s favourites when we were all nippers and were much more interested in Sherbert Fountains than potato varieties. Happy gardening, all the best, Elaine.