August 2009
Welcome to the GardenAction newsletter for August 2009 in your garden.
From August onwards you may well have unused ground in your veg plot or allotment. A great idea is to plant those areas with "green manures". At this time of year rye grasses or clover are ideal green manures. They can be dug into the soil in mid Spring next year before they flower. Green manures improve the food content of a soil and help to create a good soil structure. They also suppress weeds.
COURGETTES Courgettes grow so quickly in August but don't let them get too big. Harvest when small and tasty. If allowed to get too big they loose their distinctive taste so harvest them when they are about 25cm (10in) long even if you don't need to use them. More will then grow in their place.
BEETROOT
Beetroot should be ready for harvest in August - baby beetroot are the
tastiest.
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for easy to
follow instructions.
BROCCOLI
Harvest them as they grow large enough. Water in August if the weather
becomes dry.
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for easy to
follow instructions. BRUSSELS SPROUTS
No special care required in August. Just do your best to keep them
watered if the weather decides to get hot!
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for more
information on Brussels Sprouts.
CARROTS
Continue to thin out any remaining seedlings, keep the weeds down and
enjoy harvesting your carrots!
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for easy to
follow instructions.
CHICORY / RADICCHIO
Make final sowings of chicory seeds outside at the beginning of August.
Harvest chicory sown in previous months.
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for
instructions and advice on how to grow this versatile vegetable.
FRENCH BEANS
French beans sown earlier in the year should be ready for harvesting.
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for easy to
follow instructions.
LETTUCE
Harvest and enjoy! Maybe make notes on which varieties did best so that
you can choose them again next year.
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for easy to
follow instructions.
ONIONS
From mid-August onwards stop feeding your onions. Some onions,
especially the onion sets, should be ready for harvest mid-August
onwards. Onions are ready when the neck foliage starts to turn brown and
the foliage falls over. It's not a good idea to bend over the foliage
yourself because this can cause disease; allow the foliage to bend over
of its own accord.Japanese onions should be sown in late August, so choose the seeds now
and prepare the ground for them. As far as Spring Onions are concerned,
it's just harvest, harvest and harvest!
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for easy to
follow instructions.
PEAS
Peas sown earlier in the year will be ready for harvesting.
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for more
details of how and why.
POTATOES - NEW AND
MAINCROP
Continue to remove any flowers in order to concentrate the growth in the
potato tubers. Spray mainrop potatoes with a second dose of Bordeaux
mixture mid month to help prevent attacks of blight.
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for easy to
follow instructions.
RADISHES
Now is the time to sow winter radish. At the same time you should be
harvesting radish sown earlier in the year.
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for easy to
follow instructions.
RUNNER BEANS
From mid-August runner beans should be ready for harvesting. In the
meantime keep them free from weeds and water if a dry spell threatens.
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for easy to
follow instructions.
SPINACH
Continue to harvest spinach during August. If you have any mulch to
spare then use it around the spinach plants. Water them well to keep the
rots moist and cool.
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for easy to
follow instructions on how and when to harvest spinach.
SWEET CORN
Mid August onwards is the time for harvesting sweet corn. Each sweetcorn
plant will only produce fully formed sweetcorn cobs if it has one or at
most two per plant. If your sweetcorn has three or more cobs, remove the
excess ones and eat them as baby sweetcorn, delicious in salads. See our
recipe section for how to barbecue sweetcorn picked straight from the
plant. It's simple but one of the best summer treats.
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for easy to
follow instructions.
TOMATOES
From mid August onwards stop feeding your tomatoes with a potassium rich
fertiliser and feed them with a nitrogen rich fertiliser. Continue to
tie tomato plants to their stakes as they grow. Water them if conditions
become dry. If tomatoes go short of water this will cause Blossom End
Rot. Remove any side shoots as they appear (not bush varieties). 'Stop'
non-bush varieties and thin tomato plants to 5 to 7 trusses. Clear up
any yellow foliage and cut off any foliage which is touching the ground
to avoid disease. Be quite ruthless in doing this because tomatoes will
produce good fruit even if they have little foliage at this time of
year.
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for easy to
follow instructions.
RASPBERRIES
August is still harvest month for summer fruiting raspberries. Towards
the end of August though, summer fruiting raspberries will stop
producing fruit. Cut down to just above ground level those canes which
have produced fruit this year. Tie in the other canes to supports, these
will produce your raspberries next year.
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for easy to
follow instructions.
STRAWBERRIES
August is the time to pot up any strawberry runners. Simply cut the
runners from the main plant and either dig up and plant the new rooted
strawberry plants into their new positions or put them in pots for
planting later on.
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for easy to
follow instructions.
PLUMS
From mid August on, plums should be ripe enough to harvest. Keep an eye
on the branches for overloading with fruit. If this looks like damaging
the branches, either thin out the fruit more or provide supports for the
branches.
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for easy to
follow instructions.
GOOSEBERRIES
Most gooseberries should be harvested by now, you may find a few more if
you search hard!
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for easy to
follow instructions.
BLACKBERRIES
August is blackberry month - harvest and enjoy them.
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for easy to
follow instructions.
MINT, PARSLEY, SAGE,
DILL, CHIVES, ROSEMARY, BAY, MARJORAM/OREGANO, BASIL, THYME and TARRAGON
Harvest these herbs which are at their very best now.
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for easy to
follow instructions.
HELLEBORES
You may have seen hellebores in gardens earlier this year. They are great plants and provide colour and texture when little else is around in the freezing cold. Well now is the time to buy small plants from your garden centre. If you want to grow hellebores from seed, they should be sown from July to mid-August. One problem with hellebore seed is that it must be fresh - see the link below for a nursery that does mail order hellebore seed which is always fresh.
Having bought one hellebore you will find that many of them self-seed very easily providing more plants for you and other gardeners. They require no special attention other than division every four or five years - they are a sure fire plant for the not so green-fingered gardener.
Another great advantage of hellebores is that they do very well in
semi-shade and hate too much water - this makes them ideal for growing
under a tree or shrub where other plants may well fail.
Click here
for lots more
information on hellebores.
GARDENACTION ADDRESS:1 Gaydon Hill Farm Cottage, Gaydon, Warwick CV35 0HQ
One of summer's greatest treats is sweet corn picked from the garden or allotment and then barbecued. It's simple. Pick the cob from the plant, don't remove any leaves, just plunge it into water and leave it to soak for 30 minutes. Then place it on the barbecue and cook for 25 minutes. Turn the cobs every five minutes or so to ensure the sweetcorn is evenly cooked. The leaves will turn black, but don't worry, the sweetcorn inside will be fine. Remove from the barbecue, peel off the leaves and enjoy the most succulent sweetcorn you have ever tasted.
This recipe is explained in more detail on our recipe pages with step by
step pictures.
Click here
for this tasty
barbecue recipe.
