Gardening Ideas for August 2011
August is a good month in the garden because you should be enjoying plenty of fruit, veg and flowers at a time when the deadlines of spring sowings and plantings have all been safely met. Weed growth usually slows down and even slugs are infected by the lethargy of late summer and don't seem quite as rampant.
Many gardeners throw in the towel now, hang up their trowels, tip themselves into their hammocks with a well-earned drink and take the month off. Yet there's a growing inclination, especially amongst keen veg growers to keep going. There are crucial sowings and plantings to make this month and next that will supply your family with home grown produce through winter and into next spring.
If you need inspiration, a good place to start is by perusing some of the summer/autumn catalogues sent out by seed companies. A couple (from Dobies 0844 701 7625 www.dobies.co.uk and D.T.Brown 045 3710532 www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk) have landed on my desk recently and they are bursting with ideas. Second cropping potatoes, onion sets to plant in late September, garlic for autumn planting and many winter hardy salad plants are thoroughly tempting. If you have space, there are plants of kales and spring cabbage to send off for. When it comes to fruit, many kinds are best planted during autumn and there are plenty of mouth-watering pictures of hybrid blackberries, pink currants, mildew resistant gooseberries, figs and kiwis.
In the meantime, I'm in seventh heaven because my favourite vegetable, the runner bean, is cropping well. I have two short double rows of this fabulous crop and like nothing better than to sit down to a lunch of fresh tender beans sliced, boiled until just tender, anointed by a small knob of butter and a grinding of black pepper. I'll fork my way through a good pile of them with nothing else on the plate, eyes closed in ecstasy. Now and again, on Gardeners' Question Time, we're asked what plant or seeds we'd take to a desert island or rescue first in a disaster and my answer is always runner beans.
What to do this month......
...in the kitchen garden
* Plant corms of the saffron crocus (C. sativus). This autumn flowering beauty produces long, deep red styles that dangle from the flowers. These, cut and dried, provide the saffron.
* Look for browning 'silks' or tassels on sweet corn cobs. This indicates they may be ready for harvest, so make a little hole in the green casing and take a peek at the corn inside.
* Select runners from healthy strawberry plants, lift and plant 5cm/18in apart in rows 60cm/2ft apart. Water well. If you don't want more strawberries, lift, cut away and discard runners.
......in the flower garden
* Take cuttings from favourite tender perennials such as pelargoniums and marguerites. These will overwinter as small plants in a frost free greenhouse or porch, for next year.
* There should be plenty of butterflies around. If not, consider adding some of their favourite nectar plants such as buddleja, Verbena bonariensis and origanum.
* Prune summer flowering shrubs such as philadelphus (mock orange) and deutzia as they finish flowering. Removing up to one third of the oldest, tallest stems rejuvenates plants and keeps height down.
......and in general
* Empty bins and enclosures of leaf mould ready for the autumn. From September onwards you'll be wanting to fill them up again as more leaves fall.
* Cut meadows or small areas of grass left to grow long, with wild flowers. These will have finished seeding now and should be trimmed, mown or sheared down.
* Top up ponds little and often during droughts, rather than waiting for them to nearly dry out and then adding lots of new water.
Q and A
Q: I've noticed bumble bees nesting around the roots of a Shasta daisy. I want to divide it in the autumn. Do they fly off to make a new nest?
A: Colonies of bumble bees usually die off around September time, with a new queen flying off to hibernate and start a new colony next year.
So yes, they should move on from your daisy and you'll be able to get at the roots.
Q: What roses should I choose to form a hedge bearing rose hips in autumn?
A: 'Meg Merrilies' is a lovely sweet briar for crimson, semi-double scented flowers and plenty of red hips.
R. virginiana bears clear pink, scented single flowers with yellow stamens and really good, long-lasting orange hips and autumn colour.
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