August is a month of abundance in the garden. Your vegetable patch is rewarding you with fresh harvests, borders are still full of colour, and now is the perfect time to start preparing for the season ahead. By planting a few autumn favourites and keeping on top of simple maintenance jobs, you’ll enjoy a beautiful garden well into the cooler months.
Here are our favourite plants and top gardening tips for August.

Plant of the Week

August Gardening Tips

Grow Your Own

• Harvest your tomatoes, cucumbers, and chillies regularly to encourage more fruit production.
• Sow a variety of seeds for a late winter or spring harvest, including Spring Cabbage, Winter Cabbage, Kale, salads, carrots, broccoli, chard, spinach, lettuce, and beetroot.
• Your onions and shallots should be ready for harvest. Keep an eye on the leaves; once they are brown and drooping, loosen them with a fork and pull them out.

Flowers

• Camellias and rhododendrons are forming buds for next spring, so keep them well-watered to ensure a healthy display.
• After flowering, give your lavender its yearly trim to maintain a compact, bushy shape, but avoid cutting into the old wood.
• Continue to deadhead roses and treat for black spot or mildew using Rose Clear.

Protect / Maintenance

• If you make your own compost, speed up decomposition by turning it and adding a compost maker like Garotta.
• Replant your empty pots now for autumn color; the best plants for this are Christmas Cherry, ornamental peppers, and chrysanthemums.
• Lawn maintenance is key: control weeds with Dicophar and apply Zero Lawn Moss to prevent small patches from spreading.
• Give your hedges their final trim to maintain a neat shape before the cold weather sets in.

Get Ready for Autumn

Although summer isn’t quite over, August is the perfect month to begin preparing for the next season. Refresh tired containers, feed your shrubs, sow winter vegetables and enjoy harvesting the rewards of everything you’ve grown this year.
Our team is always happy to help you choose the perfect plants, composts and feeds to keep your garden looking its very best.

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