August is the month that starts out as winter and ends with spring. Then it's September and it's really spring!
While temperatures have definitely warmed and plants and seeds are starting into growth, late frosts overnight, even snow, can catch you out and those precious new shoots and weeks of growing-on time can be lost overnight.
Make sure you cover newly transplanted seedlings overnight if frosts threaten. A cloche is ideal for this - plastic or glass are both fine and frost cloth makes a great row cover.
Don't forget to water newly transplanted plants, a spring drought can be as damaging as in summer. Water early in the day to give time for water to soak away or waterlogged plants can freeze overnight.
If you live somewhere truly sodden and even your lawn resembles a marsh, try to stay off the garden. Walking on the soil when it is wet compacts the soil and damages drainage, making your garden even soggier! Raised beds are invaluable really wet climates, cloches can be used to dry out areas of the garden so that you can get planting.
If you haven't done it yet, order seeds for the new season's flower and vegetable garden.
Watch for pests - slugs and snails are out and about already. Those trusty coffee grounds, beer traps, hedgehogs and picking the beasts off by hand are safe ways of discouraging or disposing of these tiresome pests. Slug baits are effective but can harm birds and should be used with utmost care around small children.
Sow early potatotes and earth up to protect newly sprouted shoots.
Asparagus repays planting over many years. To prepare beds cultivate deeply and add generous amounts of compost. Existing asparagus beds should be cultivated carefully to avoid damaging the crowns that lie just below the surface, add a new layer of mulch.
Successional sowing of vegetables will give you a steady supply over the summer.
In very cold and wet districts - sow under glass and wait for better weather!
Undercover Seedlings Sow tender vegetables (e.g. courgette, cucumber, pepper, melon and squash) under cover for later transplanting.
The first tomatoes are available in the garden centres and nurseries for planting in the greenhouse; it's still too early for outdoor planting.
Tender herbs can be planted in warm areas, but keep under cover for a week or so yet in cooler regions.
Prune and tie in espaliered and fan-trained fruit trees.
Mulch strawberry plants with straw or plastic.
Rhubarb covered with forcing jars provides tender stalks. Terracotta forcing jars look lovely but are expensive; tall, old buckets that exclude all the light are a less expensive substitute. Mulch rhubarb beds.
Watch citrus trees for lemon tree borer. Prune out any infected branches and burn or dispose of them - never in the compost heap. Feed trees and water fertiliser in well.
Harden off well-developed annual and perennial plants- if you don't have a cold frame, cover outdoors with a cloche or carry out of the green house. Gradually lengthen the periods without protection until fully hardy.
Lightly prune spring flowering shrubs - except chaenomeles (the old-fashioned 'japonica'), which benefits from a hard prune especially when espaliered.
Garden Tip Hardening Off The transition from warm greenhouse to cold soil and chilly outdoor temperatures is a sharp one. Make sure new seedlings 'harden off' before transplanting into the garden.
A cold frame, where the lid can be raised to increase exposure to garden conditions, is the ideal. A cloche, removed for longer periods each day, or taking seedling trays outside and returning each evening works as well. (Growing from Seed has more)
Hardening Off
