August is here and with August comes the hottest weather of the year. This means keeping on top of watering is essential!
Harvest Seeds
Harvest seeds such as sweet peas as they ripen ready to be used next year. Choose a dry day and wait until the morning dew has evaporated to harvest your seeds. Remember to store your seeds in paper envelopes so moisture doesn’t get trapped. If you want to preserve seeds indefinitely you can freeze them, but make sure they are completely dried out first.
Top up ponds and water features
During the hot days water in ponds, bird baths and water features will rapidly evaporate. Keep an eye on water levels and top them up daily if you need to. Having a couple of water butts to collect rainwater throughout the year would make refilling more sustainable.
Watering
Keeping on top of watering in August is essential, if you don’t have water butts, opt for using recycled water from your home (grey water). Remember that different plants and vegetables require different amounts of watering. Leafy vegetables such as lettuce, Spinach and cabbage require frequent watering in small amounts compared to shrubs and trees. Root vegetables can cope with less watering, so every 14 days should be fine as long as the ground hasn’t fully dried out.
See our latest article on keeping your garden watered
Pruning & Deadheading
Continue with maintenance with any further cutting back and pruning needed as well as dead-heading roses, sweet peas, and bedding plants. If you have climbers such as Wisteria cut green shoots back by five or six leaves. This prevents the Wisteria growing out of control and encourages it to start forming new flower buds. Pruning the Wisteria will also stop it from covering windows or growing into guttering.
Mow wildflower areas
Mowing your wildflowers in July/August will encourage a new wave of flowering in the autumn. Cut back about 7cm and remove all plant material that has already bloomed.
