The Lawn in August
It’s a good time to sow new lawns on weed-free, previously cultivated soil.
Already sown and growing?
Start cutting with the mower blades set high, gradually lowering as time passes.
Growing from turves?
Again a good time as the early autumn rains can save you a lot of watering!
Established lawns may be looking a little brown if August has been dry in your area - September rains should soon sort that for you.
Consider ‘over-sowing’ with new seed if your lawn is looking a little ‘thin and tired.’
Mix some garden compost or horticultural loam with some lawn fertilizer and spread thinly across the lawn.
Over-sow with a mix of fine leaved quality lawn seed, since this is the type which will have been lost your lawn in drought conditions.
Ensure the seed is kept moist by watering in dry periods.
Start your autumn maintenance by scarifying (raking vigorously with a spring tine rake).
You can start lawn aeration too, using a garden fork pushed in at close intervals around the lawn. Don’t try to do it all at once, its hard work, so do a little each day.
The Flower Garden
Collect ripe seeds from late flowering hardy annuals and perennials for immediate sowing.
Seed packets are expensive, so produce your own, but make sure you dry them out gently for storage until required.
Sow sweet peas for early summer flowering next season. They will form sturdy plants for spring planting.
We sow ‘hardy annual’ flower seeds in spring for low cost flowers, but many, as the name ‘hardy’ suggests can be sown in autumn for early summer blooming. Examples might be cornflowers, calendula or larkspur.
Plant new perennial plants to flower next year. Their roots will establish gradually through the winter to enable the young shoots to romp away in the spring.
If you sowed biennial plants earlier in the year, e.g. wallflowers they should now be ready for planting in their final flowering site.
Keep hanging baskets going to mid-autumn – then empty them and refill with bulbs, heathers, and other spring flowering plants etc. for late winter/spring colour.
Continue to deadhead dahlias, roses, penstemon etc. to prolong your autumn display.
Lift and dry gladioli corms, keeping the in a garage or similar to replant for next year
Cut back fading perennials ready for the winter.
Divide overgrown clumps of alpines and perennials.
Take cuttings of your favourite pelargoniums and overwinter them then in the greenhouse or in a light windowsill indoors.
Plant spring flowering bulbs and late winter spring plants such as pansies.
Prune late flowering perennials such as helianthemum
Dead-head any late flowering roses and cut back any long stems to prevent ‘wind-rock’ of plants before a full pruning later in the winter.
Plant new narcissi and tomato bulbs in September together with lilies.
The Vegetable Plot
As the year moves on, there is still plenty to do in the veg patch, not least, getting the harvest in!
Lift maincrop potatoes. Make sure they are nice and dry before storing in boxes in a garage or greenhouse. Exclude light.
Fancy new potatoes for Christmas?
Now’s the time to purchase late season new potato tubers and get them planted up in a tub or drum.
Sow winter lettuce and ‘cut & come’ again seed mixtures.
In the middle of the month, plant onion sets for early crops next year.
Pick outdoor vegetables like runner beans and courgettes regularly to maximise cropping before the winter.
September is the time to harvest sweet corn!
Push a thumb nail into one of the seeds on a sweet corn cob (fruit) – clear fluid? It’s not quite ripe. Wait a few days and repeat the procedure. The fluid should be a creamy white when the cob is ripe. Hold the plant and twist the cob to remove it.
N.B. you may see large fields of what look like sweet corn beside the roads in September. Don’t be tempted to pick a few! It’s not sweet corn, its maize, a farm crop for cattle feed – and it’s not very sweet!!
The Fruit Garden
Do you have any late fruiting varieties of raspberries or blackberries?
Better get some bird protection netting over them or you will be sharing them with our feathered friends!
Pick late fruiting peaches as they ripen. Again, protect against the birds. They delight in pecking into the tasty fruit!
Need another blackberry plant?
Just peg down a growing point into the soil. It will soon root and in the spring produce growing shoots. Separate your new plant and re-plant where required.
You can also take hardwood cuttings of currants and gooseberries.
The Shrub Garden
Prune both climbing and rambling roses (apart from ‘repeat flowering’ types. Prune these later.)
Prune late flowering shrubs such as Helianthemum when flowering ceases.
