What to do in the garden - Second Week of August

What to do in the garden – Second Week of August

Written by Andrew Babicz in Sunday Best👁 5,485

Sunday 7 August 2011, 6.36pm

In The Flower Garden

Deadhead flowers of lady’s mantle before they set seed
Water camellias to make sure they don’t dry out while the flower buds are developing
Buy bulbs for autumn planting including tulips, narcissus, alliums, iris and crocus
Take cuttings from tender perennials and bedding plants
Collect seed from any flowers you fancy propagating
Trap earwigs among dahlias with upside-down pots stuffed with straw and balanced on canes
Pick leaves off plants affected by rose blackspot
Trim conifer hedges and evergreen hedges, cutting their tops back to the desired height
Clear bedding that has passed its best and plant out forget-me-nots and wallflowers
Tidy up fading perennials and make compost with the trimmings

The Fruit and Vegetable Garden

Pick plums as they ripen
Ease onions from the soil with a fork to prepare them for harvesting
Finish pruning trained forms of apple trees like cordons, espaliers and fans
Water crops regularly, especially during hot weather
Lift marrows into the sunshine and rest them on bricks to ripen
Identify plants showing symptoms of potato blight, and immediately remove affected leaves and stems
Order garlic bulbs and onion sets for autumn planting
Prune out fruited canes on summer-cropping raspberries
Net blackberries and autumn-fruiting raspberries
Veg to sow now include swedes, spring cabbages, beetroot for leaves, winter lettuces, radishes, coriander, Japanese onions

The Greenhouse

Plant prepared hyacinth bulbs in special hyacinth vases (available at garden centres) or in pots of bulb fibre
Sow parsley in modular trays
Water crops in growing bags and pots
Open vents each day, but close them at night if the weather turns cold
Place poinsettias in the total dark for 14 hours a day to encourage colourful bracts to form, moving into full light for the rest of the day
Water indoor cyclamen after their summer rest to encourage new growth
Plant lachenalia and veltheimia bulbs
Pick off the lower leaves from tomatoes to allow light and air to reach the fruits

Generally Around The Garden

Pick off leaves infected by rose blackspot or rose rust, and dispose of them in your dustbin and not on the compost heap
Set up an automatic watering system with a drip nozzle for potted plants if you’re going on holiday
Top up water levels in ponds and aquatic features
Scoop water weed from ponds with a small net
Remove suckers from roses or around the base of trees
Summer prune wisteria by shortening all long sideshoots
Stake dahlias and late-flowering chrysanthemums
Trim privet, laurel, conifers and other hedges
Mow lawns every week
Apply lawn feed to promote strong root growth and prepare the grass for winter

Keep an eye out for a second batch of butterflys. If you don’t see to many why don’t you plant plants that attract butterflys such as Buddleia, Sedum spectable, Helenium, Verbena bonariensis and Michaelmas daisies? Don’t worry most of these butteflys that visit these plants catterpillers eat stinging nettles! Why don’t you grow a crop of nettles to further encourage them!!