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What to do in the garden – Fourth week of August

eneraly Around The Garden

  • Remove suckers from roses, shrubs and around the base of trees, like cornus and sorbus
  • Trim box topiary and hedging
  • Cut laurel hedges using secateurs so you don’t damage the remaining leaves
  • Spray mare’s tail with a weedkiller such as glyphosate
  • Improve soil ready for sowing a lawn from seed during showery autumn weather
  • Hoe and hand weed borders
  • Order sweet pea seeds for autumn sowing in pots
  • Pinch out the tips of wallflowers to promote bushier growth
  • Buy spring-flowering bulbs like tulips, crocuses, narcissus and fritillaries
  • Apply an autumn lawn feed
  • Trim back faded flowers on Thyme

Flower Garden

  • Catch earwigs in upturned pots crammed with newspaper or straw on canes among dahlias, and destroy any you find
  • Prune pyracantha and train shoots to supports
  • Prepare soil to plant evergreen shrubs and conifers by digging it over and incorporating lots of organic matter
  • Prune lavender to maintain its shape, and take lavender cuttings by pulling off sideshoots and inserting them in trays of gritty compost
  • Collect seed from border perennials and store in a sealed container in a cool place
  • Prune rambling roses, removing shoots that have finished flowering
  • Plant conifers, shrubs and hedging
  • Tie tall chrysanthemums to supports
  • Plant autumn crocuses, sternbergia, colchicums, hardy cyclamen and nerines
  • Dig up hardy annuals if you don’t want them to set seed

Fruit and Vegetable Garden

  • Prune out fruited canes on summer-cropping raspberries
  • Pinch out tops of main shoots on outdoor tomato plants
  • Prune trained forms of fruit trees
  • Pick sweetcorn cobs
  • Continue picking plums and freeze any surplus right away
  • Lift and store onions and shallots
  • Order garlic and onion sets for autumn planting
  • Put grease bands on fruit trees to catch wingless winter moths
  • Plant out rooted strawberry runners and pot some up to bring into the greenhouse later in winter for early fruits
  • Vegetables to sow now include lettuces, spinach, land cress, purslane, beetroot, radishes, coriander, spring onions, calabrese, spring greens, turnips for their green tops, Swiss chard, winter spinach and hardy Japanese onions

The Greenhouse

  • Take cuttings from tender perennials and bedding plants, such as verbena
  • Sow a few pots of hardy annuals to provide early spring blooms
  • Shade delicate plants to avoid sun scorch on hot days
  • Deal with vine weevil by watering pots with a solution of biological control nematodes
  • Damp down the floor on hot days to increase humidity
  • Harvest cucumbers regularly to promote further flower development
  • Pot up rooted cuttings into individual pots
  • Plant pots of freesias and lachenalia
  • Stop watering begonias and gloxinias so they die down after flowering
  • Start watering dormant cyclamen to bring them back into growth after their summer rest

What to do in the garden – Fourth week of August

eneraly Around The Garden

  • Remove suckers from roses, shrubs and around the base of trees, like cornus and sorbus
  • Trim box topiary and hedging
  • Cut laurel hedges using secateurs so you don’t damage the remaining leaves
  • Spray mare’s tail with a weedkiller such as glyphosate
  • Improve soil ready for sowing a lawn from seed during showery autumn weather
  • Hoe and hand weed borders
  • Order sweet pea seeds for autumn sowing in pots
  • Pinch out the tips of wallflowers to promote bushier growth
  • Buy spring-flowering bulbs like tulips, crocuses, narcissus and fritillaries
  • Apply an autumn lawn feed
  • Trim back faded flowers on Thyme

Flower Garden

  • Catch earwigs in upturned pots crammed with newspaper or straw on canes among dahlias, and destroy any you find
  • Prune pyracantha and train shoots to supports
  • Prepare soil to plant evergreen shrubs and conifers by digging it over and incorporating lots of organic matter
  • Prune lavender to maintain its shape, and take lavender cuttings by pulling off sideshoots and inserting them in trays of gritty compost
  • Collect seed from border perennials and store in a sealed container in a cool place
  • Prune rambling roses, removing shoots that have finished flowering
  • Plant conifers, shrubs and hedging
  • Tie tall chrysanthemums to supports
  • Plant autumn crocuses, sternbergia, colchicums, hardy cyclamen and nerines
  • Dig up hardy annuals if you don’t want them to set seed

Fruit and Vegetable Garden

  • Prune out fruited canes on summer-cropping raspberries
  • Pinch out tops of main shoots on outdoor tomato plants
  • Prune trained forms of fruit trees
  • Pick sweetcorn cobs
  • Continue picking plums and freeze any surplus right away
  • Lift and store onions and shallots
  • Order garlic and onion sets for autumn planting
  • Put grease bands on fruit trees to catch wingless winter moths
  • Plant out rooted strawberry runners and pot some up to bring into the greenhouse later in winter for early fruits
  • Vegetables to sow now include lettuces, spinach, land cress, purslane, beetroot, radishes, coriander, spring onions, calabrese, spring greens, turnips for their green tops, Swiss chard, winter spinach and hardy Japanese onions

The Greenhouse

  • Take cuttings from tender perennials and bedding plants, such as verbena
  • Sow a few pots of hardy annuals to provide early spring blooms
  • Shade delicate plants to avoid sun scorch on hot days
  • Deal with vine weevil by watering pots with a solution of biological control nematodes
  • Damp down the floor on hot days to increase humidity
  • Harvest cucumbers regularly to promote further flower development
  • Pot up rooted cuttings into individual pots
  • Plant pots of freesias and lachenalia
  • Stop watering begonias and gloxinias so they die down after flowering
  • Start watering dormant cyclamen to bring them back into growth after their summer rest

What to do in the garden – Fourth week of August

eneraly Around The Garden

  • Remove suckers from roses, shrubs and around the base of trees, like cornus and sorbus
  • Trim box topiary and hedging
  • Cut laurel hedges using secateurs so you don’t damage the remaining leaves
  • Spray mare’s tail with a weedkiller such as glyphosate
  • Improve soil ready for sowing a lawn from seed during showery autumn weather
  • Hoe and hand weed borders
  • Order sweet pea seeds for autumn sowing in pots
  • Pinch out the tips of wallflowers to promote bushier growth
  • Buy spring-flowering bulbs like tulips, crocuses, narcissus and fritillaries
  • Apply an autumn lawn feed
  • Trim back faded flowers on Thyme

Flower Garden

  • Catch earwigs in upturned pots crammed with newspaper or straw on canes among dahlias, and destroy any you find
  • Prune pyracantha and train shoots to supports
  • Prepare soil to plant evergreen shrubs and conifers by digging it over and incorporating lots of organic matter
  • Prune lavender to maintain its shape, and take lavender cuttings by pulling off sideshoots and inserting them in trays of gritty compost
  • Collect seed from border perennials and store in a sealed container in a cool place
  • Prune rambling roses, removing shoots that have finished flowering
  • Plant conifers, shrubs and hedging
  • Tie tall chrysanthemums to supports
  • Plant autumn crocuses, sternbergia, colchicums, hardy cyclamen and nerines
  • Dig up hardy annuals if you don’t want them to set seed

Fruit and Vegetable Garden

  • Prune out fruited canes on summer-cropping raspberries
  • Pinch out tops of main shoots on outdoor tomato plants
  • Prune trained forms of fruit trees
  • Pick sweetcorn cobs
  • Continue picking plums and freeze any surplus right away
  • Lift and store onions and shallots
  • Order garlic and onion sets for autumn planting
  • Put grease bands on fruit trees to catch wingless winter moths
  • Plant out rooted strawberry runners and pot some up to bring into the greenhouse later in winter for early fruits
  • Vegetables to sow now include lettuces, spinach, land cress, purslane, beetroot, radishes, coriander, spring onions, calabrese, spring greens, turnips for their green tops, Swiss chard, winter spinach and hardy Japanese onions

The Greenhouse

  • Take cuttings from tender perennials and bedding plants, such as verbena
  • Sow a few pots of hardy annuals to provide early spring blooms
  • Shade delicate plants to avoid sun scorch on hot days
  • Deal with vine weevil by watering pots with a solution of biological control nematodes
  • Damp down the floor on hot days to increase humidity
  • Harvest cucumbers regularly to promote further flower development
  • Pot up rooted cuttings into individual pots
  • Plant pots of freesias and lachenalia
  • Stop watering begonias and gloxinias so they die down after flowering
  • Start watering dormant cyclamen to bring them back into growth after their summer rest

What to do in the garden – Fourth week of August

eneraly Around The Garden

  • Remove suckers from roses, shrubs and around the base of trees, like cornus and sorbus
  • Trim box topiary and hedging
  • Cut laurel hedges using secateurs so you don’t damage the remaining leaves
  • Spray mare’s tail with a weedkiller such as glyphosate
  • Improve soil ready for sowing a lawn from seed during showery autumn weather
  • Hoe and hand weed borders
  • Order sweet pea seeds for autumn sowing in pots
  • Pinch out the tips of wallflowers to promote bushier growth
  • Buy spring-flowering bulbs like tulips, crocuses, narcissus and fritillaries
  • Apply an autumn lawn feed
  • Trim back faded flowers on Thyme

Flower Garden

  • Catch earwigs in upturned pots crammed with newspaper or straw on canes among dahlias, and destroy any you find
  • Prune pyracantha and train shoots to supports
  • Prepare soil to plant evergreen shrubs and conifers by digging it over and incorporating lots of organic matter
  • Prune lavender to maintain its shape, and take lavender cuttings by pulling off sideshoots and inserting them in trays of gritty compost
  • Collect seed from border perennials and store in a sealed container in a cool place
  • Prune rambling roses, removing shoots that have finished flowering
  • Plant conifers, shrubs and hedging
  • Tie tall chrysanthemums to supports
  • Plant autumn crocuses, sternbergia, colchicums, hardy cyclamen and nerines
  • Dig up hardy annuals if you don’t want them to set seed

Fruit and Vegetable Garden

  • Prune out fruited canes on summer-cropping raspberries
  • Pinch out tops of main shoots on outdoor tomato plants
  • Prune trained forms of fruit trees
  • Pick sweetcorn cobs
  • Continue picking plums and freeze any surplus right away
  • Lift and store onions and shallots
  • Order garlic and onion sets for autumn planting
  • Put grease bands on fruit trees to catch wingless winter moths
  • Plant out rooted strawberry runners and pot some up to bring into the greenhouse later in winter for early fruits
  • Vegetables to sow now include lettuces, spinach, land cress, purslane, beetroot, radishes, coriander, spring onions, calabrese, spring greens, turnips for their green tops, Swiss chard, winter spinach and hardy Japanese onions

The Greenhouse

  • Take cuttings from tender perennials and bedding plants, such as verbena
  • Sow a few pots of hardy annuals to provide early spring blooms
  • Shade delicate plants to avoid sun scorch on hot days
  • Deal with vine weevil by watering pots with a solution of biological control nematodes
  • Damp down the floor on hot days to increase humidity
  • Harvest cucumbers regularly to promote further flower development
  • Pot up rooted cuttings into individual pots
  • Plant pots of freesias and lachenalia
  • Stop watering begonias and gloxinias so they die down after flowering
  • Start watering dormant cyclamen to bring them back into growth after their summer rest
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