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What to do in the Garden – Second Week of August

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

 

In 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

 

In 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

  • 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

 

Capturing Earwigs

 

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What to do in the Garden – Second Week of August

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

 

In 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

 

In 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

  • 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

 

Capturing Earwigs

 

Subscribe to our newsletter!
One a month, no spam, honest

Now on air
Coming up
More from Sunday Best
More from Phoenix FM


What to do in the Garden – Second Week of August

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

 

In 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

 

In 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

  • 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

 

Capturing Earwigs

 

Subscribe to our newsletter!
One a month, no spam, honest

Now on air
Coming up
More from Sunday Best
More from Phoenix FM


What to do in the Garden – Second Week of August

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

 

In 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

 

In 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

  • 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

 

Capturing Earwigs

 

Subscribe to our newsletter!
One a month, no spam, honest

Now on air
Coming up
More from Sunday Best
More from Phoenix FM