Ruth's Blog - August

August holds the promise of sizzling summer barbeques with friends, time to enjoy beautiful ornamental borders and eating the fruits of your labour too. Making a good start on maintenance jobs, weeding, watering, and deadheading as well as keeping an eye on trees, shrubs or plants in pots and hanging baskets, they are likely to be the thirstiest and in need of watering.

• Continue to deadhead, especially dahlias which should be looking great by now.
• Keep the lawn mown and edges cut – due to dry weather you may need to raise the height of the cut if you want to keep your lawn green.
• Trim hedges – now the birds have finished nesting, it's time to get your hedges back in order.
• Water – Any plants that are looking a bit tired and are wilting need a drink.
• Spray and feed roses.
• Remove lavender stalks and trim leaving some green fresh foliage.
• Ensure camellias have sufficient water to ensure flowers for next year.
• Clip evergreen shrubs.
• Collect any seeds or seed pods from existing plants for sowing next year.
• Prune current seasons growth of wisteria back to 5-6 leaves.

• Harvest garlic and lift onions.
• Plant new strawberry plants.
• Start lifting main crop potatoes.
• Trim non-flowering stems of grapes cutting back to one leaf from the main branch.

• Stop dead heading roses and allow the hips to form for the birds to feed on in winter.
• Read ‘Superworm’ by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler to grandchildren then create a luxury bee/beastie hotel with them.