GARDENING IN LATE AUGUST

GARDENING IN LATE AUGUST

  • Feed fruit trees now with potash for next year’s fruits. 
  • Excellent weather for planting identify any dull spots in your borders
  • Prepare soil ready for sowing a lawn or laying turf during September and October
  • Deal with problem lawn weeds, digging them out or applying herbicide.
  • Deadhead border plants, unless you want to collect their seeds
  • Deadhead dahlias to encourage further blooms to form
  • Cut down perennials past their prime
  • Sow hardy annuals, like poached egg plant, for early flowers next year
  • Water camellias regularly as drought can cause the buds to drop next spring and feed now with an ericaceous  liquid plant  food
  • Thin out heavy crops of plums to prevent branches snapping
  • Hang wasp traps in fruit trees
  • Use osmo Autumn feed to harden up your plants for the winter
  • Continue to plant autumn vegetables

Sweet ruby jewels. Raspberries are often called strawberries on stilts! I think this is very unfair to both fruits. Growing both is well worth while. Strawberries are easy to grow but they have a very short season. And if you have ever eaten yellow raspberries I’m sure you will agree that strawberries are not in the same flavour league. By choosing your raspberry varieties carefully, you can enjoy the sweet, juicy fruits from late-June to late-September. While you may need space to grow raspberries, you don't need much time. They're also one of the best low-maintenance fruit crops you can grow. Raspberries take a little more work than strawberries ( but not much) and you have a much longer season especially if you use summer fruiting varieties followed by autumn fruiting varieties and in the unlikely event, any you can’t eat can be frozen or made into jams. There are two main types of raspberries summer and autumn fruiting. The summer fruiting varieties must be pruned immediately after picking the fruit. Simply cut the canes which bore fruit to ground level, leaving 6 or 7 strong new canes for next year’s fruit. Tie into the support wires and remove any suckers which have grown out into the path or between the rows. Give them a sprinkle of sulphate of potash to encourage fruit and that’s it until spring. Autumn fruiting varieties are pruned differently; all the canes should be cut back to ground level in February. There is no need for thinning the canes or tying in, yields are lower however than the summer varieties. Raspberries are happy as long as your soil is not too wet and will tolerate a little shade. I think there are few plants that give a better tastier return. Plant both summer- and autumn-fruiting canes in autumn. Although you can delay planting the latter until as late as March.

 

January 17, 2021 — omearas gardencentre
Tags: August
WHAT TO DO IN MID AUGUST

WHAT TO DO IN MID AUGUST

  • Check roses for suckers and break off any you find  just below ground where they are joined to the stem
  • Trim evergreen hedges to neaten their appearance and control height
  • Empty pots of faded early summer bedding, adding old plants to the compost heap and replant with Autumn colour, include your Spring flowering bulbs when planting remember when buying bulbs, large size bulbs give you the best flowers
  • Feed all roses and fruit trees with potash now.  This year’s potash feed is next year’s fruit
  • Potash applied now to tender shrubs will harden up the wood and ensure their survival in Winter
  • Keep picking summer-sown salads to prevent the plants running to seed
  • Plant garlic cloves and Winter onions outside, it’s still time to plant Winter salads outside.
  • Cut laurel and photinia hedges using secateurs so you don't damage the remaining leaves
  • Stake tall Brussels sprouts to stop them from blowing over

Repair any patches in your lawn. Bare patches can appear in your lawn after a thorough raking, where the grass is undernourished or where it's been worn out. These gaps should be reseeded to prevent moss and weeds colonising the soil and to allow your lawn to look its best all year round. Sow the patch with an appropriate seed mix, sprinkling half the grass seeds in one direction and the rest in the other. Lightly rake over the seed and protect it against birds with netting. A small sheet of polythene pegged over the area will encourage the grass seed to germinate quicker

Trim lavender after flowering to keep its shape, but avoid cutting into old wood.

Summer Pruning apple trees. Once apple trees are established it's best to summer prune the spur-fruiting varieties. This will encourage the development of short flowering shoots or 'spurs' that go on to bear clusters of fruit. Summer pruning is ideal for keeping the trees in shape and involves pruning the soft, current season's growth before it has chance to become woody. Cut back the leading shoots of each branch by half their length to encourage the production of side shoots. Only prune the current season's growth in this way, cutting to just above a leaf. Cut back all remaining side shoots to two or three leaves from the base of the current season's leafy growth, cutting just above the bud. The soft stems and leaves that are cut off apple trees during summer pruning are perfect to add to the compost heap where they'll rot down quickly. Always prune to an outward-facing bud so that the centre of the bush or tree is kept open. This helps reduce problems with pests and diseases.

Give it a try... While many container displays are looking past their best by August, a late-summer display will brighten up a corner of the patio right through autumn. Flowers that peak in late-summer are pretty wide-ranging, as are shrubs, climbers and herbaceous perennials. Ornamental grasses and chrysanthemums will give you a display that will revival any summer planter. The use of ornamental cabbages and chilli’s brings some extra colour to pots and creates interest. I particularly love cabbages grouped together in either rustic garden planters or low baskets. They also can bring some great colour and texture to mixed container planters.  Sedum, also known as stonecrop, is a classic autumn plant for containers because that’s when it looks its best. Blooming in late summer to early autumn, sedum is easy to grow in containers, preferring good drainage and full sun, though most will tolerate some shade. Sedums are a particularly good choice of plant for an autumn container that you want to leave out all winter because the dried flowers can look beautiful, especially covered with frost.

 

January 17, 2021 — omearas gardencentre
Tags: August
WHAT TO DO IN EARLY AUGUST

WHAT TO DO IN EARLY AUGUST

  • Feed fruit trees now to encourage next year’s fruit with sulphate of potash
  • Feed your beech hedging now, we find the organic brand called osmo excellent as it is dust free and will not scorch the foliage
  • Plant the seeds of turnips, carrots, swiss chard, kale and spring cabbage now

Choosing roses. Part of the fun (and frustration) is caused by the vast assortment from which you have to choose. Each rose can be placed in one or other of 6 classes and a somewhat bewildering array. Here’s how you can tell them apart. For this week here’s the top three that are typically grown.  The most popular class are hybrid tea roses, their flower stems are long and the blooms are shapely. The typical hybrid tea bears blooms which are medium-sized or large, with many petals forming a distinct cone. This group of roses are a flower arrangers dream, often heavily scented. My top 3 from this group would be Warm Wishes, Fragrant Dream & Loving Memory. Next are Floribunda roses which are an unrivalled class of rose for providing a colourful, reliable long lasting display. Flowering in clusters with several blooms opening at one time, which make them the rose to choose for a large bedding display or border. My top three are Trumpeter, Freedom and the Rose of the year for 2012 Moment in Time. Climber and ramblers are roses which if tied to a support can be made to climb. Ramblers have long pliable stems which flower in large trusses of small flowers whereas climbers have stiff stems which bear flowers which are larger. My choices from this group are Dublin Bay, Aloha and Wedding Day. 

January 17, 2021 — omearas gardencentre
Tags: August