Explore things to do in your garden every month
Gardening in August
August is typically one of the warmest months of the year, with an average of 6 hours of lovely sunshine every day, but there can still be periods of rain. It’s one of the best months to enjoy the fruits of your labour earlier in the year. Barbecues, al fresco dining, picking lots of tasty fruit and vegetables and just pottering around keeping the garden looking great are just some of the rewards you should enjoy to the full.
Things to do this month
Spend as much time as possible enjoying your garden.
Enjoy picnics on the lawn and barbecues and evening meals on the patio.
Ensure summer bedding displays continue to flower well into autumn with regular watering, feeding and deadheading.
Keep pots, tubs and hanging baskets looking great by watering daily and feeding every 10-14 days.
Continue to feed tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and cucumbers every fortnight with a high potash liquid plant food.
Keep deadheading roses as the flowers fade to keep them flowering well into autumn and beyond.
This is a great time to take semi-ripe cuttings of shrubs such as choisya, hebe, hydrangea, lavender and rosemary.
Keep bird baths and other water sources for wild birds topped up.
Continue to feed wild birds with a range of suitable bird foods.
Cut back the old leaves of summer-flowering perennials to encourage new, more attractive foliage.
Take stem cuttings of half-hardy perennials and patio plants, such as fuchsias and pelargoniums, to produce new plants for next year.
Buy winter and spring bedding plug plants and pot them up to produce good-sized plants for planting in autumn.
Plug gaps in beds and borders with good-sized summer-flowering plants from the garden centre.
Support branches of plums to prevent them snapping under the weight of fruit.
Tie in and train the new shoots of blackberries and hybrid berries.
Give hedges a good trim to keep them looking neat and tidy.
Lightly trim over lavender plants after flowering – don’t cut into old, leafless wood.
Top up water levels in ponds if they drop through excessive evaporation.
To keep pond water cool and well oxygenated, add a waterfall or fountain.
Sterilise secateurs blades with bleach if pruning plants with diseases to prevent them spreading.
Mow the lawn whenever the grass is growing and needs a cut.
Lawns can look tired at this time of year, so give them a pick-me-up with a liquid lawn food.
Water the lawn during prolonged hot, dry periods if you want to keep it green and growing well.
Some plants are very prone to powdery mildew disease during hot, dry summer. Spray affected plants with a systemic fungicide.
As weeds are actively growing, this is a great time to treat them with a weedkiller based on glyphosate.