Augtasks in a vegetable garden: Augmenting late-summer harvest and preparing for fall
August Tasks for a Productive Vegetable Garden
As we enter August, it's peak production season for many fruiting crops like tomatoes, peppers, and courgettes. To encourage the best crop, regular watering and the use of a weekly tomato feed, such as Levington Tomorite from Amazon, are recommended.
However, it's not just about growing. Keeping an eye out for garden pests like aphids, caterpillars, and blight is essential this month. Regularly checking your crops for signs of these pests and inspecting other plants for insect eggs can help control any outbreaks. Organic sprays and hand-picking are effective methods for pest control.
August is also the perfect time for harvesting. Regularly harvesting crops like beans, cucumbers, courgettes, tomatoes, potatoes, and onions is crucial to prevent overripe fruit from spoiling plants. David Glass, head gardener at Bowood House & Gardens, suggests watching for signs of ripeness when harvesting cucumbers.
Sowing late or overwintering vegetables like kale, spring onions, Swiss chard, cabbages, and lettuce varieties can extend the growing season into the colder months or prepare for next year. Abbie Betts, gardening buyer at Cherry Lane Garden Centres, recommends sowing kale, spring onions, and Swiss chard now for late-season harvests. A huge range of lettuce seeds can be found at Amazon for speedy harvests before the end of the growing season.
Sowing green manures like mustard, phacelia, red clover, rye, or vetch in any empty beds is another important task. These crops not only improve soil fertility naturally but also protect it over winter. Green manure seeds can be purchased from Thompson & Morgan for £1.99.
Feeding and preparing the soil by applying organic matter or other soil conditioners is also essential to maintain fertility for the next growing season.
Lastly, general garden maintenance such as turning compost regularly, keeping watering systems and bird feeders clean, and propagating plants from cuttings to expand your garden is always beneficial.
These August tasks help sustain current crops to maximize yield and prepare the garden for healthy soil and early plantings in the next season. For more gardening tips and advice, follow Sophie King, our Gardens Editor, who joined our platform team in June 2024. She has a love for gardening and shares growing hacks for every space. A large wooden garden trug from Crocus can be used for Instagram-worthy snaps of your harvests.
- Maintaining a productive vegetable garden isn't limited to growing vegetables; during August, home-and-garden enthusiasts should also consider gardening tasks such as sowing late or overwintering vegetables like kale, spring onions, Swiss chard, cabbages, and lettuce varieties.
- As the peak production season for crops like tomatoes, peppers, and courgettes continues, it's essential to remember that August is also the perfect time for homeowners to harvest these fruits, following advice from experts like David Glass, head gardener at Bowood House & Gardens, who suggests watching for signs of ripeness when harvesting cucumbers.
