Gardening Tasks for August

Here’s hoping we get warm sun during the day and gentle wetting rain overnight so we can spend more time enjoying our summer gardens, with children, family, friends and pets rather than spending all out garden time watering crops and newly planted borders during the July heatwaves!

But regardless of what the weather is throwing at us, August can be a such busy time of year for gardeners and families. Catch your breath and read our helpful tips for those summer garden tasks that need doing this month

3 Gardening Tasks for August

When your early summer fruiting raspberries have all been picked, it’s time to cut back the canes that have borne fruit this year. Tie in the new canes, they’ll give you next year’s raspberries.

August is both a dead heading and a seed collecting month. Keep taking out flowers on both perennials and annuals as they finish, encouraging more flowers. Collect ripe seeds from earlier flowering annuals such as poppies. With the annual poppies, I like to cut off just a couple of stems with seedheads, which is plenty for sowing next year’s flowers, then leave the rest as a decorative feature in the flower borders. The brown stems look good with bright yellow Heleniums and Rudbeckia.

When you’re short on space – or you’re the only on eating them – mini cucumbers area good option to grow. There are both greenhouse and outdoor types available, and because they require less space, they’re well-suited for growing in containers. Did you know that there are records of cucumbers being grown in 14th century Britain?

bindweed flower, Calystegia sepia

Gardening Tasks for August – Things to watch for in your garden

Climbing weeds, bindweed in particular can be a real nuisance – see our ‘how to deal with bindweed’ video on YouTube for tips

summerhouse, lawn, tables and chairs, plants in pots, marie's garden, ©️Julie Skelton

Gardening Workshops in Marie’s garden

Small group workshops so you get plenty of attention. There are a range of topics, some seasonal, but for example: –

Free Plants – How & When to Divide Herbaceous Perennials
Fast Food: Grow Your Own Pizza Garden
Seed Saving 101: Collecting & Storing Seeds from Your Garden

See Plews Gardening Workshops for more details or head to Eventbrite to book your place

With a mix of practical, hands on demonstration and guided practice, you’ll go home with more gardening knowledge and something to grow on in your own garden.

Prices from £30 – £53 depending on length & materials provided, includes tea / coffee on arrival & Eventbrite booking fee. There are also Earlybird offers

Location is Biggin Hill / Westerham (just inside M25). NB there are steps as the garden is on a hill

white rose on dovecote, Nymans, climbing rose, national trust, manor house, stone wall, leaded window

Nymans, Sussex, the dovecote

Garden to visit this month

Some of popular gardens hold events over the summer – both for the visiting public which will make the garden busier, but also private occasions such as weddings when parts of the garden may be closed. Remember to check before making a special trip!

However, the Yellow Book scheme gardens won’t have that problem and there are many which are open during the week as well as at weekends. I find these amongst the most inspirational of gardens, not least as they tend to be more the size of our own garden and easier to relate to and be inspired by.

There are plenty of Gardening Visits to look at in Plews Potting Shed if you need ideas of where to go – arranged geographically for your convenience!

We all like having a nosey around someone else’s garden… so, if you can’t make it to the Workshops, you can still follow Marie’s garden and its renovation on Instagram or Facebook It’ll be at least a year before she can open her garden but you can watch the progress until then!

And see our @plewsgd Instagram and Facebook page for tips, pics, gardening inspo.

Marie Shallcross, garden designer, Plews, at Chelsea flower show

Garden Talks

Are you the person who organises talks for your local gardening club, WI, U3A, history society, or general club?

Have a look at the Talks page to see if Marie’s wide ranging garden related topics might interest you and your members. Recent ones given include Planting for Shady Front Gardens Trees for Small Gardens, and Record keeping – how necessary is it for most gardeners?

Attending one of Marie’s gardening talks is more than just sitting in a chair and being spoken to. It’s a learning experience and an inspirational journey. She brings her vast knowledge to life with captivating stories, simple explanations and demonstrations.

Ball Dahlia

Would you like more gardening tips, garden design ideas and seasonal gardens to visit?

Why not check out weekly gardening blog articles on a range of topics in Plews Potting Shed ?

Marie’s writing has achieved Plews Potting Shed’s standing as it’s in the Top Ten Garden Design blogs and Top Thirty Gardening blogs by Feedspot and she was shortlisted in the 2021 prestigious Garden Media Guild Awards.

Latest blog offerings include explaining the different types of Dahlia flowers and Herbs to put in your summertime drinks.

“interesting even if you have no intention of picking up a spade”
Thanks Tim, who is a regular reader if a reluctant gardener!

NB there is still a delay with the newsletter as its taking longer to implement the new system as we are still having issues with the updated website. But we’ll get there! We’ll be sending out another ‘test run’ to a few of you this month.

Gardening printables for you

A range of free downloadable and printable PDFs on seasonal gardening, garden history snippets, vegetable gardening, garden design, themed planting lists for inspiration, garden planning, record keeping for you and your garden. For example: –