Monthly Gardening Tips - August 2021

IN THE GARDEN

Remove Oriental poppy plants before their seedheads turn brown if you wish to avoid a mass of seedlings next year. Don't compost them! Obviously those with particularly good flowers can be allowed to seed. The same goes for foxgloves, Verbascums and the purple verbena bonariensis. See below:

Poppy
Foxglove
verbena bonariensis

Herbaceous Phlox, below, may be cut down in late summer to promote more shoots ready for next year. The same goes for herbaceous Delphinium flower spikes which usually need support. Check for slugs and snails which can decimate young late summer growths

Phlox
Delphinium

Let yellow Day lilies - Hemerocallis, flower until the end of summer and after they have died down you can easily split clumps up to many smaller plants. Great value. Beware of allowing Bears' Breeches, Acanthus, to seed as they can take over borders within a year or so. Remove the flower stems after flowering.

Hemerocallis
Acanthus
santolina chamaecyparissus

The grey Cotton Lavender, Santolina chamaecyparissus, should be clipped after flowering to encourage it to thicken up before winter. Clip it harder in March to keep it ’tight’ and encourage new growth.

VEGETABLES

Keep hoeing to prevent annual and other weeds from infesting your plot. It's a lot easier to do it now than in a month or two’s time. Last month I suggested various late season veggies that could be planted. Even early August might not be too late for lettuce leaf salad, beetroot, and dwarf french beans. Water the seed well in. Mice have been a real problem this year, climbing up the pea vines and eating into the pods. Any ideas anyone?!

lettuce
pea pods