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Top Tips for: August
August in the
garden...
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With a
bit of luck, August brings us holiday weather but the holiday
season means we're away from home and our garden.
Now a word of warning from bitter experience, don't trust teenagers
left at home to water for you. Unless you like to find dried
flowers and tomato plants turned to straw.
Luckily there's a large range of
automatic watering
kits and devices to help
you and the investment will be worth it, year after year. At least
until the teenagers grow up.
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Don't
forget to keep on top of the pests, in our pre-holiday checklist we
include checking the brassicas for butterfly eggs and caterpillars
as well as the greenhouse for spider mite and all those other pests
that love our crops.
Returning home to find the eggs have hatched and the cabbages are
now just skeletons is not the best
return.
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The other thing to consider in August is the
heat, many of us keep a few hens in our garden nowadays.
As well as marvellous eggs, they're fascinating pets. Many people
worry about them in the winter, forgetting that they come ready
equipped with a feather duvet, but more hens are lost due to hot
summers than cold winters.
Ensure they have plenty of water, of course, but give them some
shade as well.
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Being a jungle fowl, hens like the cover trees or
large bushes provide. It makes them feel safe from eagles swooping
down to snatch them. Not that we have a lot of eagles round here,
but they don't know that. We do have hot sun at times though.
If you don't have trees available, create shade using
Shade Netting
over the top of the poultry cage. Not only
will they feel happier, you may save their
life.
On the veg plot you
should be harvesting second early potatoes now and the first
earlies will have all been lifted. Don't just leave the soil bare
though. All that happens is you get a crop of weeds to deal with.
Try sowing a green manure instead.
The green manure will hold and even add nutrients to the ground
whilst suppressing the weeds. Later in the year, you can cut the
manure down and either add it to your compost heap or dig it into
the soil.
Agricultural
mustard is a good green manure to follow potatoes as it confuses
the worms as well. Unfortunately it is a brassica, so don't use it
if you have clubroot on your patch. In that case, sow
Dwarf French
Beans. The seeds are
cheap, look for a bargain large pack, and beans actually fix
nitrogen from the air, adding to your soil fertility.
So if you can spare the time for a holiday, I hope the sun
shines for you and don't worry about those teenagers not watering
your garden.
They're too busy enjoying the party with all their friends in your
house!
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