August brings warm days, summer holidays, and the perfect chance to enjoy your garden at its peak. Borders are bursting with colour, veg plots are full of flavour, and there’s still plenty to do to keep everything looking its best. Here are 15 top gardening jobs to help you make the most of your garden this August.
1. Deadhead for more flowers
Encourage continuous blooms by regularly deadheading roses, dahlias, daylilies and cosmos. As a bonus, they’ll make gorgeous cut flowers for your home.
2. Keep camellias and rhododendrons watered
These spring-flowering shrubs start forming next year’s buds now – so water them well during dry spells to ensure a great display.
3. Tidy up lavender
Snip off faded flower spikes to keep lavender neat. Avoid cutting into old wood – trim just above new growth points.
4. Prune rambling roses
Now’s the moment to tackle ramblers. Remove a third of the oldest stems, tie in new growth, and shorten side shoots by two-thirds.
5. Summer-prune wisteria
Cut back long, whippy shoots to 5 or 6 leaves from the main branches. This keeps the plant tidy and encourages flowering next year.
6. Feed and water pots
Water container plants regularly and feed fortnightly with a high-potash feed like tomato fertiliser. Always water before feeding to help roots absorb nutrients properly.
7. Save seeds for next year
Collect ripening seeds from annuals like poppies and nigella. Store them in labelled paper envelopes ready for spring sowing.
8. Support garden wildlife
In hot weather, keep birdbaths, ponds and wildlife dishes topped up. Bees, birds and other visitors will thank you!
9. Plant for autumn colour
Add nerines and colchicums now for a striking floral display just as summer plants begin to fade.
10. Cut back summer raspberries
After harvesting, prune summer-fruiting raspberry canes down to ground level to make room for new growth.
11. Harvest regularly
Keep picking courgettes and beans to encourage more. August is also prime time to lift potatoes, beets, carrots, onions and tomatoes.
12. Feed fruiting plants
Boost courgettes, chillies and tomatoes in pots with fortnightly high-potash feeds to keep them productive.
13. Sow for autumn salads
There’s still time to sow rocket, lamb’s lettuce and mizuna for a fresh supply of salad leaves into autumn and winter.
14. Help hedgehogs prepare
If hedgehogs visit your garden, leave out a dish of water and some meaty cat or dog food (never bread or milk) to help them fatten up before hibernation.
15. Ease off mowing
In dry spells, raise the cutting height on your mower and mow less often to protect your lawn from stress.
Borders looking tired?
Pop into our garden centre and discover a great range of late-season perennials and shrubs – perfect for giving your garden an end-of-summer lift.
