August Vegetable Garden Tasks

August is the month when your gardening efforts come to fruition and as tomatoes, peppers and other crops ripen, it’s important to keep up with the harvest.

This accomplishes two things.  First, it will encourage more production. Second, an over-ripe crop left on the vine invites insect and disease problems.  

Vegetable gardening in August includes being vigilant to changes in the appearance of your tomatoes and vegetable plants. Discolored, yellow, blotchy leaves, leaves with white residue, are signs of problems in your vegetable garden.  Garden diseases can show up quickly. The same is true for late season insect activity and it’s important to know what you're dealing with to correct the problem effectively.  We encourage you to bring a sample of the plant in question to our Diagnostic Center. We’ll determine the problem and recommend a solution.  

What else needs to be done this month in the garden? 

Water wisely. Water early in the day and water at the base of the plant. Avoid overhead watering in the heat of the day.  

Be on the lookout for invasive weeds. Many weeds are producing seed heads this time of year. It’s important to prevent these seeds from being scattered in your garden so pull any weeds as soon as they appear. Don’t allow them to flower and go to seed, because the seed will scatter throughout your garden, compounding the weed problem next spring.  

 

While August gardeners face a variety of issues including diseases, insects, weeds, this is also the time to start planning for a second crop of cool weather vegetables. Beans, radishes, lettuce, kale, spinach and many more cool weather crops can be planted soon from seed or plant starts, for late season harvest.  

Begin to gather season extending supplies like N-Sulate plant protection. This product is designed to protect tomatoes, vegetables, and flowering plants as fall temperatures cool.   

 

It’s beneficial to take pictures and keep a journal documenting what went well during the season. This will help when you make plans for the upcoming gardening season.   

 

Finally, work on your garden every day. Staying on top of problems as they happen will keep your vegetable garden productive through the rest of the growing season.