August is the month when all your hard work comes to fruition. Tomatoes, peppers and other crops are starting to ripen now, so high on the list of things to do in the garden in August is to keep up with the harvesting. When you pick ripe fruits, vegetables, or herbs, it tells the plant that it needs to produce more. Harvesting at the right time also ensures better taste, texture, and nutritional value and prevents crops from going to seed, which prolongs their productive phase.
While you’re harvesting, take a hard look at your tomatoes and vegetables. Removing dead and diseased leaves on your tomato plants will put more energy into fruit production.
Recognize common tomato problems such as blossom end rot; use ferti-lome Yield Booster to increase calcium levels and be consistent with watering.
Heat, wind, uneven watering, poor soil, over fertilizing, insect damage can also cause tomato leaves to curl and twist. The best thing to do at this point is to work on your garden every day, maintain an even watering schedule and use an organic fertilizer every two weeks.
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, for late season harvest. Prepare the planting site by removing any spent foliage left over from summer’s crops. Next, work two to three inches of compost and worm castings into the top six inches of the planting site. Rake the bed and you’re ready to plant. Fall crops can be planted from seed or starts or a combination of the two.
If you’re not planning a fall crop, consider planting a cover crop, such as oats or winter rye. A cover crop will help improve soil structure, soil fertility and protect the living portion of your soil, including micro-organisms.
In between harvesting ripe crops and planning your fall garden, it’s important to keep up with the routine tasks of regular maintenance, watering, fertilizing, weeding, and deadheading.
Irrigate, don’t water. Conserving water is always important, so whether you water with a hose or a drip system, it’s important to water at the ground level not overhead. By positioning the drip system emitter or hose end sprayer where it’s needed, you’ll optimize plant water consumption and reduce water waste due to evaporation.
Get in the habit of carrying a pair of light pruners with you as you make your rounds. As you spot a blossom beginning to fade snip it off. In gardening terms it’s called deadheading, which simply means pruning off the old flowers. This keeps the garden neat and promotes additional blooms on perennials such as Hardy Hibiscus, and Butterfly Bushes.
Do the same for your container plants, including hanging baskets. Fertilize your baskets and containers every two weeks with ferti-lome 20-20-20.
Check your roses and remove any spent blossoms. Mid-August is the time to feed your roses for the season. Water each rose bush, then apply the fertilizer and water thoroughly.
Keep an eye out for weeds. They take advantage of cultivated garden soil to grow vigorously and can produce several generations during the summer season. It’s important to control them before they seed out.
Powdery mildew may be seen on squash, pumpkins as well as peonies and other ornamentals. Use an organic fungicide such as Sulfur to help contain the spread. Once the season is over, it’s important to do a thorough cleanup. Leaving spent vegetation in place will encourage mildew and other diseases to winter over and reinfect your garden next spring. Getting on a problem early is the best way to control it.
Start a gardening journal. It’s beneficial to take pictures and keep a journal documenting what went well and what didn’t during the season. This will help when you make plans for the upcoming gardening season.
Just like every other month, August brings its own set of opportunities to the garden, including harvesting, watering, weeding and preparing your garden for the change in seasons. A well-maintained garden yields better results and makes the transition into fall easier.
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