GARDENING IN AUGUST
I am going out of town for a bit. I thought it might be good to post this page now so I won't feel guilty about not "tending" to my INTERNET garden!
Remember to protect yourself from the sun! Take water with you to the garden for drinking...as well as for watering the plants!!! Be sure you apply your sun-block often. It tends to wash off with perspiration, and we ALL know that gardeners are not beyond a bit of sweat!!!
AUGUST
Make some notes on what you need to add to next years garden while
you can see what's blooming!
Dig potatoes after the tops have died down.
Prune off those strawberry runners to keep your strawberry bed orderly.
Buy fall mums.
Water any newly planted shrubs and trees.
Stop pruning shrubs.
Water evergreens thoroughly during dry weather.
Sow forget-me-not seed. The make an attractive carpet planting
for tulip beds
Cut off foliage of bleeding heart, which has probably become unsightly.
Apply fertilizer around peonies and scratch it into the soil. If you want to transplant or divide them, this would be the time.
Treat for Powdery Mildew. Try this recipe: 1 1/2 tablespoon baking soda, 1 gallon of water and 2-3 tablespoons of horticultural oil. Spray it on all the susceptable plants every other week or so.
Plant colchicum's and fall crocuses.
Order your bulbs if you haven't already!
Cuttings from English Ivy now will produce good house plants for
winter.
Are you remembering the lawn mower should be set at 2 1/2 to 3 inches to help the grass stay hydrated? Cutting the grass lower will be very stressful!
If you have an amaryllis outside, now would be the time to think about
bringing it inside.
Still time to sow lettuces and greens, carrots, beets and turnips (don't worry about how big they get...they ALL taste wonderful while still immature!) Then of course, there are radishes. Be sure to keep all of these well watered, also, a bit of mulch will keep the tender roots cool. As far as avoiding early frosts, a row cover will help there!
Get some netting over the blueberries! Remember the birds and small animals are great at crawling UNDER and THROUGH the netting. Try staking it so they can't reach the berries from the outside. If they get in, you'll live to regret it. Talk about a mess!!!
posted by North Country Maturing Gardener @ 7/21/2005
2 comments
2 Comments:
NCMG, my mistake ... I thought you hadn't posted since March but it just looked that way to me because I was mistakenly using the URL for your March archives. Never mind!
Hey, I do have a question for you. When the foliage for an oriental poppy starts dying back, when is it safe to cut it down? I have one that looks very tattered and brown but still has some green in the leaves, so I assume it's still able to photosynthesize ... but I sure would love to chop it! It's not currently hidden by anything so it's a tad unsightly.
No rush on the answer, I probably will leave it till it's totally brown unless you tell me differently. Enjoy your time away!
I would just leave the poppy leaves to die back naturally. This is the major reason why we stagger perennials, and annuals. It's great to have something that will just grow there to cover those unsightly leaves...then you can just totally ignore them!
Actually, you may get a few little green leaves coming up from the poppy in August sometime.
Also, if you want to divide them, this would be a good time to do that. Take the tap root and cut it into smaller pieces and plant those in some sand that has been amended with mulch.
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