Hello everyone and hope you are enjoying the summer.
Jill and I are both keeping well and have been busy working away most of July and the first couple of weeks of August at shows, hence the reason I didn’t manage to write the August newsletter, so please accept my apologies. As September is only a couple of weeks away, I’ve merged the two months together and come October, it will be back to normal – I promise.
The flowers shows have been very good and unlike last year, they have been dry, sunny and very warm. It’s been great seeing lots of garden club members at shows, especially at the new RHS Wentworth Woodhouse show a few weeks ago.
One of the lovely things about our job is working with so many interesting people and at the recent Southport Flower Show we were joined on two days by George & Carole from the Beechgrove Garden for the Q&A sessions. I’ve had the pleasure of working with them several times and they are so kind and genuine with a passion for gardening.
1 – Beechgrove legends George & Carol.
Back at Ivy Cottage, we’ve been busy harvesting in the veg garden and Jill has been freezing lots for use over the winter months. I’ve also lifted the first of the onions and the shallots which I will pickle, ready for Christmas. The soil in the garden is very dry, so I am having to water some of the vegetables and the young cordon apples which are carrying a decent crop. The first will be ready to harvest within the next couple of weeks. In fact, I think we are in for an early autumn this year because of the dry conditions and high summer temperatures.
Our two final events of this season are in North Yorkshire so if you are at RHS Harlow Carr for the Plot to Plate weekend on 6th-7th September or the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show at Newby Hall on 19th-21st September, we’d love to see you.
Jobs for late August & September
Late August is the perfect time to give conifer hedges and shaped box or yew a final trim of the season. Done now they will hold their shape through until growth starts next spring.
Keep summer containers going by picking off any dead leaves, remove dead flowers and feed twice a week with a high potash fertiliser. You’ll be surprised how they will perk up and keep flowering for several more weeks.
There is still time to sow the seeds of spring cabbage in cell trays to produce strong seedlings for planting out in the garden in early October.
If you haven’t pruned your wisteria yet, there is still time to cut back the long growths to around 4 inches to create flowering spurs for next year.
Keep dead heading roses and many perennials to keep them flowering into early autumn.
Lift onions when the foliage has turned brown and the bulbs have a papery skin. Dry them off in the sunshine and store in a cool shed in trays or hang them on strings.
September is the start of the bulb planting season, so buy bulbs why there is still a good choice. Daffodils, alliums, crocus, snowdrops and iris can all be planted around three times their depth. Tulips on the other hand prefer cooler conditions so wait until November.
If your lawn has suffered in the summer, once it greens up after some rain you can lightly rake to remove dead grass, spike the ground with a fork to aerate and allow water to seep into the soil and give it an autumn lawn feed. This will help the lawn recover over the cooler autumn months. Only do this work when the lawn has greened up and is growing.
Harvest apples as they ripen. To test hold the fruit and give a gentle twist. If it leaves the tree easily it’s ready to pick. In our garden I think the apples are ripening a couple of weeks ahead of normal.
If you have mint growing in a pot, trim it down to an inch or so, water and feed and in a few weeks, you’ll have tender new shoots to enjoy over the autumn months.
And finally, if you are lacking shrubs and perennials for later summer and early autumn colour in your garden, now is the ideal time to buy some and get them planted.
There’s still time to sow some flowers and vegetables and Kings Seeds are once again offering a 10% discount on seeds purchased from their web site www.kingsseeds.com by quoting the code PT2025. It’s valid until the end of 2025. (T&Cs apply)
For more weekly gardening tips and advice, you can watch our gardening videos “Pots & Trowels” on Facebook or subscribe on YouTube for free. And don’t forget our weekly P&T podcast where we chat to gardening guests, give a few jobs for the week and answer your gardening questions. Available through your normal podcast provider or listen on www.potsandtrowels.com
Happy gardening