5 steps you can take this August to keep your garden thriving
As you enjoy your garden in all its summer splendour, there’s plenty you can do to get ready for the coming seasons with these tips from GARDENA ambassador Huw Richards
From fun family barbecues to long, balmy evenings with a glass of your favourite beverage in hand, summer is the ultimate reward for the hard yards you’ve put into your garden all year.
But with autumn round the corner, it’s important to keep up the good work. That means planning for the year ahead and taking any opportunities to make the most of your outdoor space. The simple act of deadheading your perennials, for example, will encourage flowers to keep blooming into the autumn. And collecting seeds on a warm, dry day will allow you to grow your favourite plants for free – simply store the seeds in a paper envelope, ready to be sown in autumn or spring.
Huw Richards, organic gardener, GARDENA ambassador, YouTube sensation and bestselling author, knows all about year-round garden care, particularly when it comes to growing your own vegetables. From sowing and composting to watering as efficiently as possible with GARDENA’s irrigation systems, Huw’s here to help with his top tips for maintaining and improving your garden now, so next year is even better.
Huw’s top tips
1. Sowing undercover
Sow kale, spinach, chard, coriander, lettuce, cabbage and claytonia seeds in modules, which you can then transplant in September to cold frames or polytunnels for an abundance of salad leaves over the winter months. If your polytunnels are already full of tomato plants, you can simply plant these beneath them.
2. Ramp up composting
August is a great month to get ready for all your compost making in autumn. If you can, build an extra compost bin, get sacks ready for collecting leaves, and look at where you can source extra resources to bulk up your compost. It could be anything from coffee grounds from a local café to large cardboard boxes from the supermarket or seaweed from the beach.
3. Grow cover crops
Some crops finish in August, leaving empty spaces in your garden beds and borders. A simple way to fill these gaps and improve soil health is to plant cover crops that improve structure, reduce erosion and increase fertility. Vetch, phacelia and mustard are all perfect cover crops to sow directly this month.
4. Water efficiently
Thankfully, August is the last key month for watering before temperatures begin cooling again in September. Use GARDENA’s Micro-Drip systems or soaker hoses for stress-free, reliable, water-saving irrigation. Just remember, the best time to water is early in the morning to avoid any excess evaporation.
5. Take it all in
This is a very full month in the garden – it can feel a bit like you have a personal jungle, but this gives you the perfect opportunity to review how the garden has been performing so far, your personal highlights, and what might you want to do differently next growing season. It’s important to capture these thoughts when they’re fresh, to give you a clear plan for the next cycle.
For more information, top gardening tips and inspiration visit GARDENA