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August In The Garden
August 04 2008
AUGUST
This month brings to mind thoughts of heat and holidays, and we may have both, but August is one of the two months with the highest monthly rainfall, the other being July. This summer rainfall typically comes in torrential thundery bursts and can be very heavy for a short period, hopefully followed by warm sun and much plant growth.
Heavy showers can also play havoc with the fruit crop, causing fruit cracking and splitting to susceptible varieties, especially if the soil was droughted beforehand. Some plums are prone to this problem , but if you’re quick you can still take the fruit for preserves or cooking, but you have to act before the wasps find them and demolish the crop.
Fruit
 Plums
The main plum crop comes in this month.
Prop up branches if they are bearing a heavy load – plums are likely to over-crop and a broken branch will let in disease. Victoria is very prone to this.
After harvest prune the tree if it needs it. Look for dead, diseased or rubbing shoots and remove them. Leave enough 1 and 2 year old wood to carry next springs blossom. The stone fruits should not be pruned in the winter, as this is when the most dangerous disease spores are in the air.
Apples and Pears – Summer Pruning
This is the ideal month for summer pruning. This is a great technique for keeping apple and pear trees to a fixed size, once they have filled their allotted space.
Cut back any NEW seasons growth that’s growing too far. This is the young sappy new wood that the tree is making now. Cut this off leaving one leaf on the new wood, this will leave a stub of new wood about 2 or 3 cms long. Prune only those shoots that are about pencil thickness or more at the base, leaving thinner shoots to prune in the winter.
There is a video that you can watch from the following link. It starts with gloria Hunneford and an advert for a couple of seconds so just ignore that! Summer pruning video
You’ll see the change in colour from old wood to new if you trace the shoot back from the tip. These soft prunings will readily break down in the compost bin.
If done at the right time of year Summer Pruning stops the tree in its tracks and growth of shoots will cease for the year. Plus - the buds that remain will turn into blossom buds rather than growth buds, and you get more fruit. So this is also a useful technique for getting reluctant bloomers to start flowering.
Summer Pears
The first pears of the season will appear now, conveniently during the school holidays.
None of these early fruits will keep for more than a few days when ripe.
Doyenne d’Ete is a small, sweet and juicy pear - yellow with an orange cheek. Little more than a mouthful it is a useful size for children.
Sensation is a sport of William’s and has a remarkable mahogany coloured skin which it develops very early in the season. It also has attractive neat foliage and red autumn colour, so great as an ornamental and fruiting combination, and good trained against a wall.
Jargonelle is an old 17th century pear that has good quality long fruits. Its drawback is that it is a triploid so needs a pollinator but won’t pollinate other varieties, so its one for gardens that hold several pear varieties. It has been grown as a hedgerow tree – its long whippy shoots could be woven together to make a very strong hedge.
Soft Fruit
Raspberries – when summer cropping raspberries have finished fruiting remove the canes and tie in their replacements that have been growing up around them.
The first autumn raspberries will start cropping this month – Autumn Bliss is an early starter, and also its yellow-fruited sport All gold. The distinction between summer and autumn types is that the autumn rasps fruit on the canes that grew this year, whereas summer raspberries grow a cane in one year and fruit on it the next. After fruiting the canes of both types will die back.
These two autumn types are also useful because they have relatively short canes that can be grown without support in a sheltered spot.
Strawberries
Keep strawberries coming through August up to the first frosts by growing Perpetual Strawberries. These will crop from July onwards but the first flowers are removed until the summer strawberries have finished, so making more fruits later. They are best freshly planted each year from saved rooted runners. Gento is a variety that can crop well for two years.
Now is also the time to pot rooted strawberry runners for growing in the greenhouse for early berries next year. Leave them outside till the end of January, as they need cold to induce the flower buds.
Vegetables – Sow now:
Spring cabbage for transplanting in early October.
Japanese onions, hardy spring onions and winter lettuce.
Winter spinach and spinach beet, and leafy herbs like parsley and rocket. Cloches placed over leaf crops in the winter will encourage more growth and keep rain-splashed grit off the leaves.
Herbs that exasperate by rapidly running to seed can be sown now with a fair chance of a long cropping season - coriander and dill and chervil leap to mind.
Holidays – if you’re away and don’t have any arrangements for watering, then move container grown plants into the shade and give them a thorough watering before you go. Against a north or north-east facing wall would be a cool, shady spot. If you can provide a shallow tray to catch the rain that will help, but don’t leave them in deep water as water-logged roots will die off.
If you have a neighbour coming in then let them help themselves to beans, courgettes, and cucumbers as this will keep them continuing to crop.
A nice win-win situation!
Phil Corbett of Cool Temperate
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