Gardening tips for August

Given the weather all you may want to do this week is sit in the shade and sip cold drinks. However, the garden still needs some attention. So, if you can drag yourself up from the deckchair, here are some of our recommendations as to what you might look to do, remembering to follow any rules and regulations re watering:

1. Make sure that ponds and bird baths are regularly topped up.

2. If you are growing fruit and veg, make sure to keep the plants watered so that they don’t die in the hot weather.

3. Try and keep weeds down to a minimum – they will be fighting your plants for water and nutrients.

4. You can prune your summer flowering shrubs if they have finished flowering.

5. To keep patio container plants looking their best, try and keep them well watered and feed the containers with a liquid fertilizer every fortnight.

6. Keep dead heading your bedding plants so that go on producing flower and colour into Autumn.

7. If herbs, such as Thyme, have finished flowering you can cut them back to encourage new leaves.

8. Prune your lavender back to a nice ball to stop it going woody.

9. Don’t water your lawn – let it go brown – it will recover in the Winter in time for next year – grass is very resilient.

10. Collect seeds from plants as they ripen to give yourself new plants next year.

We hope you are managing in the hot weather and that your garden is coping as well. We will be back open on the 26th August, so please come along if you need any advice.