Plan Next Spring’s Garden

August is the month to order spring bulbs. You will have the best selection from any grower if you order now. Tulips, daffodils and other spring beauties don’t want to go into the ground until the soil temperature has dropped to 55 degrees and you are turning on your car heater in the morning. Look at photos you took this spring and judge where more bulbs are needed. When you plant, remember bulbs look best in groups, single bulbs spread out along a border or walkway have very little visual impact. If you sometimes have visits from deer and rabbits, daffodils and hyacinths are deer resistant, tulips are deer (and rabbit) candy.

 

In the Vegetable Garden

Keep picking! If you let cucumbers or squash, beans or any other vegetable over-ripen - producing seeds - the plant will think its work is done and stop producing flowers and setting fruit. Replant peas, beets, green beans and lettuce and you’ll have a new crop in September. In late August, remove flowers from tomato plants. There’s not enough time for them to set fruit and ripen before frost. And. removing new flowers tells the plant to devote its energy to growing and ripening the fruit already in the vine.

 

Deadheading

Remove spent flowers from perennials and annuals. Your goal is more flowers, not seeds. Keep the flowers coming by encouraging the plant to use its energy to set more buds. Keep your garden looking at its best by cutting back any plant that has finished flowering, leaving enough foliage to add energy to the roots but allowing space for the late bloomers to shine.

 

With August Comes Insects

Always treat insects with the least toxic methods available. Most insects you see do little or no damage to plants and can be left alone. Those seriously damaging plants can sometimes be removed with a hard spray from a hose which sends them to the ground where they become other bugs’ dinner. Others can be hand-picked; no one ever said gardening was easy!