Gardening: Monty Don lays out ‘jobs for the weekend’
While it is time to enjoy the final few weeks of summer before it is time for dark nights, jumpers, and colder weather, the end of August is an important time for gardeners as well.
Any gardening jobs completed in these final warm weeks will not only keep your garden looking incredible in the autumn but also keep it protected and tidy in wintertime.
Michael Griffiths, is a gardening expert who enjoys sharing his best “tips and tutorials” on his TikTok account @themediterraneangardener.
In his latest video, Michael explained his top “gardening jobs for August” which will help prepare your garden for the upcoming colder weather.
Michael has grown popular on social media through his “brilliant” and “helpful” gardening advice. One user said: “What a brilliant channel! I’m a newbie gardener so happy for tips” while another commentator wrote: “This was so helpful, it gave me a checklist of everything I need to do in my garden, thank you!”
Five must-do gardening jobs for August
Sowing Soil
If you are looking to grow vegetables such as carrots, garlic, or broccoli in the autumn, Michael said it is now time to start getting ready
Michael explained: “Now is a great time to prepare the soil if you’re sowing seeds or laying turf in September and October.”
Pruning Flowers
Pruning, which is when gardeners selectively remove parts of a plant to encourage growth, should be done to certain flowers at specific times of the year in order to make sure they grow to their best.
Not only will pruning make your flowers look amazing, it can keep them healthy and protect them for winter. All you will need is a pair of sharp secateurs and know where to cut in order to keep the plant growing.
Michael said that now is the best time to “prune lavender once their flowering if over” and has said that pruning lavender now will prevent it from becoming leggy and twiggy.Lavender should be cut slightly above its side branches or leaf nodes so that there is still plenty of new growth underneath the plant.
Other flowers that should be pruned in late summer are climbing hydrangeas, which are hydrangeas that grow on walls, fences and tees. To prune climbing hydrangeas, you must keep the top of the plant as un-pruned as possible as that is where the buds grow, and make sure to prune just above any healthy buds
Michael added that now is also the time to “prune rambling roses and tie them back into support.” Rambling roses can be pruned by removing damaged old shoots and cutting them right back to the ground which will stop the branches from tangling and continue to encourage flowers to bloom.
DON’T MISS
‘I grow abundant roses in my garden with an incredible free hack’
How to avoid hydrangeas going brown without pruning
Hydrangeas won’t bloom next year if gardeners ‘mess up pruning’
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info
Propagation
Once your flowers are pruned, Michael said: “While you’re pruning, you may as well take softwood cuttings of all your woody herbs like lavender and rosemary.”
Taking cuttings from plants can help gardeners grow even more flowers at no extra cost. Certain flowers, such as lavender and hydrangeas, are perfect to try and frow in late summer.
All you will need is peat-free compost, horticultural grit, a pot and a semi-soft flower cutting, which should be firm and woody at the base in order to achieve the best result. More details on how to propagate between late summer and autumn can be found here.
Fruit Preparation
Michael said that taking care of your grapes now will keep them growing during the upcoming season. He said: “Continue to prune grapevines to let the sun ripen the fruits giving yu juicy grapes in autumn.”
Michael said that now is also the perfect time to plant any “well-rooted strawberry runners” into new garden beds. Strawberry runners are stems that grow along the ground and are new plants still attached to the original plant. Once your strawberry plants have fruited, it is time to freshly replant them for autumn.
Deadheading
For his final piece of advice, Michael said: “Keep deadheading border plants unless you want to collect their seeds.”
Deadheading is removing faded and dead buds from a flower in order to keep it from becoming spoiled. This is a task that should be done regularly in order to keep plants blooming. Deadheading is removing a bud from a plant, while pruning involves removing any part of a plant.
Follow Daily Express US social media accounts here on Facebook and Twitter @ExpressUSNews
Source: Read Full Article