The settled warm and dry weather is making August a most enjoyable month in the garden so far.
This is a time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labour so far this year. The culmination of the last few months is now bearing fruit, literally!
The mulching, pruning, dead-heading, watering, weeding and nourishing over the last while is all resulting in colour and harvest all around, and we need to remember to take the time to sit back and smell the roses, so to speak.
Sit back, drink it all in, and of course start planning for next year!
It has been a good year for growing fruit and the harvest from the orchard is looking good and colouring up well on the trees before picking. The warm sunshine aids ripening and improves fruit quality.
Any windfall apples should be used up within a few days as they will not store for any length of time. Apples picked directly from the tree will store better and the trick to knowing when they are ready is if they come off easily when given a little twist. Colour is a good indicator also and will depend upon the variety. They need to be handled with care to prevent bruising
Cinnabar moth caterpillars, which feed on ragwort
As the summer moves on and crops are established and growing well, it is not all sitting back and smelling roses unfortunately, there is no time for complacency and a caterpillar infestation on the brussels sprouts reminded me of this last week.
The cabbage white butterfly lays its eggs usually on the under surface of a brassica leaf, cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli, calabrese, or any member of the brassica family – all are susceptible.
If the eggs are spotted at an early stage, then they can be squashed and that is the end of their development.
If, however, they go undetected and hatch out into caterpillar stage, then no brassica leaf is safe and they will chomp through beautifully grown crops mercilessly, leaving a skeleton of a plant in their wake.
If damage is minimal then the plant may have time to recover while growth is good, but if a lot of leaf is consumed it can be bad news for the cropping potential.
Daily visual inspections are necessary at this time of the year and netting is advisable. Any damage done to overwintering crops like kale and purple sprouting broccoli is difficult to come back from as the window for recovery before temperatures start to fall is short.
It is great to see butterfly numbers increase this summer but it comes with a warning for some crops.
The cinnabar moth larvae are in evidence also at this time of the year with their distinctive black and yellow stripes. They are partial to ragwort and by feeding on its foliage, which contain toxins, the caterpillars themselves become toxic to predators.
Interestingly, the caterpillars are used in many countries to help in the control of ragwort. They develop into an attractive and distinctive red and black coloured moth.
As vegetable beds empty out post-harvest, then it is time to consider planting green manures to cover the soil for the winter and help to retain and increase fertility for next year. Phacelia and rye grass, clover, buckwheat or vetch are all good options.
Now is a good time to start sowing overwintering salad crops like radish, lettuce, spring onions, and if protected growing spaces are at your disposal, even better to extend the growing season at either end.
There are little hints of autumn beginning to appear with rose hips swelling and colouring up and some trees showing signs of stress as a result of the dry weather and starting to reveal some of their autumn colour.
Ensure that any newly-planted trees or shrubs get a good watering at least once per week during prolonged dry spells. Established trees and shrubs should be able to cope fine.
There are plenty of seeds to be collected now as they ripen in the late summer sun. Also, there are attractive seed heads you can use in dried flower arrangements over the winter. Phlomis, statice, straw flower, allium seed heads and honesty are some of my favourites to collect.
If they are gathered when they are in good condition, before the elements break them down, then they will look better and last longer.
Herbs can also be cut and hung in a cool, dark place to dry out and preserve some of the flavours for use over the winter months. They look great suspended from the ceiling and fill an area with heady summer scents.
Rosemary, lemon verbena, bay leaf and sage are some of the most flavoursome.
Once the foliage is dried, then the leaves can be picked off and stored whole in an airtight container.
Plant of the Week
Clerodendron bungei is a suckering shrub, native to China. It produces attractive clusters of rounded pink flowers from late summer into the autumn.
Clerodendron bungei with its clusters of pink flowers in late summer
It can grow to two metres tall with a similar spread and does have a suckering habit so be aware of this when choosing planting location.
It will grow best in a sheltered location in full sun or partial shade, given a good, fertile free-draining soil.
A good choice for some colour late in summer to keep the show going as all around begins to look a bit tired at the end of the season.
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