Late Summer Jobs In The Garden

We’ve tried to concentrate a little more on the garden over the past few months, making it more interesting with more plants, shrubs and pots.  Some things have worked, some haven’t and there’s still such a long way to go, but that’s gardening for you.  With the longer, hot days beginning to shorten and the holiday season slipping into the back to school routine, you can easily forget there are still jobs to be completed at this time to keep the garden looking at its best.

Here are some of the jobs we are trying to focus on in our garden.

Watering

• August & September – As the days are still hot and sunny, keeping on top of the water and feeding so very important to keep the plants looking great.  We have quite a lot of pots at the moment, so it’s especially important for us to do this regularly.

Pruning Wisteria

• August – It’s now the time to prune your Wisteria (can also be done in July).  Cut back the new green shooting growth to 5 or so leaves to manage the growth of the plant.  This will avoid it getting too big and overgrown which can result in the plant growing into and effecting your guttering.

As our Wisteria is still quite small and not fully established, we are still in the process of training it around the front of the house.  We have already shown this video in our previous How To Add Kerb Appeal To Your House, but feel it gives good tips on training Wisteria.

Pruning Plum Trees

• August – They do not need too much of a precise prune, but will benefit from the thinning of old wood.

As mentioned in a previous Fruit And Veg Update our plum tree this year has given us loads of fruit………too much fruit really to cope with, so we would like to thin the tree a little to possibly scale back the fruit we get next year.

Collecting Poppy Seeds

•  August or September – Chosing when to do this depends when the seed heads have changed colour from green to brown and are rattling inside.

We are going to take the seed heads off and store them to sow at a later date.

For tips on how to collect the seed heads from poppies, click on the below video.

Dead Heading 

• August & September – Keep on top of dead heading flowering plants to try make them produce flowers as long as possible.

Pinching Out Tomatoes

• To focus the energy of the plant on the fruits, you need to be pinching out any additional growth at this time.

Although we will try to enjoy the last of the Summer weeks as much as possible, there are plenty of jobs to be getting on with in the garden to keep it looking at its best.

As always, please share any gardening tips that you always do at this time of year.