Episode 408. Augusts seed sowing and tasks.
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This week on the veg grower podcast Richard is sharing what seeds can be sown in August and what tasks can be tackled. Richard also has the product of the month and the latest from the allotment and vegetable garden.
Product of the month.
This month Richard has bought the Clarke rotary soil sieve which can be bought by clicking on the image below (This is an affiliate link).
You can hear Richards initial thoughts on this product in this weeks podcast.
Last month Richards product was the Ryobi battery powered hedge cutter (click on the image before to find out more. This is an affiliate link). You can hear Richards thoughts after using this tool; for a month on the podcast.
August seeds sowing
- Chicory
- Spring cabbages
- Chard
- Japanese onions
- Kohl rabi
- Parsley
- Coriander
- Chervil
- Dwarf beans
- Winter hardy spring onions
- Radish
- Salad leaves
- Lambs lettuce
- Fast growing carrots
- Endive
- Turnips
- Raddichio
- Amaranth
- Chinese cabbage
- Kale
- Land cress
- Oriental greens
- Mooli radish
- Rocket
- Claytonia
Augusts tasks for the allotment and vegetable patch
- Water veg and fruit plants regularly especially if dry.
- Keep on top of the weeds.
- Feed sweetcorn with a good tomato feed to get the best cobs and not forgetting to use on tomatoes, peppers and many other fruiting crops.
- Sweetcorn cobs are ready to be harvested when the tassels turn brown and when you pop a corn the juice is milky.
- Remove lower leaves of tomatoes to improve ventilation.
- Cut back herbs to encourage a new flush of tasty leaves. Dry or freeze the trimmings to reduce waste.
- Pinch out your runner beans top to encourage side shooting.
- Aubergines should be harvested when young and shiny, pinch out the top of plants when 5 fruits have developed per plant.
- Limit squash plants to 3 fruits per plant, that way you will get bigger and better squashes.
- Keep harvesting second early potatoes and towards the end of the month, the main crop potatoes can start to be harvested, as the foliage turns yellow.
- Keep harvesting beans often in order for the plants to produce more. Don’t forget to harvest courgettes before they get to big too.
- Keep birds and squirrels off your fruit with nets, or place bird scarer tape to scare off any pests.
- If you have gluts of berries freeze them on a tray for a couple of hours before bagging them up.
- Tidy strawberry plants, remove any straw and dead or dying leaves.
- Invite friends around for bbq to show off your garden and what you can do when you grow your own food.