August Tasks for Vegetable Garden: Late-Summer Yield Boost and Autumn Prep Work
August is a crucial month for vegetable gardeners, offering both opportunities to maintain current crops and prepare for future seasons. Here's a rundown of the key tasks to focus on during this pivotal period.
Harvesting actively is essential, particularly for crops like beans, cucumbers, courgettes, tomatoes, potatoes, and onions. Regular harvesting keeps plants productive and ensures you get the most from your crops.
Trimming and pruning is also important, especially for plants like courgettes, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Removing yellowing leaves and pinching off outside shoots helps maintain plant health, while "topping" tomato and squash plants (removing growing tips) directs energy to ripen existing fruit rather than generating new immature fruit.
Feeding and watering crops like tomatoes, peppers, and courgettes is vital to maintain healthy growth and extend the harvest season.
Planting late-season vegetables can help extend the harvest. Kale, spring onions, Swiss chard, and cabbages are ideal choices for sowing in August, providing late-season harvests or early next-year harvests.
Sowing green manure crops like red clover, rye, or vetch in empty beds can improve soil health and add nutrients naturally for the following season. These cover crops act as nitrogen sources and help prepare the soil.
Weeding and checking for pests regularly is essential to maintain plant health. August is a critical time to check for garden pests like aphids, caterpillars, and insect eggs, and controlling these outbreaks can prevent them from getting worse.
Cucumbers are ready for harvest in August, and it's peak production season for fruiting crops like tomatoes, peppers, and courgettes. Regular feeding will encourage their best crop, and keeping plants regularly watered prevents them from drying out during this period.
For a weekly tomato feed, Levington Tomorite from Amazon is a popular and affordable choice. Lettuce seeds can also be sown in August for speedy harvests before the end of the growing season.
Caterpillars can cause significant damage to vegetables, serving as a hard-learned lesson for many gardeners. Regular checks and prompt removal are key to preventing this issue.
August is the prime time to sow more vegetables for late-season harvests or for next year. Green manure seeds can be purchased from Thompson & Morgan for £1.99.
Sophie King, our new Gardens Editor, joined the team in June 2024, sharing growing hacks for every space. Stay tuned for more tips and tricks to make your vegetable garden thrive!
- Maintaining a productive vegetable garden in August involves not only harvesting crops like cucumbers and tomatoes but also trimming and pruning plants like courgettes and cucumbers, feeding and watering tomatoes, peppers, and courgettes, planting late-season vegetables such as kale and cabbages, sowing green manure crops like red clover or vetch, weeding regularly, and checking for pests like caterpillars.
- To encourage the best crop from fruiting crops like tomatoes, peppers, and courgettes during peak production season in August, regular feeding with products like Levington Tomorite and keeping plants well-watered is essential to prevent them from drying out.
