August in the Garden
Time to plan your fall garden!
This is the best part of summer! Unlimited tomato sandwiches, fresh salads every night, and we're all at our absolute healthiest! Lots of veggies slow way down in the heat of July and August, but those are exactly the ones you should start growing now!
Oh, you thought the work was almost over?? Well, you COULD take a break now, with a freezer full of beans and tomatoes, and rest on your laurels until next spring...but that would mean missing out on the best part of the gardening year: fall gardening!
There are so many incredible veggies and flowers who thrive in the cooler temps that are coming! Plus, with the current warm weather, you don't need a greenhouse to start seeds to transplant into your garden.
Read on to learn more...
Fabulous Fall Vegetables
1. Brassicas Galore
Cool weather is perfect for growing broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbages - otherwise known as brassicas. Try planting kale, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage now for a hearty harvest. These veggies not only tolerate frost but often taste sweeter after a touch of cold.
2. Root Vegetables
Fall is the ideal time to harvest root vegetables like carrots, beets, and turnips. If you haven’t planted them yet (or even if you have!), now’s the moment to sow seeds for a late-season or second crop. Just make sure to provide a layer of straw mulch to protect the roots from early frosts. Carrot seeds can be tricky to germinate, so here's a pro tip: lay burlap or a wooden board over the seeds after you've sprinkled them on the soil and watered them in. Check daily and remove the covering once they all germinate!
3. Spinach and Lettuces
These greens thrive in cooler weather and can be grown in both garden beds and containers. Spinach and arugula are particularly tricky to grow in the heat of summer, so make sure to plant plenty now for lots of yumminess this fall. Sow seeds directly into the soil and keep the area well-watered for a fresh, flavorful harvest throughout the fall. Pro tip: the darker the green, the more cold hardy it is, so things like lacinato kale can be harvested well into winter!
4. Herbs
Always have trouble growing cilantro? That's because it hates the heat! Put some seeds in a pot or in your garden now, for a ton of cilantro in as little as 45 days! Just in time to make tons and tons of salsa with all those tomatoes and peppers in September! Dill also thrives in cooler weather, and goes great chopped up in salads. It also makes a great home for Eastern Swallowtail Butterflies!
5. Peas
There is nothing in this world more delicious than peas picked straight off the vine. We never have enough peas to harvest because we all just eat them while we are in the garden. And they are so easy to grow. Give them something to climb and watch them go!
stock flowers
Beautiful Autumn Blooms
1. Snapdragons
This tall cottage garden staple struggles in the heat, but can be planted as early as March in Zone 5, and will bloom well into November if you get them started now! You will not be disappointed.
2. Stock (shown above)
A newer addition to the American flower market, stock is a stunningly beautiful, tall and showy flower that smells spicy, like a fall wreath. What could possibly be better than that?? Its frosty foliage looks great in the garden even without any blooms. But those blooms take off in the cooler weather and you will be delightfully surprised by their hardiness.
3. Ornamental Kale and Cabbage
Not just for the veggie garden, ornamental kale and cabbage provide striking foliage with their rich purples, pinks, and greens. They’re a great way to add texture and color to your garden beds.
4. Scabiosa
These pretty little pops of color make an impressive arrangement when arranged in a group, and come in every color imaginable.
5. Pansies and Violas
These hardy flowers offer vibrant color and can withstand chilly temperatures. Plant them in your flower beds or containers to keep your garden looking lively. They’re also known for their cheerful faces that can brighten even the gloomiest days.
As the days grow shorter and the nights cooler, your garden still has much to offer. Your efforts now will reward you with a vibrant and bountiful garden well into the colder months.
this is the perect time to grow greens
What we are doing in the garden in August:
Harvesting: Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, summer squashes, melons, beets, rhubarb, chard, radishes, zinnias, cosmos, strawflower, amaranth, celosia, coneflower, rudbeckia, roses, basil
NOTES: Keep harvesting cucumbers and summer squashes regularly or they will stop producing!
Make sure you harvest your basil and dill regularly or it will go to seed! Trim off the entire top of the plant when you harvest, and you will get twice as much!
Don't forget to keep harvesting rhubarb so it will keep producing until the fall!
Tasks: weeding, pruning leaves on tomatoes and squashes, checking for disease, more weeding, watering during extra hot afternoons, sowing fall crops, succession sowing greens and root veggies
Read more about August gardening tasks in your zone here!
