By Paul Clarke
Paul’s Plants of the Month: COSMOS
Cosmos come in a wide range of colours including pink, white or purple. They are usually grown as annuals in this country and are easy to grow from seed. Cosmos will grow easily in most garden soils and are best grown in groups, rather than alone, not just for impact but to help hold each other up. The seeds need to be planted in pots indoors in a greenhouse or a warm windowsill to help germination. Plant outdoors when risk of frost is over at the end of May and if you regularly dead head the plants Cosmos will flower till the first frosts.
What to do in your garden in August
I think many of us will have heard or just be aware from observation that “green” front gardens in this country are becoming an endangered species! Gardens that have been paved over in the UK has tripled in 10 years, from 1.5 million to 4.6 million so that 1 in 4 are now paved. This trend is unfortunately perhaps inevitable, due to the increased population and our love of the motor car. Most homes have 2 if not 3 vehicles and with limited on road parking and sometimes charges to do this it is not surprising that the front garden is being lost at an alarming rate. The knock on effect of this is a worsening picture for the nation’s health, for wildlife, pollution and increased risk from flooding.
Greening Grey Britain is a campaign being run by the Royal Horticultural Society and all of us can get involved by considering doing some of these five things in your front garden Plant up containers, grow hedges in place of fencing and walling, plant a climber, plant a tree or plant a shrub.
pauls jobs for the month
Flower Garden
- If you do nothing else this is a month for deadheading flowers regularly
- Lavender can start to look a bit untidy once the flowers have faded. Use a pair of shears to give it a good trim back.
- If you haven’t done so already give your wisteria a prune
- A number of flowers such as Aquilegia and Lady’s Mantle will turn to seed this month. if you want extra flowers then let these seeds drop . However if you don’t want loads of extra plants then make sure you remove all the flower heads.
- Many hedges will also benefit from a light trim to keep them tidy to avoid a lot of work in the autumn when growing starts to slow.
- Remove fading stems and leaves from Geraniums to encourage new growth.
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Irises have finished flowering so now is a good time to increase your stocks by dividing the rhizomes and planting them elsewhere in your garden.
Vegetable Garden
• Snip off the tops of tomatoes plants once you have 3 or 4 trusses of fruit developed . Also continue to remove any side shoots (except for bush tomatoes)
• Lift and dry onions and shallots
• This is the time to start harvesting early potatoes, lettuce, beetroot, marrows , pumpkins ,runner beans apples and pears
• With the warm weather watering in particular is best done in the evening or the morning as are routine jobs such as weeding, hoeing and dead heading spent blooms.
Fruits•Now that any fruit has been picked you can cut back gooseberries, redcurrant and blackcurrant bushes. Also cut down to the ground any spent raspberry canes
• You can cut strawberry runners from their parent plants
• Provide support for any heavily laden fruit trees. Branches can break or take over a pathway unless you tie in supports.
• You can prevent ants and other crawling insects from climbing your fruit trees by using sticky glue bands.
This months poem… “Fairest of the months! Ripe summer’s queen, The hey-day of the year. With robes that gleam with sunny sheen. Sweet August doth appear.” -R. COMBE MILLER
