Tasks for August

What to do in the garden in August: High summer is holiday time, when your garden is at its beautiful peak and you've got the leisure to enjoy it to the full. Keep things looking tip-top with our jobs to do this month. General tasks: Neaten bed edges with a sharp edging iron followed up with the edging shears for [...]

Prune rambling roses as soon as they've flowered. You can tell the difference between these and climbing types because rambling roses produce multiple whippy stems from the base: climbing roses, on the other hand, form a woody framework from which flowering shoots grow through the year. Start by removing any obviously dead or dying shoots right back to the ground. [...]

Dry bunches of herbs to use through winter so you make the most of the summer's plenty and enjoy home-grown herbs even through the coldest months of the year. Most shrubby herbs dry readily to preserve the essential oils that make them so fragrant and flavoursome to use in your cooking. Rosemary, bay, thyme, lavender, marjoram and sage are all [...]

Plant autumn crocus corms now for a spectacular display of 'naked' flowers rising as if by magic from the ground. These lovely flowers have the unusual habit of producing their leaves after they bloom – so you can appreciate their subtle, delicate beauty in splendid isolation, without any distractions. The name is somewhat misleading as they aren't true crocus at [...]

Sow spring cabbages to grow through winter for delicious and nutritious greens from next March onwards. These hearty greens are a welcome treat in spring, when there's little else around – try them shredded and steamed gently in butter, salt and pepper for a really scrummy treat. You'll find a good choice of seed in our garden centre right now: [...]

Start a square foot veg garden as the perfect way to squeeze a lot of veg into the tiniest of gardens. When you're short of space, packing variety into your patch becomes incredibly important. But with square foot gardening, you can harvest nine or ten different vegetables from a bed just a metre square. The idea is that you divide [...]