August has always been a month for a bit of reflection. All the planning, planting and earlier preparations should now be paying off. Borders and containers will be brimming with tall herbaceous plants, bright coloured summer bulbs, baskets frothing with hanging plants and burgeoning fruit trees.
August is the pinnacle of summer growth and it’s going to start to fade gradually over the next couple of months and a more sedate look and feel will be taking over as the year fades. It’s important that we take this opportunity to breathe, sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labours before the autumn jobs start. However a weekly session of feeding, deadheading and tidying will keep flowers and fruit coming.
I find it very satisfying to wander my plot on a warm evening and just remove the spent flower heads. I’ve got a great Burgon & Ball product called a hands-free hip trug that clips to my belt and allows me to dead head as I wander. I also use a watering lance with a fertilizer dispenser to keep my plants at peak performance. A weekly sweep around with a stiff brush prevents any pests that might be hiding in the fallen leaves. This way everything is kept in tip top condition for as long as possible.
It is also time to take cuttings of tender plants that you want to over winter, such as fuchsias, salvias, pelargoniums and echeveria and aeoniums. Use root trainers, which are ingenious deep trays that allow the cuttings to root over the winter. In the spring they split down the sides for you to check the progress of the roots and once they are established, they can be individually potted on. Taking the cutting and allow the cut end to dry off before inserting in the compost. This will stop the fresh stems rotting off in their young state. A little planning now will pay dividends later.
Finally, remember that the light levels drop now, so install some solar lights strategically around your plot to bathe your garden in a welcoming glow on these warm, balmy evenings. Uplighters under trees highlight their forms, walls bathed in warm colour can make your garden look more intimate and make your space welcoming.
Garden of the month.
Sheffield Botanical Garden.
At this time of the year the gardens at Sheffield Botanical Garden are a great inspirational space for seeing late summer and autumn planting schemes that you can use at home. In August I make my way to four specific areas. In the ‘four seasons garden’ there is an Autumn bed planted up with late summer colour. In the Osborn’s field area, there is a South African garden which feature borderline hardy perennials growing in a sunny site, in gritty soil to show the diverse variety of late summer plants that can be successfully grown in Yorkshire, if you give them the right conditions. The prairie garden is another autumn highlight and finally the Pavilions are full of exotic beauties looking their best in the autumn light.
Plant of the month.
Dahlias
Dahlias have had a checkered past in horticultural fashion terms. Seen in the late 19th century as too big and blousy, we have seen them resurge, especially when used in prairie type planting schemes. Their pollen rich saucer sized flowers attract a huge range of foraging insects and are great for pollinating. Ones to look out for are the Bishop’s series which have mahogany coloured foliage and lots of flowers through summer and autumn. Bishop of York is a favourite with dusky yellow flowers, Bishop of Dover has pale cream flowers on taller stems and Bishop of Llandaff has deep cherry red flowers.
Also available are the larger size decorative varieties such as crème de cassis and café au lait. All well worth growing for your autumn garden.
Q&A
Every year I try and plant snowdrop bulbs in October and very few come up. What am I doing wrong?
This is a common problem for gardeners planting bulbs. Some varieties just don’t like being packaged for sale and drying out before they are planted. One of these candidates is the snowdrop family. Galanthus are dug up in July and packaged for delivery in August. Ideally this is when you should plant them. Don’t wait until you plant the rest of your bulbs. Plan the area you want them to come up in the Spring and just plant them around the existing plants that are in full bloom. The area then needs to be well watered to keep the newly lifted bulbs plumped up and in the best condition to start rooting down for an early spring show. Other varieties that benefit from early planting are scilla, aconites and anemone blanda varieties. The aconite and anemone benefit from being soaked overnight to rehydrate the corms before you put them in. You should then get a much better success rate with your spring display.
After a visit to Harlow Carr and seeing their long border display, I would like to know what I can use at this time of year to give height and colour this autumn in my garden.
The long borders at Harlow Carr are a treat at this time of the year. Plants to put in your garden to give the same effect are the Eupatorium family or Joe Pye weed. North American stately herbaceous plants with clusters of deep pink flowers. Helianthus maximilianais, a perennial sunflower with lemon-coloured flowers that get covered in hoverflies through the autumn. Finally, to add foliage colour and flower, Thalictrum Black Stocking and Actaea Black Negligee add deep mahogany coloured foliage and the Actaea is scented and attracts butterflies during the day and moths in the evening. These varieties will give height in pots or at the back of your autum
