- jobs for August
Top tips for AUGUST
Beetroot, carrots, parsnips, leeks, and turnips can be sown in trays for planting out later or sow directly under cloches.
Sow broccoli and cauliflower seed in trays for planting out when the soil warms up. Phenomenal Early is a great cauliflower variety and will be ready for picking in four months. Cauliflowers are best grown quickly. If growth is checked (eg, not enough food or water), heads may be small, or they won’t form at all. I like a seaweed-based fertiliser. It has nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and micronutrients such as boron and molybdenum, which are essential for good cauliflower health.
Sow cabbages that do well in summer – I recommend the fast-growing, tender-leaved variety, Golden Acre – in compost-enriched, free-draining soil. Plant out two to three weeks before the last expected frost date. Mulch around them to regulate the soil temperature. If you have problems with white cabbage butterflies, erect netting, held up by hoops, to keep them out.
Start warm season vegetables such as tomatoes, capsicums, and chilli indoors or in greenhouses to get them off to an early start. In the meantime, prepare their outdoor beds. Remove any weeds, dig over and apply compost, or a composted mixture of animal manure and sawdust. Add some wood ash or chopped up seaweed, both of which contain potassium, and dig in.
Sow peas directly into garden beds. Peas will germinate in soil temperatures as low as 4°C, though a consistent temperature above 7°C is best. Before planting, dig in chopped up banana skins, which contain potassium and phosphoric acid. The soil does not need to be overly fertile, as legumes fix their own nitrogen in the soil.
If you didn’t sow main crop onions in autumn, you can do it now. They grow best in fairly cool temperatures when starting out, so if you’re in a warmer region, do it as early this month as possible. Sow under cloches, in trays for transplanting out, or plant seedlings. Onions like a light, welldrained soil containing a good deal of compost or aged manure.