August, garden work
August 1, 2021 4 Comments
August, the hottest month of the summer with high temperatures and heat! It is a period of rest and vacation and gives us an excellent opportunity to enjoy our garden more. In August we harvest and enjoy delicious summer fruits and fresh vegetables.
And since our garden doesn’t know any holidays, it will need a lot of care this month. First, it is necessary to protect our plants from the heat and the heat, so we water them regularly to keep them cool and with lush growth. At the same time, we carry out the last plantings of summer vegetables and start planting the early planting of autumn vegetables.
In August, we do light pruning to our garden and balcony flowers to refresh them and help them give us new blooms in autumn. And if we intend to leave the house for a few days, we ensure that our plants have automatic watering or the care of a friend or relative while we are gone.
And let’s not forget that due to the high temperatures in August, we go out into our garden early in the morning or at dusk so as not to suffer. So let’s look in detail at the tasks that the garden needs in August in order to do the necessary planning and enjoy wonderful plants and flowers.
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1. We plant late summer vegetables and early autumn ones
In the period of August, depending on the area in which we cultivate, we can plant several vegetables, which we will harvest in late autumn or early winter. When planting vegetables, it is important to incorporate manure, compost and organic compost into the soil to enrich the soil with organic matter and nutrients.
In August, we can continue the late planting of summer vegetables such as the squash crop, the cucumber crop and the bean crop that give us quick production in the fall. In the southern regions of our country, potatoes are planted from the end of August, which are harvested in December.
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In August, especially in the northernmost regions of the country, but also in the most mountainous ones, we start the early planting of autumn horticultural crops for the cultivation of cabbage, the cultivation of broccoli, the cultivation of cauliflower, the cultivation of celery, the cultivation of leeks, beetroot cultivation and carrot cultivation.
2. We enjoy seasonal summer fruits and fresh vegetables
In August, we have a high production of the vegetables we planted in the spring, such as tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, onions, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplants, potatoes, green beans, beans and sweet potatoes.
Also, from our vegetable garden this season we harvest very tasty fruits such as sweet strawberries, aromatic melons and refreshing watermelons.
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In August, we harvest several early table grape varieties, white or red, such as Sultanina, Superior and Cardinal. From the fruit trees in our garden, we collect delicious summer fruits such as prickly pears, plums, peaches, pears and figs.
It is important to harvest fruits and vegetables early in the morning so they are cooler. To preserve them better and for a longer period of time, after collecting them, put them immediately in the refrigerator.
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3. Take care and lightly prune the ornamental plants
In the period of August, we do a very light pruning on the ornamental plants, removing dry flowers and shoots. This cleaning helps the plants a lot, as it strengthens them to give us new growth and abundant flowering in the fall.
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We avoid putting fertilizer on the plants due to heat and high temperatures. Especially at this time, the addition of nitrogen fertilizer or manure can cause severe burns and drying of the foliage and flowers.
During August, it is important to strengthen our garden plants as well as those we have in pots with water-soluble algae extract to stimulate them to face the heat and high temperatures.
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4. We water the plants more often so they can withstand the heat and the heat
The month of August requires regular and abundant watering due to the high temperatures that the plants have to deal with and to avoid heatstroke. Of course, during this period we water our vegetable garden plants and fruit trees every 2-3 days. Of course, we must be careful because in some cases excessive watering can rot our plants due to the development of fungal root diseases.
Automatic watering for garden and pots
However, before we leave for vacation, we test our garden’s automatic watering scheduler to make sure we’ll find our plants in good condition when we get back. If we do not have automatic watering, we should consult with our relatives or friends and explain to them how the plants in our garden should be watered for the entire vacation period that we will be away.
5. We protect the plants from the strong sun
The August sun is very strong and can damage our garden plants. High temperatures and strong rays of the sun, especially in the midday hours, can create significant problems for plants in growth, flowering and fruit production.
For our vegetables, we make sure to place them with a special sun protection net to protect them from the sun’s rays. Alternatively, we can spray with a solution of kaolin, zeolite or attapulgite. These are three natural minerals that offer significant protection from the sun, as they create a white protective film on the leaves of plants.
Sunburn on tomatoes, peppers and eggplants
For the ornamental plants we have in pots in the yard or on our balcony, we make sure to move them to a shadier place, placing them in a north-facing spot that has more dew. If we don’t have this possibility, we can also move the plants inside the house for a few days, especially if we have air conditioning that will ensure them coolness and good ventilation.
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6. We protect the olives from the sun
The olive borer still infests our olive trees throughout the summer, for both table and oil olive varieties. We continue the biological control of the weevil, using kaolin to spray all the foliage or carrying out bait sprays with approved ecological preparations.
To protect olives from the weevil, it is important to consult the traps for the weevil we have in our field, so that when the population increases we carry out the appropriate sprays. We have to bear in mind that in hot conditions, when temperatures exceed 35°C, the populations of the dako are fixed as it does not multiply, so we do not need to do any intervention.
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If there are cultivation tasks that you did not manage to do last month, you can consult the article with the tasks in the garden in July .
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