Health & Fitness
AUGUST GARDEN TASKS
I know I am going to sound like a grinch but the vegetable garden always bugs me this time of year. Tomato plants are sprawling, the zucchini looks like it’s going to take over the yard and I can’t eat the beans fast enough.
It’s partially a question of aesthetics for me. I like to see everything at a certain level of orderliness. I don’t mind the abundant look but the post-summer-solstice-growth-spurt makes me feel just plain tired.
What’s wrong with me? Isn’t this what I wanted after all? How could I be so ungrateful?
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Not only do I have to deal with my own abundance but then I am inclined to smile sweetly as I accept another bag of stone fruit from a neighbor or return home to find a sack on my front porch filled with someone else’s fruits of labor.
Waste not, want not...that might be the other part of the anxiety I feel this time of year. I eat my body weight in fruit each week yet it seems there are always overflowing bowls of fruit on my kitchen counter... slowly decomposing with the flies that mysteriously appear, lazily circling above.
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Come January I will be nearly in tears for a delicious Santa Rosa plum or maybe a Dapple Dandy pluot. Not to mention a tomato salad with basil and feta.
I must remind myself to enjoy it while it lasts and do some judicious pruning of the tomato plant.
Water Especially citrus or they will drop their fruit. Azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons need to be deep-watered now because they are setting buds for next year. Young trees need water too!
Fertilize Anything in flower or budding can be fertilized now. I personally fertilize only my citrus with an organic fertilizer like E.B. Stone and add a layer of compost to everything else.
Plant for fall color Coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’ and C. ‘Redshift’ are my current faves. Also try Rudbeckia, Coleus and flowering sage.
Divide irises This should be done every three to four years depending on compaction of bulbs. Pull up bulbs with shovel or pitchfork, ease bulbs apart. Replant and share extras with neighbors.
Remove spent blossoms on all flowering plants.
Weed You know the drill...get the weeds before they flower or set seed!
Start shopping for spring-blooming bulbs I love bulbs because they are so easy and are a great bang for your buck!
Vegetable and Fruit Garden
Harvest! Pick all fruit and vegetables that are ready. Clean up decaying matter off soil surface. It’s good to have a clean environment around plants to prevent disease and infestations.
Prune berry vines after harvest.
Sow cool-season crops such as beets, carrots, lettuce and radishes.
Read more of Angele's gardening and landscaping tips in the Patch Archives.
