Enjoying the fruit of your labour during August by keeping your garden healthy

By: Betty Hendricks

During the month of August, there are a few things you can do to keep your garden healthy and productive.

Deadhead perennials and annuals.

This will keep your plants looking their best.

You can also save seeds from your best flowers such as sunflowers and zinnias, then store them for next year.

Adding two to three inches of mulch to flower beds will conserve soil moisture and suppress weeds. Keep weeding, even if you no longer find it exciting. Keeping your gardens free of weeds will avoid having the weeds go to seed, which will only add to your weed population.

If you have a vegetable garden, frequent harvesting will encourage plants to keep reproducing.

This is the time of year when some gardeners have a surplus of tomatoes, zucchinis and beans. If you have more zucchinis than you can use, you can shred them and then freeze them in one cup portions for winter baking and soups.

Tomatoes can be turned into sauces, salsa or simply frozen whole. My mother would wash extra tomatoes, freeze them whole, then throw them into soups to add extra flavour. Once the tomatoes were soft, she would fish out the skins.

Some tomato plants will produce more fruit than others. If you have determinate tomato plants, they tend to be compact ‘bush’ varieties that grow to a set height and produce all their fruit at once over a two-to-three-week period.

Indeterminate tomatoes are vining plants that grow continuously and yield a steady harvest of tomatoes throughout the entire season until killed by frost.

Indeterminate tomato plants need frequent pruning to manage disease and encourage the growth of fruit.

Extra herbs can be dried, frozen or turned into pesto.

Let your neighbours and family members know if you are going to have a surplus of vegetables, it is likely they will happily help consume your extra vegetables.

Will the autumn season around the corner, you may want to add some extra colour to your pots, planters and flower beds.

You can add bright colours instantly by planting chrysanthemums with your existing plants. Keep in mind there are two types of mums. The florist variety are great for gift giving, but for your garden or pots, make sure you buy garden mums, which are tough enough to tolerate outdoor conditions.

If the mums grew naturally, they could spend the winter in the garden and should start to regrow next spring.

By this time of the year, some your annuals may have started to look worn out or have died. Gently pull these annuals out and if space allows, plant a fresh mum in its space.

Planters that looked great all summer may also need a refresh of colour by switching out the old plants with new mums. Keep the new plants well-watered for the first few days.

These plants have shallow roots and will benefit from the root area being covered with mulch.

Mums offer great value because they can flower for three to eight weeks with blossoms that range from tiny buttons to large blooms.

They are a short-day plant, which means their blossoming periods are triggered by the shortening dates of late summer. This is when the plants’ energies switch from vegetative growth to the production of flowers.

Mums are native to China, revered by the Japanese and are enjoyed around the world in temperate zones.

Nearing the end of the summer, your clean-up should include removing dead or diseased plants.

This will decrease your likelihood of having pests attracted to your garden or having the disease spread to other plants.

Be sure to disinfect your tools after using them to remove dead or diseased plants so you do not spread the bacteria or fungi to other plants.

You may want to collect and save seeds from plants that did well and store them until they can be planted next year.

Do not deadhead lupins, hollyhocks, or foxglove as they need to reseed themselves for the following year.

Most herbs can be harvested throughout the summer. The oils responsibly of the most intense flavours and aromas are at their peak in late summer just before the plants flower.

Clip the foliage in the early morning after the dew dries and before the day heats up. Stop pruning perennial herbs such as tarragon, lavender and sage one month before your last expected frost. Pruning encourages growth, but the plant needs to harden before cold weather hits.

Keep up your battle with weeds. As the growing season winds down, both annual and perennial weeds start to produce thousands of seeds that will germinate in your garden next spring.

When you are weeding, remove the roots as well.

Some weeds will regrow even if small pieces of the roots are left in the soil.

Think about perennials such as day lilies, sedum, peonies, and irises that you would like to plant during the upcoming fall. They will have less difficultly taking root during the cooler, moist autumn weather.

Betty Hendricks is the President of the Goderich District Horticultural Society (GDHS)