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August is a busy month for harvesting crops, cutting flowers to enjoy indoors as well as there are still crops to sow for harvesting in late Autumn and next spring.

1.  This month is the time to lift and store early and second early potatoes for future use. I always take my time to carefully fork out the tubers and dry them in the sun for about 1 hour, and then I put them into potato sacks. You can leave main crop potatoes for harvesting early next month. If you have cut the foliage down from your potatoes because they were affected by blight, do not lift the tubers for at least three weeks after cutting the foliage down. Otherwise the blight fungal spores could still affect the tubers you store as they are lifted through the soil and ruin your crop.

2.    If you have an old strawberry bed that needs regenerating or you want to increase the size of your strawberry bed next year, this is best done during early August. Your old established plants should be producing plenty of runners; these can be pegged down with a wire hoop into pots or trays. These will quickly root and then once rooted; they can be cut away from the mother plants ready for planting your new strawberry bed this autumn. Alternatively, you can order new plants from our mail order website for delivery in November.

3.    Fill any gaps on the vegetable plot with over winter Lettuce. From August through to October you can sow direct outside varieties like Arctic King and Winter Imperial. With a little winter cloche protection, you will have tasty lettuces to cut early next year.

4.    This month you can sow Spring cabbage like Wheelers Imperial, Duncan or April in a seed bed outside, then once plants are large enough these can be transplanted to a space on the veg plot. These will stand all winter and can be harvested either as spring greens or as full size heads early next year.

5.  As space comes available from where early harvested crops or potatoes were, make sure you fill it up again, as now is a good time to sow some over wintering Japanese Onions like Senshyu Yellow. Sown now outside in drills these will quickly germinate and will be ready for thinning early next year as spring onions then leave the rest to mature as full sized onions for use from June onwards. I find these a useful crop to grow as; you will have onions ready to use just as your stored onions have finished.
 
Overwinter Spring Onions can also be sown this month like White Lisbon winter hardy or Gerda.

6.  Often at this time of year many early flowering annuals and perennial plants start to look tired or have already finished flowering in the borders. I like to cut these back hard or sometimes remove them totally from the borders during this month. Then to ensure there is still colour in the garden, I stand some of my flowering patio containers in their place to fill the gaps and prolong my colourful display.

7.    Sweet corn will be ready to harvest later this month. An easy way to check if it is ready to eat is when the Silks (tassels) turn brown and the cobs look swollen. Then carefully pull back a little of the sheath around the cob, push your fingernail into one of the kernels, and if a milky juice comes out, they are in perfect condition for eating, both raw in a salad, added to the BBQ or cooked whole in the microwave.  If you are in an area where there is a high population of Badgers, it is wise to put some net protection around your sweetcorn crop as these animals love sweetcorn and can easily decimate a crop overnight.

8.   Keep on top of harvesting Runner and French Beans so they are picked when young and succulent, otherwise with hot weather they can soon tun old and beany and not good to eat. Beans need plenty of moisture to ensure the beans set and grow quick and succulent to eat, so make sure they are kept well-watered each evening during hot weather.

9.  As space comes available on the Vegetable plot, you can fill this up with crops like Chard, Spinach, Rocket, mixed Salad leaves, Pak Choi, Summer Radish, over winter Radish types and Turnip that can all be sown this month.

10. If not done so yet there is still time this month to sow some Biennials such as Bellis, Pansy, Viola and Forget me nots, to flower next spring into early summer. Viola and Pansies dislike germinating in hot temperatures, when above 20C which can be quite often at this time of year, as this can inhibit germination of these items. Put the seed packets in a fridge the night before sowing so the seed is chilled down, and germination will be much better.