Sunday, August 10, 2008

August Garden Tasks


PLANT

Flowers: You can still plant zinnias, marigolds, and cosmos. Add to it some cool weather flowers, such as petunia, pansy (even though I've only had them do well a couple of times), delphinium, snapdragon, and stock.

Vegetables: Prepare for your fall vegetable garden. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, lima & green beans, and eggplant can go in now. Later in the month, when it's cooled down a bit, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and carrots can be put in the garden.


Herbs: I'm hoping to find some cilantro and italian parsley to add to my herb beds. They can't take our Summer temps. Note to self: Next Spring, look for a shady spot for some cilantro. Maybe it will last through the hot months.

You can still plant palms and other tropicals - just be sure to water well at planting and deeply once every 5 - 7 days.

HARVEST

I'm jealous if you have anything to harvest. I do have some eggplant that Dolly didn't shake off the stem. And the zinnias are growing and putting on flowers again.


PRUNE

This year, pruning will be my biggest August chore. We only removed the broken branches after Hurricane Dolly - and now we need to deal with a bougainvillea leaning over the sidewalk and broken limbs that are still partially attached. And, of course, there is trimming to be done where it had been too wet to get in and work safely.

Continue to pinch back your poinsettias for lots of flowers next Winter. Chrysanthemums want the same pinching treatment.

If your roses have grown leggy, you may want to do a little pruning on them. The plants feel rejuvenated and may thank you with some pretty blooms.

WATER

I don't know where the 15 inches we received on July 23rd has gone, but my grass is getting a little crispy. Even though the shrubs don't show it, I'm sure they are needing some irrigation now too. Remember, for good root growth, water deeply and infrequently.

COMPOST

All gardeners should have a compost bin or pile! I see bags and bags of leaves and twigs all over Harlingen. Time for some leaf rustling!

MULCH

How I wish I owned a chipper/mulcher right now! A nice layer of mulch will cool your plants roots and give your landscape a nice finished look. Keep it a couple of inches away from your tree trunks.

ENJOY THE FRUITS OF YOUR LABOR!

1 comment:

Annie in Austin said...

Hi Mary Beth,

It's sort of scary to think that just a few weeks after the 15 inches of hurricane rain you have crispy plants!
Once you find and plant that cilantro will it reseed for you? I've only had to buy it once a few years ago, scattering some of the seed heads from each wave of plants to keep it going. So far it's been a spring and fall plant - the plants that came up in shadier areas still disappeared by June.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose