August

Hi everyone thank you all very much for coming to are NGS open day on the 16 July we had a great day and raised a lot of money for  charity.

We had over 300 visitors and sold a lot of tea, cakes and plants.

It’s that time of year when the dead heading and watering seems to take over the garden. With dead heading doing it a little and often can go a long way.

Keep on top of the faded perennials by cutting them down when ready to allow more space for other plants to grow. It’s a good time to cut lavender back once it’s finished flowering, this will keep it compact.

Some pruning can be done this month if you find the time such as summer flowering shrubs, whippy growth on wisteria and climbing roses (I don’t normally prune climbing roses until a lot later in the year personally October-December).

Don't forget to collect seed when it’s ripe ready for sowing next year. Also if you have tender perennials try taking cuttings and growing them on ready for planting out next year.

If you have a perennial wildflower meadow in your garden now is the time to cut it down. This can be done with a strimmer or scythe. I would suggest leaving the grass on the ground for the seed to drop out, this can be aided by flicking the grass around using a hay rake or pitch fork.

If your meadow is lacking in fauna once it is cut you can open the soil up with a scarification, or you could turn over the turf in the worst areas and sow the seed directly over the area. Sowing yellow rattle will reduce the vigour of the grass over time which will in turn help the other flowers establish.

Keep on top of harvesting all of your fruit and veg as a lot will be ready by this point. You can cut down herbs to get a fresh crop before winter. The tomatoes will still need feeding and also remove the lower leaves to aid ventilation and help prevent diseases.

Now is also a good time to go through bulb catalogues and get some ideas for next year. You can also take a stroll around the garden see where you have gaps or plants that are not performing and get good ideas from catalogues.