August Gardening Guide

After my plans taking an unexpected turn in recent weeks, my focus has turned to my own garden. There’s something special about spending time within your own outdoor space while the sun shines and the breeze is warm. Having nurtured the garden during the last four years, it’s gone from 7ft high brambles and broken fences to seating areas for reading, an evening terrace for 5pm drinks, year round flowers, homegrown vegetables and so much more.

I really should leave it there, leaving you with an idyllic image of my magnificent garden space where only beautiful flowers bloom and no weeds exist. Of course, that’s not the case and I’m not going to do you the disservice of pretending that it is. Amongst the repeat flowering roses there’s also been brambles emerging (that I’ve been ignoring), the water butt slowly tipping due to ants nesting in the ground underneath and a mystery stench that turned out to be something deceased. Tranquil, right?

When I mentioned my plans changing in the last few weeks, it’s due to having to look after a very poorly cat (my little boy). Thankfully, after a very worrying time he seems to have turned a corner and is feeling much better. During the time I’ve spent with him sitting in the garden it’s given me time to pause and consider the next projects to undertake. Sometimes just sitting and taking in the view can be the most productive thing you can do.

My garden courtesy of the wonderful Gary Davies

 After some consideration I think the (slightly failing) cutting patch that I created last year isn’t flourishing due to the top soil that I used. Now that it’s had time to settle, I think it’s just a little too sandy and isn’t holding enough nutrients to provide the continuous boost that annual plants need to put on vigorous growth. Luckily this is a relatively simple fix using mulch in the early autumn. Once the tomato plants that I’m growing in pots have gone over I’ll repurpose the compost in there and spread it on the border. This will need to be repeated over time to improve the soil structure and gradually it will do. Then I’m confident that I’ll having an incredible cutting patch which I won’t be able to bring myself to cut from even more! (visit my recent Instagram post for me calling myself out on this)

The water butt in the garden has been such a fantastic addition. Do you harvest water in your garden at all? The research on the future sustainability of our fresh water is really quite daunting and one of the ways that you can help (and save yourself money in the long run) is to collect the rain water that falls in your garden. The butt is harvesting rain water from the cabin roof and every time I use the water on my planters I feel utter bliss in knowing I’m saving money (and basically the planet). As the ants have decided to nest right underneath it, the ground has become uneven so this just needs levelling off and some paving slabs putting underneath. To be in line with my garden’s planting scheme, I’m going to plant a couple of rosemary plants next to the water butt to hide it a little with the evergreen shrubs.

Buddleja aka 'butterfly blush' 

I’m now ready to move onto the next section of border to add! With my garden being a gradual process, I’m taking one project at a time and following an overall design. I created this design before embarking on the renovation to ensure that the overall result at the end is a cohesive, well thought out layout. I’d say that I’m 2/3 of the way through the garden as a whole so there’s still plenty of work to be done over the coming years but there’s no rush! Doing the planting one border at a time makes it much more manageable both financially and physically AND I can see which plants are thriving and which may need to be swapped out. For the new section of border it's a slightly shady area so I’m planning a planting scheme with ferns, Japanese anemones, Osmanthus burkwoodii, hellebores etc. This won’t be done just yet, I’ll wait until the Autumn to plant this up to save such a heavy workload of watering. These plants will get nicely established over winter and be ready to get going in the spring.

Now you might not have nesting ants or a new border to plan, so here’s some things you could be getting up to this weekend…

Keep feeding your roses

Generally I tend to ensure the roses I buy are repeat flowering. My newest addition from last Autumn was ‘Koko Loko’ which is such an incredible colour and has continued to flush with flowers, we’re onto our third flush now. This wouldn’t be happening quite as majestically if I wasn’t feeding her, though. I tend to use seaweed feed but have been starting to experiment with making my own feed (more on that when I’ve tested it out).

Help out amphibians

There isn’t a pond nearby my garden that I know of, yet we still regularly have frog visitors to our garden. Creating a sheltered and shady spot for them out of the sun is a good way of looking after them if you don’t want to go the whole hog and create a wildlife pond. A pile of logs with some gaps, areas of long grass, even a little shelter made out of spare bricks and placed in the back of a border out of the sun all do a good job of giving them a bit of shelter.

Tidy up heucheras

Give your heucheras a bit of a trim whilst there’s still time left for them to put new growth on. Trim back old flower stems then snip out the old tatty leaves right down to the base. This will give your plant space to put up new shoots that will continue to look lovely into the winter months.

Prune wisteria

Wisteria needs keeping in check and this time of year is a good time to do a bit of that. Trim back the whippy shoots that have grown following the flowers. Cut off the old flowering shoots to keep it looking tidy and trim the new shoots down to around 6 leaves. Follow your own judgement when it comes to where the shoots are starting to twist round – be mindful of drainpipes and guttering as it can easily start to get away from you and cause a bit of damage. This midsummer trim will encourage more flowers next year.

Start planning for spring

You may feel as though spring is a long time off, but August is a good time to start planning for the spring bulbs you might want to see popping up in your garden after the long winter. There’s a lot of discount codes being offered for early purchase, everything should still be in stock and you’ll save LOADS of money compared to waiting to buy them in pots in the spring from garden centres. This year I’ll be focusing on a few varieties of crocus to me that really early burst of colour which not only I enjoy but the bees that are active early in the year really appreciate them too.

I’m going to go out now and trim my own heucheras to make sure they are looking their best going into the coming months and then sit down with the boy and continue my current book ‘Queen Of Shadows’ from the Throne Of Glass series. Happy gardening!