Urgent jobs in the garden for August

• Weed, weed, weed! As the weather warms in August, seed germinates and weeds take over.
• Make compost.
• Prune fruit trees once they have lost their leaves; remove all mummified fruit from the branches.
• Spray peach and nectarine trees a full 360 degrees to cover every facet of every branch, and the trunk, once bare, with Lime Sulphur. Do not spray after budswell as buds will be damaged.
• Add potash or woodash (both potassium) to soil to increase flower and fruit set.
• Remove any prunings from beneath trees.
• Rake mulch back under trees and on garden beds to allow ground to warm.
• Place hessian or cardboard around apple, pear and quince tree trunks for codling moth to lay in (remove and burn in 4 weeks then replace).
• Plan spring planting.
• Clear garden beds of dead plants and test pH for suitability for subsequent crops. Adjust pH if necessary (with compost and/or dolomite to make beds more alkaline or sulphur to make them more acidic). This needs to be done at least a month, preferably two, before planting.
• Dig over beds removing stones, rocks, twigs and roots in preparation for spring planting.
• Dig in any green manure crops previously planted.
• Fertilise citrus trees with citrus fertiliser around the dripline. Avoid nitrogen based manures which cause soft leaf growth exposing leaves to damage from citrus leafminer. Use these in autumn.
• Sow spring seeds in punnets.

Written by Robin Gale-Baker