With August’s hot weather, you might not want to spend too much time working in your garden. But it is important to make sure you are watering enough. Plus, there are a few things you can do to keep your garden looking its best now and in the coming months.
Here are a few August gardening tips to help your yard finish up the summer and get ready for cooler weather.
Summer and Winter Vegetables
Our wonderful Southern California climate allows us to grow vegetables year-round. If you’ve got a vegetable garden or are looking to start one, it’s time to finish up your summer crops and add some winter ones.
If you live in a coastal area, you still have time to transplant a few warm-weather crops. Cherry tomatoes and varieties like ‘Celebrity’ and ‘Champion’ are good options for fall harvesting. Inland gardeners may try one last crop of beans or corn. For more information on feeding warm season vegetables, see June Gardening Tips.
It’s also time to begin sowing winter crops. Start seeds in flats mid-month so they will be ready to set out in six to eight weeks. There are many varieties you can grow. Check out the Master Gardener Association’s Vegetable Planting Guide. You will find a long list of cool season vegetables along with detailed information on what varieties to grow and how to keep them happy.
Trim for More Flowers
Removing spent blooms from many perennials and annuals will allow them to bloom again. If the flowers are left on the plants, the plants will put their focus into creating seeds rather than more flowers. Most plants, like coreopsis, penstemon, yarrow and lavender, require only light trimming. After you remove the spent flowers, give those plants a light feeding.
Plan for Winter and Spring Color
This is a good time to start sweet peas for winter color. Also look for South African bulbs and paperwhites in nurseries. They naturalize easily and will bring winter and spring bloom to your yard. Other winter bloomers that do well in my yard are rosemary, Mexican bush marigold and bird of paradise.
Feathery cassia, feathery senna, grevillea, Baja fairy duster, aloe, manzanita and ceanothus are a few more plants that flower in winter and have the added bonus of being drought resistant.
A lot of information for August Gardening Tips 2019 comes from the Master Gardener Association of San Diego County. They are a great resource for all of your gardening needs including planting, pests, vegetables, and water use. They even have a free hotline where you can get your home gardening and pest control problems answered.