6 Top Tips For Garden Privacy

Gardening Jobs & Maintenance | Flowers To Plant & Flowers In Bloom
Allotment Jobs | Wildlife Care

August tends to be a laid-back month for gardening jobs, as it’s not yet autumn, and most of the summer tasks are done.

Preparing for warm weather is key, especially if you’re off on summer holidays, but there’s also some prep work to do for the arrival of autumn.

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General Garden Jobs & Maintenance

Lawn Care | Continue mowing lawns less frequently as growth slows. 

Watering Plants | Keep track of the weather and make sure the heat doesn’t dehydrate your plants. In hot, dry weather, make watering your planters the priority, as they dry out the quickest. It’s worth investing in a simple home irrigation system that ensures your garden is always well-hydrated. Tip: Water plants in the evening, so they have all night to take up the water.

Water Features | August can be one of the hottest months of the year, so continue to check and top up birdbaths and ponds regularly to ensure they don’t go dry.

Trim Hedges | Growth can continue in August, so keep a tidy shape with a trim. Remember to check bigger hedges for birds’ nests first.

Keep Covered | It’s always worth investing in a good furniture cover to keep your garden furniture protected from unwanted bird poo. 

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Plants

Flowers in Bloom | Dahlias, Gladioli, Hydrangeas, Sunflowers, Phlox, Snapdragons, Roses

Flowers To Plant | Climbing Roses and Winter Cherry Blossom

Pruning Roses | Once roses have flowered, nip the wilting petals off, to improve growth and encourage more flowering too!

Deadhead Bedding Plants | Remove dead/wilting flowers from your borders, to encourage new growth, giving more colour for longer. 

Next Spring Florals | Now is the time to plan which plants you would like in your garden next year. Collect seeds from plants you want to re-sow and start ordering your bulbs so you are prepared and ready for autumn planting. 

Other Jobs | Tidy up fallen leaves and flowers to discourage disease, keep on top of weeds, and prune all summer flowering shrubs (not just the roses)

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Allotment Jobs

August is a month of transition, it is the midpoint between summer and autumn, the days get noticeably shorter and leaves will start to drop. This is a month of change in the allotment too where most of your work will be prep for winter and next year’s planting.

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Allotment Tips

• Tip 1 | If you’re growing aubergines pinch out the growing tip once they have 5 or 6 fruits.
• Tip 2 | Cut back herbs to encourage a new flush of leaves that you can harvest before the frost
• Tip 3 | Continue to feed tomato plants with a tomato fertiliser
• Tip 4 | Lift and dry onions, shallots and garlic
• Tip 5 | Keep birds and squirrels off your berries with netting 
• Tip 6 | Tidy up strawberry plants

Pests & Diseases

Aphids | Spraying with diluted washing-up liquid will deter them from landing on crops. 

Carrot Fly | The female flies lay their eggs between May and September. The best defense is to cover plants with a fleece cover or place a two-foot-high barrier around the plants.

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Wildlife Care

Hedgehogs | Are busy building nests to raise their families in. Leave fallen twigs somewhere out of the way, and if you find hedgehogs building with them, keep the hoglets safe to have them back year after year. 

Baby Frogs | Planting low-growing plants around ponds can help them hide from predators and shelter them from the sun.

Pollinators | Sow wildlife-friendly biennials like foxgloves, forget-me-nots, and hollyhock to attract pollinators to your garden. By sowing now you are ensuring a source of food that’ll last longer, giving them a better chance of survival through the winter.

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