Jobs to do this August
Winter herbs
Pot up small plants of thyme, sage and rosemary into 12.5cm (5in) pots of John Innes compost. Pop them on the patio and keep them well watered. By autumn, they’ll be the perfect size for placing on the kitchen windowsill where you can harvest them all winter.
Lawns
Don’t cut the lawn too close in hot, dry weather. Adjust the blades to cut at a height of 4cm (1.5in). Don’t water it unless absolutely necessary.
Taking cuttings
Take cuttings of bedding geraniums, fuchsias and marguerites. Use a gritty compost and they’ll root really quickly. By autumn, they’ll be stocky young plants ready for over-wintering indoors and flowering next summer.
Winter flowering pansies
Keep winter flowering pansies in the coolest part of the garden until early autumn. If they get too warm, the plants grow very straggly and will need to be cut back.
Next year's strawberries
Fancy some extra tasty strawberries next summer? Buy some young plants – Flamenco and Florence are especially good – from your garden centre. Pot up them up now and you’ll get bumper crops from June onwards.
Greenhouse tomatoes
Pinch out the tops of greenhouse tomatoes to help the fruits ripen before the colder weather sets in. Take off the lower leaves if they start to turn yellow.
Next year's lilies
Once lilies have finished flowering, cut off the old blooms and start to feed the plants with Flower Power once a week. This will help build up the bulbs for next summer’s display which could be even bigger and better than this year’s!