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There is still harvest to be had from the summer garden, but more and more our thoughts are turning to the fall bounty. There is still plenty to plant, even in the washed out summer of the UK, so lets take a look at what to plant in August.
One of the things that keep me going in the long winter months is the promise of spring growth. I love the hope of putting seeds into dirt and placing them on the windowsill to claim the first short hours of light.
I adore the crowding of trays spilling into more and more corners of my home before it’s safe to put them outside in the elements.
I also quite like the moment the frosts pass and I can get my home back!!
Well… my windowsill is filling up again and it’s August..
This is my Cabbage and Broccoli for the winter garden. They need potting on, but this week, in a rare break in the weather, I managed to prepare the garden bed for them.
What to plant in August – Brassicas
You can still plant broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, spinach, pack choi and kohlrabi. It is warm enough for them to germinate, but when these more cool loving plants grow bigger, the temperatures will have cooled.
You can start them indoors or plant straight out, whichever you prefer.
Peas, just
Peas are a great crop to plant after you’ve just cleared a bed. They are quick to grow and replenish the soil with usually much need nitrogen. try and make sure you have a quick growing variety though to make the most of the harvest before the persistent frost kills them off.
Potatoes
I planted my Christmas potatoes last week! We grow potatoes in sacks against our back fence and our first harvest this year was absolutely delicious! There is no comparison to store bought potatoes for taste. I will be planting every couple of weeks with this winter crop until I have no bags left!
Carrots
You can plant carrots now, again for your winter harvest, and I am planting them in any little crevice that I pull another plant out of. Every few weeks, sprinkling seeds around the garden, so I have a staggered harvest, a few at a time.
Radish and Beetroot
Radish are a nice quick veg you can grow in a few weeks so fill your bare patches with them. Mother nature doesn’t like bare soil, as the saying goes, so fill it with your food before she fills it with weeds!
And don’t forget your Greens
You can grow all kinds of lettuce now, as well as sprouting seeds and microgreens. Throw sprouted seeds in sandwiches and on salads, and if you cut down your lettuce to ground level, it may well do what all of mine did and grow brand new heads, if there’s time!!
Cover Crops
If you have finished with a garden bed for the year and really don’t plan to use it again this year, one way to beat the weeds is to plant a cover crop.
Cover crops do exactly that, cover the bare ground at the same time as replenishing lost nutrients.
They are usually a nitrogen rich plant, like oat, vetch and linseed that help soil health, protect against erosion and you cut and rot down on the top of the soil come early spring.
This means you protect the soil, give less room for weeds, and you have rich healthy soil when you are ready to plant out those precious seedlings after the last frost!
So as you can see, it’s not time put your seeds away just yet!
There is plenty of life in the garden yet!
Sharing is caring, so until next time, friends x
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