Vegetables and salads to sow:
Turnips, swiss chard, perpetual spinach, winter radish, kohl rabi, Japanese onions, spring cabbage, carrots, chicory, lettuces and salad leaves, rocket, spring onions.
Jobs to do in August:
Harvest crops regularly from your plot, especially runner beans, french beans and courgettes, which are notorious for growing at an amazing speed.
Hoe weekly, as this keeps all the weeds down as it stops weed seeds from becoming established and will weaken perennial weeds too.
Dig up potatoes when they are ready and leave to dry for a couple of hours, ready to store them for the winter.
Spread homemade compost around plants whilst the soil is moist, this will stop weed seeds germinating and it will also keep the moisture in.
Dry out garlic, onions and any remaining shallots by either lifting them and laying them in the sun or by spreading them out onto wire racks to dry.
Pinch out the top of climbing french beans and runner beans, as this prevents them becoming top heavy and helps the plants bush out below.
Water bean plants regularly in dry weather.
Pinch off the top of outdoor tomatoes once four or five trusses have developed as this will concentrate the plants energy into producing the fruit below. Continue to nip off the side shoots that keep appearing between the main stem and leaf stems. Keep feeding weekly and checking for blight.
Continue tying up tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers as the fruits can become heavy as they develop.
Earth up and support spring broccoli and brussels as they grow to help support them during winter winds.
Sow green manures as beds become empty.
Keep feeding pumpkins and squashes.
Keep propagating strawberries from runners.
Summer prune gooseberries and currants once all the fruit has been picked.
Prune summer fruiting raspberries by cutting all the canes that had fruit on this year. Tie in all the new canes.
Continue to tie in non-fruiting blackberries canes.
Prop up branches of fruit trees that are being weighed down by fruit.
Continue pruning the side shoots of grapevines and removing some of the foliage so the fruit can ripen in the sun. Taken from Notjustgreenfingerswebsite.
