August Gardening Tips
Garden Maintenance
- Continue mulching to conserve soil moisture and control weeds.
- Keep harvesting vegetables for continued production.
- Do the final pruning of summer for fruit bushes.
- Prune apricots to avoid Eutypa fungus. Remove about 20% of this year's growth.
- To prevent the spread of brown rot, clean up debris around fruit trees and pick up dropped fruit.
- Control salt build-up on indoor plants; hose off the leaves and flush the soil with ample water.
- Attach bands of corrugated cardboard around apple tree trunks to trap codling moth larvae.
Fertilize
- Camellias, azaleas, and gardenias with chelated iron if there is yellowing between the leaf veins.
- Indoor plants
- Strawberries
- Mature fruit trees (after picking fruit) with Nitrogen and water
- Roses, six weeks after last application
- Last feeding of the year for citrus and avocados
- Chrysanthemums (until the buds start to open)
- Begonias, fuchsias, annuals and container plants
Spray: Check the California Backyard Orchard website for current information.
What to Plant August
Flowers
- Sow winter annuals this month.
- Sow seeds of perennials in flats or pots for transplanting in October. Try thrift, yarrow, coneflower and salvia.
Vegetables
- In a cool location indoors, start seeds of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, bunching onion, and radicchio for over-wintering.
- Direct seed oriental greens, beets, carrots, lettuce, turnips, Florence fennel, mustard, radish, rutabaga, spinach, and leeks.