Looking After Plants When You're Away
August is a month when many of you will go on holiday, except your plants won't be joining you, so you need to get them sorted and ensure that they'll be properly looked after.
Garden Plants
Charm your green-fingered neighbours and make it easy for them – gather containers together, rig up watering systems and go away with a clear conscience.
Or you can go all high-tech and water your plants from the warmth of your sun lounger using a Wi-Fi-connected watering system.
Whatever you choose to do, make sure you do something to avoid disappointment when you return home.
House Plants
Houseplants are always trickier, as you might not want someone, even a neighbour, trampling around your house.
To make sure your plants stay well-looked after, gather together your houseplants in the kitchen, next to the sink.
Keep a damp towel in the sink to produce a humid atmosphere, which will keep plants growing well longer than if you simply left them around the house.
A bathroom is just as good, but do be sure to move plants off the windowsills.
General Gardening Jobs in August
There are plenty of jobs to do in the garden during August, particularly if you're going to ensure it's ship-shape for when you go on holiday.
Plants
Firstly, you should check all of your plants every day and water them accordingly.
Take off flowers as they fade on all of your bedding plants to continue enjoying a blooming marvellous display.
Cut back summer flowering shrubs and get the ladder out to take care of any unruly wisteria.
You should keep feeding hanging baskets once a week to ensure a great display well into autumn.
Weeds
Keep weeding – you can hoe off annual weeds and leave them on top of the soil for the August sun to fry.
Lawn
You should also keep on top of the lawn. Mow it around twice a week during August, which is usually a very warm month.
Grow Your Own
If you grow your own fruit and vegetables, there are some important jobs to take care of in August.
Peg down strawberry runners to make fresh, healthy new plants.
Harvest potatoes when the haulms start to die down and make sure all the skins are set for a few hours before storing.
Also, make sure you keep sowing seeds of fast growing crops to squeeze in a harvest before autumn.
Pests
Rub out any younger colonies of aphids to save yourself the stress later in the year.
Slugs and blackfly enjoy the warmer weather. Keep on top of protecting your plants by nipping out fresh populations early on.
Then Enjoy Your Holiday
It’s always important to get things in place so that you can relax and enjoy your time away – or, even better, only book holidays away during the less busy gardening months of the year!
Check out some more great gardening advice here and take a moment to view Buy Fencing Direct's superb range of Outdoor Living, which includes everything you need to grow your own produce.