Late Winter Garden Maintenance In August 

"The Weather is changebale but spring is close so it's time to prepare for a new growing season"

Vegetable Garden Maintenance In August

• Make sure the frosts are well and truly gone before putting in beetroot, parsnip, peas, radish, leek, rocket, silverbeet and spinach. 
• If it's still too cold, hold off on herbs and vegetables such as basil, beans, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, capsicums, pumpkins and zucchinis. 
• Seeds and seedlings that don't mind changeable weather include snow peas, lettuce. spring onions, silverbeet and herbs. Broad beans can go in too in cool temperate areas only. 
• Other plants to consider at the moment include parsley, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. 
• If you're trying Jerusalem artichokes, put them in a pot or they could take over. 
• To get a head-start with vegies in areas with short summer seasons, sow seeds in seed trays, punnets or small individual pots and keep the seedlings in a warm, well-lit spot such as a glasshouse or cold frame. Pot on as they develop. 
• In all areas except tropical it's a great time to plant potatoes. Use virus-free seed spuds in well-drained soil.
• Keep planting spring onions, peas (both dwarf and climbing), radish. silverbeet, sweet corn, tomatoes and zucchini. 
• It's also time to put in rocket, Chinese cabbage. mizuna, lettuce, leeks, pumpkin, parsnip and sweet potatoes. 
• Keep water up to leafy greens to prevent bolting and shade vegetables that are in danger of drying out. 
• There's also still time to plant a crop of potatoes to harvest before the wet season returns. 
• Plant seed potatoes into well-drained soil and gradually cover shoots as they appear to encourage lots of spuds to form. 
• Potatoes respond to regular watering by producing larger tubers, so water crops well as they grow. 
• In tropical zones it's also safe to plant eggplant and rosella now. 
• Add colour with a crop of sunflowers. These tall, fast-growing annuals come in handy as shade for heat-sensitive vegies such as lettuce and silverbeet. 

Fruits Garden Maintenance In August

• It's definitely your last chance to put in bare-rooted trees such as apples, pears, plums and nectarines as well as deciduous exotics. 
• Apply organic winter sprays to protect existing deciduous fruit trees from diseases like leaf curl and brown rot. Act now before trees get their leaves back 
• Don't forget to give fruit trees a thorough pruning - except, of course, your apricots. 
• Citrus care now ensures good flowering, fruiting and growth over the months ahead. Water thoroughly then apply organic citrus fertiliser or all-purpose chicken-manure pellets. 
• Treat subsequent new growth with a spray oil to protect against leaf miner, a larva that feeds by tunnelling through leaves (particularly lemon). 
• Keep the area under citrus free of weeds and grasses, which compete for nutrients and water, then cover the bare soil with mulch. 
• Stake new plantings to protect from wind rock, which can cause root disturbance and slow establishment.
• Finish planting bare-rooted trees, shrubs and vines. 
• Fruits to grow from seed include tree tomatoes, melons and rosella. 
• Cape gooseberries self-seed once planted. 
• If you don't have them. this is a good time to plant seeds or small plants. The fruit's papery covering helps protect it from pests. 
• Liquid-feed strawberries and tuck mulch under the ripening fruit to reduce fungal diseases. 
• Check grafted plants, such as citrus and passionfruit, for suckers appearing below the graft. 
• Remove suckers to keep the plant healthy. 
• Rub them off young, soft shoots or prune larger shoots flush with the stem. 
• Feed citrus with an organic citrus food. For potted plants, apply smaller amounts on a monthly basis. 
• Deeply water flowering fruit trees and prepare to monitor for fruit fly with traps and baits.  

Compost & Soil Maintenance In August Garden

• Planting tomatoes next month? Prepare the beds with organic compost. pelletised chook poo, water and straw mulch. (Avoid using sugarcane due to costs of transportation to cooler areas.) 
• Late winter is generally a time for spring preparation and clean-ups. Also, dig in green manure crops that were planted to grow through winter. 
• Dig mature compost through garden beds in preparation for planting spring crops. 
• Dig it in well and allow to break down before planting. 
• Clean up around vegie beds and fruit trees. Remove weeds. discarded leaves and old fruit to reduce future pests and disease. Letting the chooks out to forage is an easy way to do a clean-up. All this should reduce pests later in the year as many can overwinter in soil and debris. 
• Snails and slugs wait out the dry times by hiding in wooden edging, under pot rims, among stones or in hollows in retaining walls. 
• After rain, they'll be on the move looking for seedlings to eat. Control them with a safe bait.
• Top up the mulch on vegie patches and herb gardens with sustainable mulch of low environmental impact. 
• You can also grow sweet potato, zucchini or nasturtium as a leafy living mulch. 
• Dig in green manure crops that have been growing through the dry season, turning them in before they flower and seed. 
• Break up larger material with a sharp spade and chop up excess matter for the compost. 
• Hoe soils wherever weeds appear, then cover bare soil with a light mulch to prevent more seeds germinating. 
• Prepare for the wet season by making raised beds that drain better over summer (but they'll need extra watering in the dry). 
• For a quick raised bed, use bales of straw as an edging. 
• Fill with an organic garden mix or use weed-free garden soil mixed with compost and aged manure.