It's 1st August 🌻 2026

Here are your jobs of the month ✅

#startagardenwithus #jobsoftheweek
#jobsofthemonth #summergardening

https://t.me/c/1176713490/116794

The garden is generous in August, offering baskets of harvest and moments of reflection. Beyond the abundance, the first opportunities to prepare for autumn quietly begin.

Flowers

Collect ripe seed on a dry day from aquilegias, sweet peas, and love-in-a-mist.
Deadhead dahlias and other perennials to keep the blooms coming.
Water camellias and rhododendrons well while their flower buds are forming.
Prune lavender once it has flowered, avoiding cutting into old wood.
Prune rambling roses by removing about a third of the flowered stems and tying in the rest.
Water and deadhead pots and hanging baskets regularly; feed with tomato feed fortnightly.
Take softwood cuttings from lavender, hyssop, and other non-flowering woody shoots.
Sow hardy annuals in a sunny spot for early colour next year.
Set up automatic or drip irrigation for containers if you're going away.
Cut or mow wildflower areas once the seed has scattered.
Take softwood cuttings from healthy, non-flowering penstemon shoots.
Remove spent hardy annuals unless you want them to self-seed.
Plant autumn bulbs such as colchicum, sternbergia, and nerine in pots or borders.

Fruit & Veg

Watch for tomato and potato blight and remove affected plants promptly.
Summer-prune apple trees, both free-standing and trained, for better fruiting next year.
Plant well-rooted strawberry runners into a new bed.
Pinch out the tops of outdoor tomatoes so remaining fruit has time to ripen.
Order saffron crocus bulbs now for planting in September.
Net or fleece blackberries and autumn raspberries to keep the birds off.
Lift onions and shallots once the tops die down and dry them in the sun.
Trim back grapevine leaves to let the sun reach the fruit.
Sow hardy winter salad crops: land cress, rocket, and lamb's lettuce.
Freeze or dry fresh herbs for use over winter.
Water crops well in hot weather, using a water butt or watering can if there's a hosepipe ban.
Plant blueberry bushes into acid soil.

Greenhouse

Set up capillary matting so plants stay watered while you're away.
Plant cold-stored potato tubers in tubs for a Christmas harvest.
Damp down the greenhouse floor each morning to raise humidity during hot spells.
Pot up 'Paper White' narcissus bulbs for fragrant indoor flowers at Christmas.
Remove lower leaves from cordon tomatoes up to the first truss to improve light and air circulation.
Start watering dormant cyclamen to bring them back into growth.
Pot up autumn-flowering bulbs such as nerine and lachenalia for indoor colour.
Check greenhouse plants regularly for pests and disease and treat promptly.
Harvest tomatoes, cucumbers, and chillies often to encourage more fruit to set.
Treat vine weevil grubs with a biological control nematode drench.
Provide shading to protect delicate plants from scorching sun.

House Plants

Feed weekly with liquid fertiliser, continuing through into autumn. Water more often as light and warmth increase, but check the soil first. Repot any plants that have become pot-bound or top-heavy. Move plants out of direct summer sun to avoid scorching. Wipe dust from leaves, particularly on plants like snake plants. Stand houseplants outside for summer in a warm, sheltered spot. Take leaf cuttings from African violets and begonias. Take leaf cuttings from succulents such as echeveria, crassula, and sedum. Check plants for aphids, scale insects, thrips, and mealybugs. Hose down large-leaved plants outdoors to clean off accumulated dust.

Garden Maintenance

Trim laurel hedges with secateurs rather than a hedge trimmer to avoid browned leaves.
Clear weeds from cracks in paving and driveways before they get established.
Dig out problem lawn weeds.
Sow green manure on any bare patches of soil.
Shorten wisteria's long sideshoots to about 20cm.
Keep deadheading border plants unless you're saving the seed.
Remove suckers from roses and from around the base of trees.
Collect ripe seed and seed pods from your favourite plants.
Stake tall, flopping border plants with canes, string, or twiggy sticks.
Prepare soil now for sowing a lawn or laying turf in September and October.
Go on evening snail patrols, especially after rain, to reduce numbers.
Turn the compost heap to speed up decomposition.
Water thoughtfully during dry spells, prioritising containers and new plantings.
Cut long grass and wildflower meadow areas short, and rake up and compost the clippings.
Trim hedges now that most nesting birds have fledged, sides first then the top.
Deadhead dahlias regularly, cutting back to the next side shoot to keep blooms coming.
Strip the lower leaves from tomato plants weekly to let in light and air.
Ease off tomato watering to avoid split fruit, but keep up a weekly seaweed or comfrey feed.
Feed all containers weekly with liquid seaweed or home-made comfrey feed.
Before going away: mow, weed, water pots well, and move them into shade together.
Take semi-ripe cuttings from this season's growth that has just started to harden.
Sow hardy autumn salad crops such as winter lettuce, rocket, land cress, and mizuna.
Prune lavender as soon as the flowers start to fade, leaving new shoots on each stem.
Move and divide herbaceous perennials while in flower, then cut them back to help them settle.
Water camellias, azaleas, and rhododendrons weekly, ideally with rainwater, while next year's buds form.
Peg down strawberry runners to root, ready to plant out as new plants by the end of the month.
Collect and label seed from favourite plants, storing envelopes somewhere cool and dry.
Order spring-flowering bulbs now, ready for planting from September (tulips wait until November).