Your August Garden Reset For An Easy, Colorful Fall
August can seem like a sleepy kind of time in the backyard. Your lawn may be looking tired and parched. Borders perennials starting to flop and fade. Flower colors fading and blooms going over. You’d be forgiven for thinking the best of gardening year is behind you.
While this may be true in some respects, fall is just around the corner and with it comes rain and a whole new bunch of delights. There will be the spectacular fiery colors of the late season, as well as berries galore for you and the birds to enjoy. And let’s not forget welcome cooler gardening days.
To make the most of the coming season, a few light gardening jobs are in order. Nothing too onerous or time consuming, just a handful of strategic late-summer tasks that will set you up for an easier and more fruitful fall. In this all-important practical round-up, I’ll touch on what to plant in August, as well as detailing the jobs to do now that will pay dividends later. So grab yourself a Tubtrug from Amazon and let’s start making a difference.
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Keep Deadheading
(Image credit: Tim Gainey via Alamy Stock Photo)
Deadheading simply means taking off the old, spent flowers. It’s a neat trick that not only tidies up your borders but often encourages the plant to produce more blooms. With this in mind, take a little tour of your garden borders and assess your flowering plants. Look out for those that are still flowering but also developing seedheads.
Donna Letier, co-founder and CEO of gardening and well-being company Gardenuity, advises a selective approach:
‘Removing spent blooms can encourage many flowering plants to keep producing rather than putting their energy into seed. But I also like leaving some healthy seedheads later in the season for birds and other wildlife. August gardening doesn’t need to be about making everything perfectly tidy.’
In my garden plants to deadhead in August tend to be focused on dahlias, roses, hardy geraniums, pelargoniums, cosmos and petunias. To make cuts clean and the job as simple as possible, use a pair of small, sharp snips like these Bonsai Pruners from Lowes, which can easily snip out individual blooms in congested plants. I also cut back my alchemilla. I leave the handsome sea holly (eryngium), teasel and apaganthus as they’re some of the best plants for seedheads and look lovely in fall and into winter.
Check In On Your Annuals
(Image credit: MBP Plants/Alamy Stock Photo)
When it comes to containers and hanging baskets, there’s plenty still to be done in August. And part of that is deciding which annuals to give up on, says Donna:
‘There’s no prize for keeping a struggling annual alive until the first frost! If something is spent, diseased or simply finished for the season, August is a great time to remove it. Clearing tired plants can improve airflow and creates room to think about what comes next.’
So if it’s really looking past its best, yank it out and throw it on the compost heap.
However, there are many annuals that will carry on giving me joy well into fall with a little care in August. How to keep petunias blooming? These as well as pelargoniums, fuchsias, diascia, zinnias, cosmos and calibrachoa are just a few that, given regular water, deadheading and a weekly dose of liquid fertilizer (try Miracle-Gro organic from Target), will carry on pumping out the flower color until the frosts arrive.
Top Up Mulch
(Image credit: Getty Images/Maksims Grigorjevs)
After a long, dry summer of feeding your plants, soil can be low in nutrients. If you feed the soil, you’re feeding your plants for months to come, so upturn that compost bin or order in some goodness – in the form of Back to the Roots Organic Compost from Lowes, perhaps – and your plants will thank you for it come fall. A 2-3in (6-8cm) layer around shrubs, perennials and over dormant bulbs is the ideal amount.
Donna is a big fan of expert mulching, and stresses its importance at this time of year:
‘Pay attention to the soil, not just the plant. By August, weeks of heat and watering can leave container soil depleted and garden beds dry. Add compost where appropriate and refresh mulch to help moderate soil temperature and retain moisture. One of my favorite reminders is: Most people think plants grow in soil, but the truth is plants grow because of soil. Taking care of the soil now pays dividends later.’
While they look pretty and keep out weeds in containers, I prefer to steer clear of pebble/slate mulches in borders; instead, a layer of composted bark or Cocoa Bean Shell Mulch from Target over the compost will help to lock in moisture, as well as gradually release nutrients into the soil.
Edit Overcrowded Borders
(Image credit: Flock Finger Lakes)
The August flop and fray is a classic backyard border condition. Sometimes there’s just so much going on it can be hard to spot the real stars. This is when paying careful attention pays off, then planning accordingly.
Donna recommends taking your time to assess your borders at this time of year:
‘Perhaps my favorite August garden advice is simply to observe before you overhaul. Notice what thrived, what struggled, where you needed more shade, which plants attracted pollinators and which varieties you actually enjoyed tending and harvesting.’
Once you’ve done this, you can set your hand to removing and maybe replanting some of the perennials that didn’t work. If it’s still very dry, make notes and do it later in the month, once there’s been a little rain.
If the weather’s cool, you can start straight away (I find a simple kneeler like this Garden Kneeler & Seat from Amazon, a real savior for the back). Any spaces you make can be filled either with new plants or by splitting up and replanting spring and early-summer flowering perennials. Plants to divide in August include phlox, daylilies, bearded irises and hardy geraniums.
While you’re in amongst it, do remove any crisp, dead foliage. You might also uncover some forgotten gems that have been over-run by their neighbors (this year I found a small pink hardy geranium out-run by Phlomis russeliana and sea holly swamped by a creeping ceanothus). Either cut back the neighbor if it’s too much of a thug, or move your hidden beauties to somewhere they’re more likely to hold their own.
Keep Watering
(Image credit: Westend61 / Getty Images)
A quick word of caution on watering. It’s easy at this time of year to see temperatures beginning to drop and to take your foot off the gas when it comes to irrigation. It’s a mistake I’ve made far too many times, and I admit I’ve lost plants as a result. In fact, watering is one of the best ways to bring back color to your garden.
Your borders won’t bounce back after a couple of short sharp showers. They’ve been short of water for months now and still need your help.
Donna recommends thorough watering early in the day:
‘Water deeply, in the morning. A quick splash isn’t nearly as helpful as a slower, deeper watering that encourages roots to grow down into the soil. Morning is generally the best time because plants have access to that moisture as temperatures rise.’
At this time of year be particularly attentive to camellias and rhododendrons, which may look dormant, but they are in fact busy producing the beginnings of flower buds for next spring’s display. If they dry out now, you’ll get fewer flowers next season.
Plant Fall Bulbs
(Image credit: Deborah Vernon via Alamy)
Finally, it’s time to bring in some color for fall. Nerines, colchicums, fall cyclamen and sternbergia are some of the best fall-flowering bulbs and are ready to put in in August and September, following the rules for all bulbs and setting them at three times their depth, pointed end upwards.
Under decidous trees and at the front of semi-shaded borders I go for delicate Cyclamen hederifolium, with their pretty marbled foliage and purple-pink flowers. In a large container full of gritty compost, placed in a hotspot on my back patio it’s big, blousy candy-pink nerines. And Mediterranean native the fall daffodil, Sternbergia lutea, gets similar treatment.
What to Shop
Use this bulb planter tool to get your fall bulbs in the ground with ease. It has a depth marker and serrated edge to dig perfect holes for planting.
Order your tulip bulbs now, ready for planting in the coming months. This is a mix of perennial tulips in a wide range of colors for a returning display each year.
Long-Handled Bulb Planter
This long-handled bulb planter allows you to use more force with your foot. It has a serrated edge to easily cut into lawn and soil for planting.
August gardening is all about working smarter, not harder, and giving yourself time to wind down, appreciate the last days of summer while looking forward to a fruitful fall.
Let your focus fall on a little tidying, keeping up a wise watering routine and applying a few carefully chosen edits to pots and borders. Garden in the cool of the morning if you can, and don’t forget a few star bulbs for the coming months. You’ll thank yourself later.
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