Summer Gardening, August. Help. Advice. tips, hints, answers, a seasonal guide to summer gardening

August: The last days of Summer, guide.

August is still holiday month for many people and while you are away your plants may need some attention, if you have a neighbour or friend who can give your plants some water in hot weather all the better. Failing this, wood chippings or peat spread around the plant roots, then soaked with water will help prevent too much moisture evaporating during a hot summer day.

If you have plants in the greenhouse, they must have regular attention. Tomatoes especially must be watered on a regular basis, in fact irregular watering will cause the fruit to split.

Now is the time to pinch out the centre shoot of your tomato plants, in order to concentrate the plants growing energy on filling out the existing tomatoes, rather than producing more growth and more flowers.

Bedding plants should be covered in flowers at the moment and to maintain this show they must be fed with a liquid feed. Read the directions as to application because overfeeding can encourage too much leaf growth, rather than flowers. Hanging baskets and tubs need a weekly feed, the feed in the compost will now be exhausted and being confined to a container the plant is unable too send out roots to gather nutrients from the surrounding area.

Always remove the dead flowers on your bedding plants and other decorative plants, if they are left to go to seed the plants will stop flower production before the summer is over.

Daffodils and other spring bulbs are best planted this month, give the ground a good deep digging and try to mix some form of food into the soil, farm yard manure is best but failing that a good general fertiliser will give you flowers to be proud of in the spring.

Winter flowering pansies can be sown in the greenhouse, but be warned, do not keep the young plants inside any longer than is absolutely necessary or they will develop long lush growth in the summer heat. The winter pansy plants that you buy from the garden centre are treated with special dwarfing compounds to restrict early growth.

Finally, to give a bumper crop, it is essential that you give your runner beans plenty of water at this time of year.

AUGUST GARDENING ANSWERS

Question.

I was wondering if you might have some advice on how I should prepare my soil for planting a lawn. I live in an area with fairly hard clay and many of my neighbors have planted grass after bringing in some good topsoil. The problem is that the roots grow down about 2 inches through the imported topsoil and then fan out horizontally on top of the clay Obviously the lawn burns up every summer no matter how much they water it. I have received advice that I should mix something in with my clay, but the question is what? People have suggested sand, a sand-top soil mixture, saw dust, and sawdust with manure (from a feed lot). Do you have any suggestion as to which one would be better if any? I have busted the clay up down about 4-6 inches. If I put something on top of it now I'm sure it will just pack down again. Do I mix something into the clay and then put additional topsoil on top? Thanks Jeremy.

Answer.

Mix very coarse sand into the clay, you can get a deep red coarse sand that is almost gravel. Try your building depot. You are then best to apply a heavy dosage of garden lime (calcium carbonate) and dig in well. By chemical action, the lime will coagulate the clay and allow the grass roots to penetrate. Farmyard manure, or horse manure, or chicken manure, well dug in, would also help.

Q. I have some tomatoes and they are growing good, I wont to know if I can keep them for more then one year through the winter and if so the cheapest way, or for free.

A. I am sorry but tomatoes are for one year only.

Q. I have three large blue delphinium plants that have flowered for years. The past three summers they get 5 feet tall, start to bloom and then turn brown and die. They then start to grow again from the bottom. They never fully bloom. Any reasons known why this would happen? Also my raspberry plants are two years old. They gave me a few raspberries last summer and none this year, just lots of beautiful green leaves. Is my soil too rich? My cousin gave me 3 year old rotted cow manure that has turned into black dirt and this is what I planted them in. Thank You Colleen

A. This sounds as if your soil is too acid. Add a generous amount of garden lime to correct this.

Q. My lime conifer has gone all yellowy and dry does this mean it is dead

A. This sounds like the conifer is dead, conifers do this when stressed, i.e. lack of water, windburn, cats and dogs urinating on them, etc.

Q. Hi there,I am new in gardening. What ever I lack in experience I make up for with enthusiasm!!! 1) I am getting incredible number of ants either on or next to my plants, e.g., potato vine, honey suckle, etc. Are ants bad for my plants? If yes, how do I get rid of them? 2) I have a container and planted (end of May this year) broccoli, Brussels sprouts, basil, and melon. The only thing I have been able to get out it has been basil (what a great feeling to mix them with tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and olive oil). The other 3 have just been giving me very long stems and no vegetable/fruit. When would the broccoli come out and from which end? How about melon? Or Brussels sprouts? I really appreciate your help. Guilty

A. Ants are not usually a problem to plants, if you don't like them around there are various products on the market, some organic, designed to make them go away. But do not attempt to kill them. Brussels sprouts and broccoli are open ground plants not for containers. Melons can be grown in containers, but must be grown alone to give them space to develop. The melon fruit is just behind the flower on the same stem. Brussels sprouts grow all the way up the stem. Broccoli comes from the centre of the plant.

Q. Several years ago, my neighbor planted a peach tree and a magnolia tree within a foot or 2 of my home on his property. Will the roots cause damage to my foundation? Thank-you.

A. You could well suffer damage to your foundations; the peach tree with its spreading roots is more likely to cause damage than the magnolia. If you do have damage and a dispute arises, it is now possible to identify which tree the roots belong too by DNA testing.


Q. I have a beautiful pink jasmine in a pot. Is it possible to bring it in for the winter? I live In SW Pennsylvania, which I believe is zone 6. Thanks for your help in advance. Pat

A. You can bring your jasmine in for the winter, the plant must be placed in a position to give plenty of light, water sparingly or rot may set in.

Q. Hi, one of my Rhodos is beginning to bloom, I'm in Kelowna B C, can I do anything to stop it or should I just let it bloom? Thank you Tom

A. This could be water table level in the subsoil or some form of plant virus attack. It is best to leave until next year, and then if the same happens it could be a virus, then remove the plant.

Q. Every year I plant geraniums in two large pots in front of my home. At first the flowers kept getting smaller with each new bloom. I was advised to fertilize twice a week with tomato fertilizer. This solved the problem of small blooms, but now the problem is that before the blooms have completely developed to their full bloom the centre of the bloom starts to die so that when the large bloom is completely out it has dead parts in the centre of the bloom. Can you help? I live in Mi and the pots have full sun.

A. This could be botrytis mould, damage is caused by damp in the flower cluster. It could be that you are contributing to the problem by watering the plants from above rather than below, and then the warmth causes the botrytis in the damp buds to multiply.

Q. Hello,I used lava rocks for my landscaping about a year ago and they are now turning black and green with what looks like mould or moss. Is there anything I can do to them or do I just have to replace them. I spent a lot of money and hate to replace them but have to do something. Please help!! Mike

A. Unfortunately as atmospheric pollution is brought under control mosses and lichens have benefited. There are moss killers available at local garden outlets, which you spray on the moss. Read the instructions.

Q. I have an Italian grafted yellow plum tree that every 5 years or so has so many plums I have to prop up the branches. This year there are 3 on the whole tree and for the last 2yrs. Can you tell me what is going on and how to correct the problem please? Shirley, Washington State

A. Your plums are most likely being attacked by the plum curculio moth larvae, or the codling moth larvae. Levels of infestation vary from year to year hence your report of big crops and no crop. Commercial growers use many sophisticated controls, not always with success in years of heavy infestation. The cost of sprays and other controls would be prohibitive for one tree and infestation can still come in from other people's trees over which you have no control. Best to enjoy the good years.

Q. Hi! I've just found your forum, and find it very informing. There isn't much information out there on Privet Hedge, and my entire property is surrounded with it, with the exception of the back property line. My hedge is very thick in spots, and I am hoping to transplant some of it to the back of the property. When is the best time to do this? I'd like to do it this fall, if possible. Could you give me some instruction on transplanting?

A. Fall time is perfect to transplant your privet. First trim down the plants to make a neat shape that will not rock about in the winter winds. When digging out the plants try not to damage the fine roots too much, these are important to the health of the privet. Dig a good trench and try to obtain some cattle or horse manure or similar to put in the bottom of the trench before planting. Privet is a heavy feeder. Water well the first year. If you are in a windy area it may be worth putting up a windbreak fence to stop windburn until the plant is established. Go to our dedicated Hedge page for more information.

Q. I have some baby crape myrtles sprouting up. I have narrowed them down to one tree I think, it's kind of hard to tell. How long will it take to grow to a mature tree and do you have any advice on how to care for it. Thank You, Regina

A. Your Crape Myrtle could be one of many varieties. Some varieties grow to 5 ft in height some grow in excess of 30 ft, so I cannot advise you on how long they will take to mature. Powdery mildew on the leaves has become a big problem. You can spray with a suitable anti mildew spray. Best time to prune is late winter. Feed with a high nitrogen fertiliser spring and fall.

Q. Last year I planted Trumpet vines. The vine looks great but no trumpets. They're in a sunny location and I put down mulch. What should I do so I have flowers next year? Thanks, Beatrice, Central New Jersey

A. Trumpet vines often take a while to settle in. Feed with a low nitrogen fertiliser, too much nitrogen encourages leaf growth instead of flowers.

Q. I'm having a problem with black leaves on my black-eyed Susans. The leaves are turning completely black and have lumps on them. They eventually curl. It showed up last year and my local nursery told me it was an insect problem and to spray for insects. It has reappeared this year (much worse) and this time I was told it was a fungus. I've sprayed for fungus and it is getting worse. It's not affecting any surrounding plants - only the Susan's. They have bloomed but not well. Any ideas?

A. You are probably suffering some form of leaf miner attack, a grub that burrows inside the leaf's outer layers. Try squeezing the lumps and see what comes out. If they are there, you can obtain sprays too deal with them.

Q. Corkscrew hazel, Could you please help me?I have one of the above in my garden and I am concerned about the leaves, they always look scrunched up and not very happy. It is getting water etc. It has had a number of caterpillars but I have sprayed them, but the leaves were curled up before they arrived, have you got any advice?

A. The leaves of corkscrew hazel always look tatty. Some very small moth caterpillars like to wrap themselves up in hazel leaves and are hard to spot until the leaf is damaged. Corkscrew hazel like poor conditions so do not overfeed.

Q. We have some winter pansies in pots in the garden, they have only been planted a few weeks, but some of them have gone droopy. I don't know whether we are giving them too much water or not enough. The confusing thing is, that in some of the pots, there is a healthy plant that is stood tall and a very sad looking on that has collapsed. What can I do to bring them back to life? Regards Anne

A. Your pansies are suffering from greenfly or grey aphids, both of which suck the moisture out of the plant. Spray with a suitable product. Diluted washing up liquid will wash them off the plants.

Q. We have two cherry blossom trees in our back yard, which are approx four years old. We would like to transplant them this fall. They have never being pruned and we are wondering when and how to prune them i.e. before or after we transplant them. When we do decide to move them what is the easiest way to get them out of the ground. Waiting for your appreciated reply Janet

A. Prune before moving. Fall is the perfect time to move your trees. Cherry trees are grafted on to a wild rootstock and you have to be careful not to break this graft, so do not use the tree trunk as a lever when digging out the tree.

Always retain as much root as is physically possible when moving your tree. The more roots the tree has, the more able it is to adapt to its new home.

VALECROFT NURSERIES