Jobs of the month
Tools for the job
August is the time to relax in your garden. It is also the ideal opportunity to think about ways to make gardening easier, so that you have more time to enjoy it throughout the year. The gardening chores of weeding, watering and mowing can all be made less onerous by adapting your design and gardening a little differently. For example, weeding can be practically eliminated by covering vacant soil with plants or mulch, while watering can be made less of a chore by buying effort-saving equipment and watering more effectively [link to feature]. You can reduce the time spent mowing by adapting the design to get rid of tight corners and introduce sweeping curves, so you don’t waste time starting and stopping the mower. Removing and amalgamating small beds into nearby borders will help simplify the design - reducing mowing time further. Installing a mowing strip along the edge of a lawn will eliminate edging altogether.
Crafty ways to reduce the workload this month
- Powered edger cut the edges of your lawn quickly and accurately without having to break your back. A combined edger and trimmer is worth considering if you want to tackle long grass and weeds, too.
- Willow edging hurdle rustic finishing touch to beds and borders that will keep flopping perennials from smothering the edge of the lawn and blocking paths.
- Organic mulch well-rotted garden compost, farmyard manure or bags of cocoa shell mulch or the new straw-based ‘Strulch’ are perfect for keeping weeds at bay, reduce the need for watering and for improving the soil.
- Long-handled bulb planter ideal for cutting out ‘plugs’ of soil to plant individual bulbs in lawns and borders. A lot easier than planting with a trowel or hand-held bulb planter.
- Long-handled tree pruner telescopic pruner allows you can trim large shrubs and even low tree canopies with your feet firmly on the ground.
Take the hard work out of your garden
High-maintenance designs that include lots of seasonal changes like bedding and tender bulbs, require the most looking after. Mind you, herbaceous borders come in at a close second – all that staking, dividing and weeding really does add up. Perhaps the easiest planted garden is a mixture of low-maintenance shrubs and groundcover - the sort of shrubs that don’t need pruning and deadheading - all under-planted with long-lived, easy-care groundcover that doesn’t need regular preening or dividing. However, it’s also essential to choose robust, healthy plants that shrug off pests and diseases. That said, you can still include herbaceous plants in a low-maintenance garden by choosing self-supporting and trouble-free varieties as well as adapting the way you use them. For example, one of the most time-consuming chores with herbaceous borders is keeping the edge tidy alongside a lawn or path. Since the plants are not supported by their neighbours, they tend to flop. Apart from needing extra staking, the cascading stems also smother the lawn, can become a hazard and impede efficient mowing, adding further to maintenance time. You can avoid this to some extent by choosing shorter, self-supporting varieties along the edge, or you could install a paving mowing strip that will show off the plants while making mowing easier. Another option is to provide extra support within the garden design by adding a decorative mini-hurdle edging to the border or creating a parterre by edging the border with an easy-care, mini-hedge, such as box or lavender. Planting bulbs naturally
This month is the ideal time to plant many winter- and spring-flowering bulbs. This allows them to root in relatively warm, moist soil, before the onset of winter. For a natural-looking effect, plant bulbs informally in groups, using irregular spacing. You can do this by cluster planting - mimicking naturally spreading clumps. First, plant a core of an uneven number of bulbs with irregularly spaced bulbs, radiating out unevenly from the core. Or you can scatter bulbs on the surface of the soil or lawn and plant them where they fall. If you are planting a range of different bulbs, it’s also worth clustering them by type for a more natural effect, rather than mixing them haphazardly. Space small bulbs closer together and larger ones further apart just as they occur in nature. Larger bulbs also need planting deeper than smaller ones. As a rule of thumb, plant all bulbs in a hole three times as deep as the bulb is high. Planting a few bulbs is great fun, but for larger plantings it can be a lot of hard work. In a border, a hand bulb planter is worth considering, but for planting in a lawn, a long-handled bulb planter with tread will make the job a whole lot easier. Ready-made border: Low maintenance gravel Garden
Growing in gravel not only shows off the plants to best advantage, but it helps prevent weeds as well as conserving moisture around the roots. The plants also benefit from a cool root run in summer. In this pink and purple gravel border combination, sturdy spikes of deliciously fragrant Hesperis flowers combine with hazy stems of graceful star-shaped Gaura flowers during late spring. They are joined, in June, by dense clusters of saucer-shaped, violet-blue hardy geranium blooms over a carpet of small pink-tinged, daisy-like erigeron flowers. By July, dainty single mauve dianthus flowers and slender spires of pink Veronicastrum steal the show. This design will fit into a border 3m long by 1.5m wide. - Erigeron karvinskianus
- Geranium × magnificum 'Rosemoor'
- Iris 'Sparkling Rose'
- Dianthus carthusianorum
- Veronicastrum virginicum f. roseum 'Pink Glow'
- Gaura lindheimeri
- Continue deadheading repeat-flowering plants
- Prune early summer-flowering shrubs
- Lift and store onions and shallots
- Pot up herbs for winter use
- Collect seed as it ripens
- Plant hyacinths for Christmas flowering
- Plant Madonna lilies
- Stake Michaelmas daisies
- Harvest onions and gourds
- Pick early apples and pears
Pruning and trimming
Most shrubs and trees don’t need to be pruned regularly. Those that do respond to regular pruning can be left for a few years without coming to any harm. Shrubs that need routine pruning are best avoided in a low-maintenance garden. However, you can make pruning a lot easier by choosing the right tools. Secateurs for small shoots and stems, loppers for larger ones and a pruning saw for anything over wrist thickness. Pole pruners are worth considering for tackling high branches. Formal hedges and topiary also need a trim at this time of year. Give fast-growing hedges such as Leyland cypress their final trim and also clip beech, holly, laurel and hornbeam this month. That way, any subsequent growth will be robust enough to survive the winter unscathed. Secateurs are best for cutting back large-leaved holly and laurel, but a powered hedgetrimmer would be an easier option for most hedges. Topiary is best clipped with hand shears.
Monthly checklist:
