Hopefully you'll be spending a nice portion of your time harvesting and enjoying the fruits of all your labor! Juicy tomatoes (leave tomatoes on the vine until fully ripe if you can), peppers, summer squash and berries in August. Your garden should also be providing you with plenty of cut flowers to enjoy as well.

Here are some tasks for August Gardening to help you reap the most from what you've sown:

The most important nutrient you can give plants this month is water. Best to water deeply and first thing in the morning.

Plant cold crop seeds such as lettuce, radishes, spinach, peas (to name a few) so you can enjoy a fall harvest as well. Rinse extra herbs like basil, parsley, rosemary and mint (to name a few) , lay flat to dry, then bag and freeze or make them into pesto to freeze. For peak flavor, basil, sage, marjoram and oregano, mint and tarragon are best harvested just before they bloom. Harvest lavender, rosemary and chamomile as they flower, blossoms and all.

Transplant spring-flowering bulbs that need to be relocated and start looking over your catalogs or ask your local garden center (hint,hint Rick) when spring flowering bulbs will be arriving.

Divide and transplant peonies, keeping eyes no more than an inch or two beneath the soil. Divide crowded day-lilies when they stop blooming (except for those late-blooming ones, of course).

Keep up with watering and feeding flowering annuals in containers for continued blooms. By now a lot of perennials probably need deadheading. Removing the spent flowers will improve the appearance of the flower bed and may encourage some late blooms. Roses, especially hybrid teas, can really benefit from a good dose of fertilizer early in August to encourage some fall blooms.

Weeds of all kinds have been especially plentiful this year. Stay on top of removing them before they go to seed.

Be alert for yellow jacket nests while mowing and doing other yard work. This is the time of year they become very aggressive in defending their nests.

Remember that any surplus vegetables you may have can be donated to food kitchens and food banks. Especially during this Pandemic.

As always if you have any questions about late summer gardening, fertilizing, or pest control we at
Van Bourgondien Nursery are here to help your Garden Grow!

Happy Harvesting!