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Garden Advice

Garden Checklist: August

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It’ll be August in just a few days! Late summer is such an exciting time in the garden. Harvests are pouring in, flowers are blooming, and fall planting has begun. Here’s a checklist to help you stay on track during this busy time of year.

Buy perennial onions, garlic, shallots, and bulbs.

Perennial onions, garlic, shallots, and many flower bulbs are all planted in the fall. Exact planting dates may vary depending on your hardiness zone, but here in Virginia, it’s best to plant them between September 15th and November 15th.

If you’re hoping to choose varieties from a wide selection, it’s best to get your order in early.

Keep up with harvesting.

It can be tough to keep up with the harvest, especially if you’re a new gardener, but it’s essential if you want fresh food for as long as possible. Many plants like beans, cucumbers, and summer squash will stop producing when you stop harvesting.

If you can, it’s best to harvest in the morning while it’s still cool. You’ll be more comfortable, and your produce will be crisper and stay fresh longer. Greens should be immediately dunked in ice water when harvesting during warm weather.

If you’re struggling to keep up, offer to share some veggies with friends or neighbors. Host a picking and preserving party to make the most of surplus produce. Find more tips for using produce:

Plant fall crops.

Exactly when you plant will depend on your hardiness zone, but August is crucial for planting fall crops here in Virginia and much of the Southeast. Finish transplanting cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and collards seedlings for fall. Sow radishes, kohlrabi, turnips, carrots, beets, herbs, kale, collards, and Swiss chard. Pam Dawling’s guest post from last year is an excellent resource for those looking to grow fall root crops.

Water consistently.

August in the Southeast is hot! It’s no time to slack off on watering. This is especially true for young fall crops like carrots, beets, and cabbages, which you’ve just got started in the garden. Crops like sweet potatoes, watermelons, tomatoes, and winter squash will produce best when watered thoroughly.

It’s also important to remember to water perennials like fruit trees and flowering shrubs, giving them the occasional healthy soaking, especially if you just planted them this spring.

Watch for pests and diseases.

Keep an eye on tomatoes, eggplants, and squash, watching for hornworms, flea beetles, and squash bugs. Treat with handpicking and diatomaceous earth.

Fungal diseases thrive in the heat and humidity of late summer and the south. Keep an eye on plants for diseases like Downey Mildew, rust, and Fusarium wilt. Remove and burn any diseased plants.

Weed and apply more mulch.

August is an important month to keep up with weeding. You’ll see better production from plants if they’re not competing with weeds for moisture and nutrients during this period.

If the mulch around your plants is starting to break down, it’s a good idea to add another layer. It will help conserve moisture and block weeds.

Take notes.

August is an excellent time of year to take some notes in your garden journal. Jot down what varieties performed well and what didn’t. If you haven’t done so already, sketch out your garden layout so that you can plan crop rotations and cover crops. 

Put up storage crops.

Many folks are beginning to harvest storage crops in August. It’s important to harvest, cure, and store them properly so that they keep well. Check out:

Plant fall cover crops.

As summer crops finish up, it’s important to protect and improve your garden soil for the next season. Sowing red clover, oats, Austrian winter peas, and rye as fall cover crops can help protect your soil from erosion, create habitat for beneficial insects and fungi, and add organic matter and nutrients to the soil. Read more about why you should consider fall cover crops here.

Garden Advice

The Winter Solstice: Preparing for Spring

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Last night was the longest night of the year! All fall, the days have been getting shorter while the nights have grown steadily longer. Last night we made it to the turning point. The nights will now slowly but surely grow shorter while the days grow longer.

For folks like us in or around zone 7a, the time to start sowing seeds will come surprisingly quickly. Toward the end of January, we’ll begin sowing cool-weather crops like celery, celeriac, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower indoors. In February, we’ll add warmer season crops like tomatoes and artichokes to our indoor plantings. As early as the beginning of March, we’ll begin our outdoor sowings of hardier crops like peas, parsnips, and kale.

Folks in even warmer climates should begin this process even sooner.

Seed Inventory

Unless this is your first year gardening, you probably have some seed on hand. This time a year is perfect for taking stock before putting in your order. Whether you have seed you saved or leftover seed from last year’s order, it’s generally a good idea to test the germination rate. You can find out how to perform an easy germination test and more seed storing tips in our post, Seeds: Tips for Storing, Testing, & Saving.

Garden Planning

It’s also a good time to hammer out the details of your garden plan. There’s much to consider, including what varieties you’ll plant, your garden’s layout, as well as planning for succession planting and seed saving.

Selecting Varieties

There’s a lot to consider when placing a seed order, especially if it’s your first. For new gardeners, we recommend starting small with just a few varieties. You’ll also want to look at your hardiness zone. Folks in northern zones with fewer frost-free days will want to select varieties with fewer days to maturity. Those in warmer zones can consider more slow-growing varieties or plan for multiple successions.

If you’re looking for something new and exciting, check out our last post, New Varieties for 2021!

Garden Layout

Determining your garden space and layout may also help you choose varieties. When designing a layout, you may want to consider companion planting, future crop rotations, and of course, your selected varieties growing habits.

If you’re going to save seed next year, check out a couple of our seed-saving articles listed below. Those articles and our growing guides can help you determine how far apart you need to keep different varieties.

You can plan your layout on a piece of graph paper or check out our garden planner.

Soil Care

Winter is also a good time to do what you can for your soil. Consider getting your soil tested learning about what you can do to improve it. You should also keep up with mulching. It’s essential to keep crops like garlic, perennial onions, and leeks mulched as well as any bare soil.

More Resources

If you’re planning your first garden or caring for an existing one, here are a few more resources to help you this winter.

Garden Advice

Property Planning with Permaculture Zones

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Many permaculture enthusiasts choose to design their garden and property based on a zone system. The premise of this system is to layout your property in as efficiently as possible. Using this method to plan ahead can help ensure your property is easily accessible and productive. Even if you live on a tiny, already established property you can still utilize permaculture zones to help organize your garden or farm.

Typically there are 6 different zones with zone 0 being the home. While there is certainly variations based on personal needs and property characteristics often zones 1-5 go from outward from the house 1 being the closest and 5 being the farthest. Areas in a zone 1 require the most frequent care while zone 5 requires no maintenance.

Zone 1

Zone 1 is typically the closest to the home or areas you visit most frequently. For this reason features in zone 1 should be those that you use most frequently or need the most care. Good examples include small greenhouses or cold frames which house tender seedlings or have to be carefully monitored, culinary herb gardens, worm farms for processing kitchen scraps, etc.

In this example zone 1 is a small area around the southern side of the home containing a worm farm, small hoop house, and an herb and salad garden.

Zone 2

While it may not be accessed quite as frequently as zone 1, zone 2 is probably where you’ll grow the last majority of your food. Zone 2 areas typically include things like perennial plants, annual vegetable plantings, and food forests with a combination of plants, shrubs, and trees. Other items often located in a zone 2 include compost bins, chickens coops, beehives, ponds, and potting sheds.

In the example zone 2 has a food forest with smaller sized fruit trees, annual plants, and perrenials all intermingled. It also features a duck coop and small pond.

Zone 3

Zone 3 can still be productive agricultural land but needs less tending than zones 1 and 2. These areas may include livestock pastures, orchards of larger fruit and nut trees, and possibly large areas of staple crops.

In the example there’s and large fruit and nut orchard that partially extends around the southern side of the home to offer shade in the summer as well as a wheat field.

Zone 4

This area is a lightly managed piece of the property. It can be used for foraging, encouraging or growing woodland medicinals and mushrooms, harvesting timber or firewood, and even occasional grazing.

For this is example zone 4 is used to harvest wild mushrooms and firewood as well as cultivate a woodland medicinal herb patch.

Zone 5

This is your wilderness area. It’s typically left untouched and pristine for the benefit of wildlife, nature, and your enjoyment and recreation. For many zone 5 will be the farthest away from your home, a place to take relaxing walks but not necessarily visited as frequently as areas that require management. On the other hand some may choose to have a section of zone 5 extend right to their house to offer more frequent opportunities to observe and enjoy nature.

 

If you have a property of any size you can utilize some of the permaculture zones planning method. Breaking your property into sections can help ensure you create a space that’s productive, functional, beautiful, and good for wildlife.

 

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