The veg garden slips into cruise mode this month: each of the beds has filled out nicely as plants reach their full size, and it's a job to find bare soil for your monthly sowings of salads and baby roots. Best of all, you're picking something fresh to eat from the garden every day.
While you're there, you can also gather perhaps the most important harvest of all. Nearly everything in the veg garden starts with a seed: yet commercially-grown seed can be expensive, and often comes with a high carbon footprint, plus extra single-use plastic packaging. Buy from organic seed merchants who produce their seed here in the UK, or simply save your own, for free, instead.
August can be a tricky month in the garden, too, as caterpillars fatten and blight spores germinate, and it can feel like you're spending most of your time responding to emergencies. So, read on for eco-friendly veg-growing tips to keep your garden healthy and productive well into autumn.
Ready to pick
The harvest is still in full swing, with courgettes, beans, salads, leafy greens, and calabrese offering a mouth-watering daily menu. This month, you can add the first buttery sweetcorn cobs: you'll know they're ripe when the tassels turn dark brown and the cob feels rounded and full. Gently peel back the papery sheath: if kernels are plump and yellow, and ooze milky juice when pierced with a thumbnail, set the pot to boil and pick the cob just before you cook to capture the rich flavours at their sweetest.
この記事は Gardeners World の August 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Gardeners World の August 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
A new plot for tasty crops
Taking on a new allotment needn't be hard work. By simply following a few easy tips you can have bumper crops in no time, just like Alessandro Vitale
We love July
July is an island floating between the joy of June and the slightly fatigued month of August. It's a grown-up month: the year has shrugged off its adolescent exuberances, the weather is (hopefully) warm enough for ice cream to be one of your five a day, the sea should be swimmable without (too much) danger of hypothermia and thoughts will be of holiday shenanigans and family barbecues. School's out this month, the next tranche of glorious summer colour is washing across our borders and it's my birthday. Lots of reasons to give three rousing cheers for July!
YOUR PRUNING MONTH
Now, at the height of summer, Frances Tophill shows how to boost your plants' health and productivity with a timely cut
Hassle-free harvests
Flowers are out in abundance this month and for Jack Wallington, many of these blooms make delicious, low-effort pickings
Bite-sized bounties
Glorious doorstep harvests can easily turn into gluts, so let Rukmini Iyer's recipes help you savour every last bit
Upcycled outdoor living
Create unique and stylish garden features for minimal cost using reclaimed materials and simple DIY skills. Helen Riches shares four step-by-step projects and more inspiring eco tips
Secrets of a COLOURFUL GARDEN
Buildings and landscapes can play a vital role in supercharging your space, as Nick Bailey demonstrates
Greening up a city balcony
Looking for sustainable, small-space gardening ideas? Take inspiration from Oliver Hymans' transformed balcony garden in north-east London - now a lush, green haven for humans and wildlife
The dry and mighty garden
As we adapt our gardens to a more volatile climate, Alan Titchmarsh reveals how to create a drought-tolerant plot and picks his top plant performers
Nature knows best
Carol Klein explains how to choose plants for specific growing conditions, based on what has naturally adapted to thrive there