Category Archives: To do on your plot

To do on your plot in August

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Harvest

  • French Beans
  • Runner Beans
  • Cabbage
  • Carrots
  • Cauliflower
  • Celery
  • Courgettes
  • Cucumbers
  • Kale
  • Kohlrabi
  • Lettuce
  • Onions
  • Spring Onions
  • Peas
  • Early Maincrop Potatoes
  • Radish
  • Spinach
  • Tomatoes
  • Turnips

When you harvest your potatoes take care to remove all the tubers. Any left will not only sprout next year and become a weed but will also be a reservoir for disease and potato blight spores.

Sowing, Planting and Cultivating

Sowing

There are still quite a few things you can sow in August.

  • Spring Cabbage
  • Chinese cabbage
  • Kohlrabi
  • Lettuce (sow a hardy variety for winter use)
  • Spring Onions (White Lisbon winter hardy)
  • Radishes
  • Spinach
  • Turnips

Planting Out

August is the month to plant out:

  • Savoy Cabbages and Cauliflowers
  • Kale

Cultivating

Runner beans that have reached the top of their supports will benefit from having the growing tip pinched out.

Keep on top of the weeds, it really is far easier to hoe them as small seedlings than as grown plants.

Keep your tomato sideshoots in check, you want tomatoes not masses of foliage. Ensure they are watered regularly, drying out prevents the plant from taking up sufficient calcium and the deficit causes blossom end rot.

Keep feeding your tomatoes.

Fruit

Many fruits are ready to harvest or swelling. Swelling fruit requires a lot of water so ensure they have enough.

Finish summer pruning apple trees and prune mature plums after fruiting.

Plant new strawberry plants and pot up runners from established plants.

General Tasks

Keep on top of the pests. Aphids and Blackfly are a particular problem. You can control them with pesticides or just wash them off many plants with a strong jet of water. A wash with soft soap will do no harm to the plants and will reduce numbers.

Turn your compost. The warmth will be helping your compost break down and turning it out to in will ensure even breakdown. Water if it is dry as the microbes need some water but don’t make it absolutely sodden.

Keep an eye on your brassicas for butterfly eggs and caterpillars, these will most probably be under the leaves.

To do on your plot in July

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July is usually one of the driest months so a lot of time may be spent watering.

Another good method of preventing water loss is to hoe. This not only kills the weeds but breaks up the top of the soil stopping water from being drawn to the surface by capillary action and evaporating.

Harvest

  • Broad Beans
  • French Beans
  • Runner Beans
  • Cabbage
  • Carrots
  • Cauliflower
  • Celery
  • Courgettes
  • Cucumbers
  • Kale
  • Kohlrabi
  • Lettuce
  • Onions
  • Spring Onions
  • Peas
  • Early Potatoes
  • Radish
  • Spinach
  • Tomatoes
  • Turnips

Sowing, Planting and Cultivating

Sowing

A few things you can sow in July.

  • Spring Cabbage
  • Chicory
  • Chinese cabbage
  • Kohlrabi
  • Lettuce
  • Peas
  • French Beans
  • Beetroot
  • Carrots
  • Radishes

Planting Out

If they’ve not gone out yet, it’s time to plant out your leeks.

It’s also the month to plant out:

  • Broccoli and Calabrese
  • Cabbages and Cauliflowers
  • Kale

Cultivating

Keep on top of the weeds.

Keep your tomato sideshoots in check, you want tomatoes not masses of foliage. Ensure they are watered regularly, drying out prevents the plant from taking up sufficient calcium and the deficit causes blossom end rot.

Don’t forget to feed your tomatoes as well. It’s a good idea to give your maincrop potatoes a feed as well. A major cause of poor crops with potatoes is poor nutrition. A feed balanced as for tomatoes is ideal. If you make your own feed from comfrey, this is ideal.

Keep your onions well weeded and don’t forget to feed them as well to get the best possible crop.

Fruit

Many fruits are ready to harvest or swelling. Swelling fruit requires a lot of water so ensure they have enough.

July is a good month for summer pruning apple trees.

General Tasks

Keep on top of the pests. Aphids and Blackfly are a particular problem. You can control them with pesticides or just wash them off many plants with a strong jet of water. A wash with soft soap will do no harm to the plants and will reduce numbers.

With broad beans you can pinch out the tops which are most attractive to blackfly. Another ‘trick’ is to plant some nasturtiums which attract blackfly. You can then pull the nasturtiums and their blackfly.

Keep an eye on your brassicas for butterfly eggs and caterpillars, these will most probably be under the leaves.

To do on your plot in June

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Harvest

Salad crops should be available, lettuce, spring onion, radish etc, Summer cabbage and early carrots.

The early potatoes will be coming in this month as well as Beetroot, young turnips and summer spinach. Early peas could well be cropping in June.

Sowing, Planting and Cultivating

Cultivating

As with May, we really need to keep on top of the weeds. Hoeing them off as small seedlings will make the job far easier than waiting for them to grow and send their roots down.

Continue thinning out your carrots, parsnips, beetroot etc. Water when required.

In very dry weather, keeping the surface friable by hoeing will help keep the water from getting to the surface by capillary action and then evaporating away. It also helps water soak in when you do get some rain.

Planting

You should be able to plant out brassicas now. Broccoli and calabrese, Brussels sprouts, summer cabbage.

If you have started beans in pots, both runner and French these can go into the outside too. Leeks may well be ready to move to their final position. Celery can go out now as well.

Outdoor tomatoes can go to their final position now. When moving plants from greenhouse to outdoors it is a good idea to condition them to the move. Take them out in the day and put them back at night for a few days or move from greenhouse to coldframe. This avoids shocking the plant by a sudden and drastic change in climate.

Sowing

There is a lot to sow this month and with many crops you can sow one set and then a few weeks later re-sow to give you a succession of fresh vegetables. In dry weather it is a good idea to soak your seed drill before sowing and then just water with a fine rose after.

  • French and Runner Beans
  • Maincrop peas
  • Beetroot
  • Carrots
  • Turnips
  • Swedes
  • Cauliflowers
  • Chicory
  • Endive
  • Kohlrabi
  • Sweetcorn
  • Squash
  • Courgette and Marrows
  • Cucucumber

In the greenhouse

Keep pinching off the side shoots with your tomatoes and keep an eye out for pests such as aphids, whitefly, red spider mite. If you are subject to attack by these pests it is worth checking out biological controls as these are perfectly safe to use and, used correctly, more effective than traditional chemical controls. Many of the chemical controls of the past are no longer available anyway so the organic alternatives are now the mainstream choice.

Fruit

Make sure your fruiting plants have sufficient water when the fruit is swelling. This is critical to a good crop.

Thin out plums and apples in June.

General Tasks

Slugs and snails are at ground level so take action to keep them down and remember birds will eat your crops. Don’t forget the netting.

The butterflies are about now as well so check the undersides of your brassica leaves for the yellow or white eggs that will hatch into caterpillars and devastate the plant. You can squash them, wipe or wash them off easily at this stage.

To do on your plot in May

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Weather permitting the soil is warm and everything should be growing well. Unfortunately the weeds are growing well too so you need to keep on top of those. Watch out for a late frost!

Harvest

You may have some salad crops ready. Hardy lettuce and spring onions, fast growing radish may well be available.

Winter cauliflowers, spring cabbage, sprouting broccoli and kale should be ready now.

Sowing, Planting and Cultivating

Cultivation

Weeds are growing. Hoeing them off as small seedlings will make the job far easier than waiting for them to grow with a deeper root system.

The other cultivation job outdoors is to thin out carrots and parsnips.

Sowing

Sow sections of seeds every couple of weeks to give a succession of fresh vegetables rather than a glut. If the weather is dry, it is a good idea to soak your seed drill before sowing and then just water with a fine rose after.

  • French Beans
  • Runner Beans
  • Beetroot
  • Broccoli and Calabrese
  • Cabbage and Cauliflowers
  • Chicory
  • Kale
  • Kohlrabi
  • Peas
  • Turnips and Swedes
  • Your salad crops should be sown in succession
  • Lettuce and Leaves such as Rocket
  • Radishes
  • Spring Onions

Sowing under cover

  • Sweetcorn
  • Courgette
  • Marrow
  • Pumpkin

These really don’t like starting in the cold and you only grow a relatively few plants so starting off in pots is well worth the investment.

Planting Out

If your plants are large enough, you can plant out now:

  • Brussels sprouts
  • Summer cabbages
  • Celery
  • Celeriac
  • Leeks.

In the greenhouse

The following are ready for replanting to a growbag or a large pot.

  • Aubergine
  • Peppers (Chilli and Sweet)
  • Cucumber
  • Tomatoes

Fruit

Be aware of the birds and if possible use a fruit cage or netting to keep the birds away.

Strawberries planted this year will perform better in subsequent years if you remove the flowers so they don’t set fruit in the first year but concentrate on building their strength for next.

Pests

Slugs will be a big issue, and can work through whole rows of seedlings.

Ensure Carrots are covered with a fleece, and edges are buried to stop the carrot root fly from gaining entry to lay eggs by the carrots.