Words and photos by Olivia Thomas

Make the most of your garden

Get outside any time you can, however small your outdoor space. Eating or having an evening drink outside are a given, but your garden can be a whole extra room at this time of year. Morning coffee, working from home, working out, playing with kids, cooking, meditating, even sleeping - everything can be a different experience outdoors.

Take stock and plan

While spending all that extra time outside, it’s the perfect time to think about how your garden’s working for you. How do you use your outside space? How would you like to? If you want to eat or entertain (yay for seeing people again!), do you have a seating/dining area that works? How do you find looking after your garden - is it too much right now, or do you feel like doing a bit more gardening? Do you want to grow fruit and veg next year, or your own cut flowers? Any plants in the garden that aren’t pulling their weight?

This time of year is likely to be when you use your garden most, so it’s the ideal time to look around and think what you could change. It’s also a great time of year to get garden inspiration - visit gardens and nurseries, look at friends’ gardens, and have a nosy at gardens in your neighbourhood to see what grows well where you live.

Keep on top of maintenance

Any big work of sowing and planting is likely to be over (assuming you’re reading this in the Northern Hemisphere!), but weeds and grass will keep growing as enthusiastically as your plants. Keeping your lawn mowed regularly will help grass grow better overall and make your garden more appealing to be in, try to keep a corner unmowed here and there for wildlife. I don’t worry about the make up of my lawn, and I have a rabbit who loves clover, but I do try and keep big weeds out of the lawn - along with trimming grass along the edges of beds, it makes a surprising difference to the overall look of the garden.

Weeding is best done as often as possible rather than left until things are getting out of control. If you’ve got limited time, prioritise weeds that are flowering (before they can set seed and spread around). Hoeing is a quicker way to get through large areas of annual weeds, but for perennial weeds (e.g., dandelions and nettles) you’ll need to make sure the roots are all out or they’ll be back before you know it.

Watering is essential when rainfall drops, especially for pots and for plants or trees planted this year. A rainwater butt is a climate-friendly option, with sizes to fit any garden - have a look at this selection from Gardener’s World https://www.gardenersworld.com/product-guides/storage/best-water-butts/ . Water your pots, containers and hanging baskets daily when it’s warm.

Deadheading flowers as they fade and go to seed will keep many flowering plants going as long as possible into late summer and autumn, and it’ll keep your garden looking better. A regular prowl round with a weed bucket and secateurs trimming off any old blooms you can see will be time well spent.

Dealing with gluts

The things that I can’t keep up with in our garden in August are rhubarb and courgettes. Here are some ideas for things to do with both:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/18/nigel-slater-courgette-recipes

Nige is the king of the courgette, and the goat’s cheese recipe here is fantastic.

https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/vegetarian/courgette-muffins/

I love a savoury muffin. Great to make with kids as well.

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/toasted-marshmallow-and-rhubarb-cake

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/rhubarb-date-chutney

Chutney makes me think of Christmas, and it’s never too early to be thinking of Christmas.

 Also consider: 

• Rhubarb gin

• Rhubarb compote

• Ratatouille (freeze it in bulk to bring summer into winter)

Plants of the month

If your garden’s looking a bit flat right now, some of these might brighten it up, or at least give you ideas for what to put in for next year.

•      Dahlias. There’s a dahlia for everyone. The best I’ve grown, both tubers and plants, came from my local Morrisons

•      Sunflowers. Grow giants by all means, but I highly recommend the multi-headed dwarf variety ‘Vanilla Ice’; great for cutting as well

•      Verbena bonariensis. Floating above borders with near-neon tiny purple flowers, this is gorgeous against early yellowing autumn foliage

The cutting garden in August

Pick, pick, pick! All the annuals are trying to go to seed now, so keep ahead of them by picking as much as you can, and dead-heading any that’ve gone to seed. Alternatively, if you want to save some seed, choose which plants you’re going to save from and let them go to seed. Mark any that you want to keep by tying a bit of string around them - it’s hard to remember where the pretty flowers were once everything’s died back.

Now is the time to think ahead to spring. Order tulip and daffodil bulbs while there’s still lots of choice. Consider what’s grown well for you this year and what you’d like to try - it’s not too early to order seed for sowing in spring.

Sow hardy annuals for earlier flowering next year. Try sweet peas, love-in-a-mist and ammi.

As the quantity of flowers decreases, try displaying single stems in beautiful containers - bottles or narrow-necked vases work well for this. A collection of these look lovely on shelves or windowsills.