August In The Gardens 2004

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

Week 1

General
Weeding, cutting back herbaceous plants that have finished flowering and generally tidying through borders.

Mowing, strimming and lawn edging.

Planted ILEX crenata hedge in Gentleman's Cottage Garden to replace the BUXUS plants removed due to infection with Box Blight.

Allotment
Lifted POTATO 'Kondor, 'Maxine' and 'Estima' and dug over the vacant ground adding sharp sand to try and improve the drainage.

Dead headed all MARIGOLDS.

Parterre
Lifted POTATO 'Pinkk Fir Apple' and removed top growth from BROAD BEAN 'Red Epicure' now they have finished producing.

Dug over vacant beds adding our own garden compost.

Directly sown TURNIP 'Tokyo Cross', 'Purple Top Milan' and 'Snowball'; LEAF SALAD 'Lettuce Mixed', 'Stir Fry Mixed' and 'Spicy Mixed' and ROCKET.

Elizabethan Vegetable Garden
 Saved Heritage seeds from PEA 'Forty First' and BROAD BEAN 'Bowland Beauty' and 'Crimson Flowered'.

Greenhouse
Fed all plants.

Week 2

General
Pruning APPLES and PEARS, RED CURRANTS, WHITE CURRANTS, GOOSEBERRIES, KOLKWITZIA, WEIGELA, PHYSOCARPUS, RUBUS, DEUTZIA, VIBURNUMS and rambling ROSES.

Picked MALUS 'Discovery' early as the wasps were destroying them.

Watering pots in the greenhouses and conservatory, as well as outside.

Repairing and maintaining mowers and shredder when necessary.

Allotment
Sprayed all Brassicas with Dipel, against the cabbage white butterfly caterpillars.

Sown mustard seed in newly dug area vacated by POTATOES to try and dry the ground.

Removed SWEET PEA plants now they have stopped producing.

Removed all BROAD BEAN tops and saved seed.  Any spare seed will be used for green manure.

General tidy around.

Greenhouse
Potted up SPRING CABBAGE 'Durham Elf', 'Offenham x 2 Flower of Spring', 'Master Green' and 'April' into 7cm (3") pots.

Potted up TREE ONION sets into 9cm (3.5") pots.

Week 3

General
 Removed more BUXUS plants suffering from box blight which spreads faster in the recent wet and warm weather.

Shredding on wet days.

Shaping any evergreen shrubs that need it.

Laid down green walkway matting in some areas to protect the grass during this spell of excessive rainfall.

Allotment
 Lifted POTATO 'Nicola'  (a lot of slug damage), 'Valor' (fairly clean), 'Desiree', 'Pink Fir Apple' and 'Maxine' (both virtually all clean).

Cut COMFREY and put into compost bins.

Dug over newly vacated land and broadcast MUSTARD seed as a green manure.

Dead headed MAROGOLDS.

Lifted all ONIONS and left on soil surface to dry before laying out on old pallets to dry properly.

Week 4

General
 PLUM 'Victoria' and some APPLES are now becoming ripe and being harvested at regular intervals.

Taken herb cuttings from various types around the gardens.

Made a list of herbaceous plants to be divided during the autumn/winter months.

Pruned out fruited canes of RASPBERRIES and tied new canes onto the wire.

Tied up autumn fruiting RASPBERRIES as the recent heavy rain had made them flop over.

Allotment
Pruned standard and bush GOOSEBERRIES hard.

Put dried ONIONS into store.

Removed all RUNNER BEANS that had become too big so as to encourage the production of more.

Broadcast saved BROAD BEAN seed and then pushed each one into the ground to be used as a green manure.

Parterre
Removed SWEET PEA plants as they have virtually finished producing flower.

Lifted ONIONS.

Greenhouse
Removed and destroyed CUCUMBER plants as they were very badly affected by mildew.

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

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