Sow & Grow August

You really wouldn't think there was much to be getting on with in your garden at the moment, other than enjoying the flowers that are already blooming their little hearts out, but I'm busier than ever!

I'm currently knee deep in biennials. I sowed the majority of them towards the end of June so they are all getting ready for pricking out and potting on now.

Foxglove Seedlings

This was always supposed to be a learning journey, with lessons that I could pass on to others, so;

Lesson 1: Do not sow a whole packet of Foxglove seeds in to one seed tray 'because they're really tiny, so it should be ok' 🤨

Lesson 2: DO NOT do this 3 times over! 😮🤣

Goodness only knows how long it will take me to prick all of these out, or where I'm going to put them when I do.

Seeds to sow

If you're super quick at the beginning of this month, you can just about get away with sowing any biennial seeds you have left to do. These include:

• Wallflower

• Foxglove

• Sweet William

• Hesperis

• Honesty

• Icelandic Poppy

• Forget-me-not

They should then have enough time to establish before the cold of winter and the receding light levels halt their growth.

You can also sow perennial flower seeds too, for flowers that come back year after year, including:

• Aquilegia

• Delphinium

• Scabious

• Lupin

• Echinacea

• Hardy Geranium

Don't sow any hardy annuals, or plant any bulbs just yet as it's too warm and they may start to try and flower this year instead of waiting until next year.

What to grow

As mentioned at the start, there are a bazillion seedlings to prick out and pot on this month which should keep you busy enough. If you still need something else to do though, it's the perfect time to start propagating a few things.

There are lots of 'shrubby/bushy' plants that propagate easily at this time of year by taking cuttings of green stems with no flower on the end. Things such as Hydrangea and Buddleia are ideal for this method. You can read detailed information on how to do this in this RHS article

Also (not flower related, but a useful thing to do if you grow them) any fruit bush cuttings - eg Blackcurrant, where you prune the bush back after fruiting simply pop the branch in a bucket of water and it will soon root. When it's rooted, pop it in a pot or in the ground, and it will happily grow in to a new bush.

As a final note, and to let you in on lesson 3 for this month - keep on top of your weeds in the garden.

If your plants are growing well with all the heat and rain, then you can be sure that the weeds will be twice as prolific! It's a pain having to weed every day, but most are SO MUCH easier to remove when they're tiny and some (like bindweed) are only possible to eradicate if you keep pulling, pulling, and pulling. This eventually weakens the plant so it dies off, rather than having to spend over 3 hours on a Sunday morning trying to find one of your raised beds under weeks worth of growth 🙈

You live and learn, as they say!

Until next time,

With love,

Sarah

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