August in the garden in the Fernwood Almanac, Ludlow, Shropshire
The month everyone writes off. It is the best sowing window of the year for anything you want to eat in October, and daffodils want to go in now.
In the nursery and in a garden within about ten miles of Ludlow.
What is out in August
- Dahlia DahliaStarting, and it does not stop until the first frost.
- Japanese anemone Anemone x hybridaThug, but a welcome one in dry shade.
- Crocosmia Crocosmia 'Lucifer'The one bit of proper red the border gets.
- Buddleia Buddleja davidiiDeadhead it and it flowers again, and does not seed into the gutters.
- Verbena Verbena bonariensisSee-through, six feet, and self-sows exactly where it should.
- Sedum Hylotelephium spectabileGreen through summer, then suddenly the busiest plant in the garden.
Written for the Marches, where the last frost is usually the middle of May and the first is usually the end of October.
Jobs for August
Sow
- Spinach, rocket, chard, spring onion and oriental leaves. Warm soil, good light, up in days.
- Turnips in the first half of the month. Golf-ball sized by October and worth eating raw at that size.
Plant
- Daffodil bulbs now, not in November. They root in late summer, flower a fortnight earlier and stand up better to wind.
- Leave tulips until the soil has cooled, which here means the back end of October.
Prune
- Rambling roses, straight after flowering. Take out a third of the oldest stems at the base.
- Summer-fruiting raspberries: cut the canes that fruited, tie in the new ones.
Leave alone
- The perennials. Those seed heads are bird food and frost structure, and there is nothing to gain by tidying them now.
What we have in during August
- Autumn-sowing vegetable seed
- Daffodil and narcissus bulbs
- Dahlias in flower
- Late perennials for instant colour
- Autumn lawn feed
Stock turns over with the calendar. If you are after something specific, ring on 01584 555 0234 before you drive over and we will walk out and look.
A note on this month
August feels like the end of something, which is why the benches are quiet and the sowing window is wide open. We have this month's seed on the propagation bench if you want to see what a fortnight actually looks like. Come and have a look at the trays by the till.
Annual fixtures, so the dates move by a day or two but the months do not.
Around this time of year
- Saturday 6 September, 10:00amWorkshopAutumn Colour Planting8 places, £35, 2.5 hours with Helen Marsh.
- Saturday 11 OctoberEventApple Day42 of 120 places left. Bring a bag of your own apples for identification by the Marcher Apple Network, press your own juice on the vintage press, and taste your way through thirty heritage varieties from the orchard. Children under twelve go free.
- Sunday 26 OctoberEventAutumn Plant Fair8 of 200 places left. Fourteen specialist nurseries from across the Marches in the walled garden, with rare and unusual stock you will not find in a garden centre. Early entry at 9am for ticket holders, an hour before the gates open to everyone else.