The Greenhouse, and Fruit and Vegetables in Mid-Late August
For those with active greenhouses now is the time that heliotrope (cherry pie) cuttings can be taken. Arum lilies may be stirred into growth after a summer rest.
Cyclamen should be brought in from the frame, and plants may be raised from seed sown now. Pot on the cinerarias, calceolarias, primulas and others that are pot-bound.
Greenhouse peaches need constant ventilation, failing this, botrytis will develop at the union of stem and fruit, due to moisture.
It is now time for one of my favourite moments in the garden, although sadly to me it always makes me feel it signifies the end of the summer, and the beginning of autumn, and that is when I lift onions grown from sets.
It is also time to dust celery with soot. Some gardeners prefer to sprinkle the soil with salt and contend it keeps the sticks crisp. Dig up potatoes when skins are ‘set’. You can easily test this this with a light rub of the thumb.
In the herb garden it is time to cut down the mint and top-dress with peat and compost to encourage young growth. Earth up and re-plant chives if overcrowded.
Remove any old dark-coloured wood that has borne fruit from the blackcurrants and keep the centre of the gooseberry bushes open by shortening young side growths to three buds always providing they are protected from finches. Watch the grapes for mildew and cut out affected berries before they spoil the bunch. Prune the morello cherry by removing as much as possible of the old fruiting wood as soon as the fruit is picked.
Sadly you can now see signs that summer is ending, and the cuckoo may have already said good-bye. Other birds are rounding up in the sky and huddling together at night-time as if to get to know each other better and gain courage from company before making the long and dangerous flight to the south.
