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<p>August means holidays are here, so take some time to enjoy your garden and reap the benefits of all your hard work throughout the year. There’s still plenty to do, though, and our <strong>top gardening tips for August</strong> will help you keep your garden looking great right through summer.</p>

<p>August means holidays are here, so take some time to enjoy your garden and reap the benefits of all your hard work throughout the year. There’s still plenty to do, though, and our <strong>top gardening tips for August</strong> will help you keep your garden looking great right through summer.</p>
<h2>Gardening tips for August</h2>
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<p>Deadhead dahlias, daylilies and petunias regularly to keep them flowering through to autumn. Repeat-flowering roses should be deadheaded too, but leave rugosa roses alone to develop their brightly coloured hips for winter.</p>
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<p>Camellias and rhododendrons need regular watering now, as they’re producing the buds for next year’s flowers.</p>
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<p>Trim lavender once the flowers have faded, taking care not to cut back into old wood.</p>
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<p>Prune rambling roses, removing one in three flowering stems, and tying the remaining stems into supports.</p>
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<p>Give wisteria its summer pruning, cutting back all this year’s long whippy shoots to five or six leaves.</p>
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<p>Pinch out the growing tips of cordon tomatoes, runner beans and squash plants. This will focus the plants’ energies on producing more fruit.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Trim herbs like thyme, mint and basil to give you the last flush of delicious new leaves before autumn arrives.</p>
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<p>Strawberry plants will be producing runners now. Peg these down in the ground or in little pots, and they will grow into new plants for next spring. If you don’t need any new plants, cut the runners off.</p>
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<p>Feed container-grown fruit and veg like tomatoes, blueberries and peppers fortnightly with a high potash feed to boost fruit production. Feed citrus plants weekly with a specialist citrus feed.</p>
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<p>Net fruit to protect it from birds, pegging the netting down taut to stop birds getting tangled in it, and check it at least twice a day.</p>
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<p>It’s time to start harvesting maincrop potatoes. Once their foliage fades, wait a week or two, then lift them carefully with a border fork.&nbsp; Cucumbers, courgettes, runner and French beans, beetroots, onions, carrots and tomatoes should also be ready to harvest now, as will plums, peaches and the first of the apples.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>When the leaves of onions, shallots and garlic turn yellow and flop over, it’s time to lift them as well. Put them somewhere warm for a few days to dry out before storing them.</p>
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<p>Sow salads like rocket, mizuna and lamb’s lettuce for a supply of tasty leaves through autumn into early winter.</p>
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<p>Keep mowing the lawn, but raise the blade height in long dry periods to avoid stressing the grass.&nbsp; If you’re planning to sow seed or lay new turf in autumn, start preparing the area now to give the soil a chance to settle.</p>
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<p>Finally, it might be mid-summer, but it’s never too early to think about next year’s garden. Spring bulbs will be in the garden centres soon, so start planning your planting now.</p>
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</ol>
<p>Whatever you need to keep your garden looking great this summer, you’ll find it in our centre. Visit us soon and see what’s in store!</p>

15 gardening tips for August

<p>Growing your own food is very satisfying, and you don’t need a big space to do it. Plenty of fruit, vegetables, and herbs will grow happily in pots on a patio, balcony, or even on a sunny windowsill. Here are a few <strong>crops that you can grow in containers</strong>&nbsp;to get you started:</p>

<p>Growing your own food is very satisfying, and you don’t need a big space to do it. Plenty of fruit, vegetables, and herbs will grow happily in pots on a patio, balcony, or even on a sunny windowsill. Here are a few <strong>crops that you can grow in containers</strong>&nbsp;to get you started:</p>
<h2>Vegetables to grow in pots</h2>
<ul>
<li>Bush tomatoes are perfect for pots. Unlike the tall cordon varieties, there’s no need to pinch out side shoots, and they don’t need staking, although you may need to prop up very heavily laden stems. Tomato ‘Tumbling Tom’ is a reliable favourite, producing masses of sweet red cherry tomatoes in summer.&nbsp; If you only have space for a pot on your windowsill, try Tomato ‘Balconi Red’, which grows to just 30cm high.</li>
<li>Dwarf French and runner beans are perfect for pots and easy to grow from seed. In late May, plant two or three runner bean seeds in a 30cm diameter pot filled with multipurpose compost, and you’ll be picking the beans by mid-summer. French beans prefer the weather to be a bit warmer, so wait until June to sow them outside or sow them inside in small pots in May and plant them out in June. Runner bean ‘Hestia’ and French bean ‘Safari’ are both ideal&nbsp;for pots. Pick the beans regularly to keep your plants producing more.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Fruit to grow in pots</h2>
<ul>
<li>Strawberries grow well in pots and even in hanging baskets, keeping them well out of reach of hungry slugs and snails. Planting a few different varieties will give you a long harvest season. Strawberry ‘Honeoye’ is good for early fruits, ‘Fenella’ gives you a good crop in early summer, and ‘Florence’ will fruit well into mid-summer.</li>
<li>Blueberries need acidic soil, so they’re often best grown in pots, even if you have a big garden. Look for self-fertile varieties like Blueberry ‘Bluecrop’, which will produce a crop without needing another blueberry bush nearby. As well as producing delicious fruit, blueberry plants are very ornamental, with pinkish-white flowers in spring and bright orange leaves in autumn.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Herbs for pots</h2>
<ul>
<li>Basil grows well in a pot on a sunny windowsill where you can pick the leaves as you need them. When harvesting basil leaves, look for the nodes where a new pair of leaves are about to shoot and harvest just above these, so the plant stays bushy.</li>
<li>Mint is best grown in a pot, as it spreads by underground runners and can be invasive if grown in the ground. You can split your mint plant every couple of years to stop it from getting rootbound and give you extra plants.&nbsp; Remove the plant from its pot, tease the rootball apart or use a knife to cut it into two or three smaller sections. Re-plant each section in a separate pot.</li>
</ul>
<p>We have a fantastic range of vegetables, fruit and herbs for pots in our centre, so visit us soon and start enjoying your own home-picked harvests!</p>

6 top crops to grow in containers

<p>Knowing <strong>what we can learn from plants</strong> can open up a whole new connection with the natural world, and there is no better place to do that than in your garden. Plants have survived through changing climatic conditions, unrest and us gardeners planting them in places they would prefer not to be planted! So given how incredible plants are, what can we learn from them?&nbsp;</p>

<p>Knowing <strong>what we can learn from plants</strong> can open up a whole new connection with the natural world, and there is no better place to do that than in your garden. Plants have survived through changing climatic conditions, unrest and us gardeners planting them in places they would prefer not to be planted! So given how incredible plants are, what can we learn from them?&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Tenacity is what we can learn from plants</h2>
<p>Considering that plants have been on the planet long before humans, we can definitely learn that tenacity gets you far! Plants adapt and evolve; they change according to the environment and have resulted in some of the most exquisite adaptations allowing better pollination, stronger roots, vibrant colours, and so much more.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>What we can learn from plants is to be happy&nbsp;</h2>
<p>When plants surround us, we know that they help to make us feel happy! Research has shown that both giving and receiving flowers is good for us, that house and office plants can help productivity and motivation and that as we garden, endorphins are released, making us feel happy! These plants are excellent to keep as office plants:</p>
<ul>
<li>Peace Lily</li>
<li>Aglaonema</li>
<li>Ficus Benjamina</li>
<li>Zamioculcas Zamiifolia</li>
<li>Dracaena</li>
<li>Sanseveria</li>
</ul>
<h2>Focus is what we can learn from plants&nbsp;</h2>
<p>The tests involved with caring for plants are many and varied. From deadheading to sowing, watering to thinning out, there is always a job for the gardener! When you concentrate on caring for your plants, you are focusing on the moment, which is really good for your well-being.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>What we can learn from plants is that we all need something different&nbsp;</h2>
<p>To thrive, all plants require different conditions. From soil type to feed and watering requirements, sunlight to companion plants. Each plant has different requirements to be its best selves, and that is no different to humans.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>How to thrive is what we can learn from plants&nbsp;</h2>
<p>Plants are simply growing to the best of their ability. Their continuous growth without any other focus allows them to become something beautiful. It teaches us that striving for our best to reach our potential can also help us bloom.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>What we can learn from plants is not to be greedy</h2>
<p>Plants only use the water and nutrients they need to continue growing. They don't take more from the soil than is needed for them to thrive. Something we can think about too!</p>
<h2>Remember your roots is what we can learn from plants&nbsp;</h2>
<p>Plant roots are the survival system of most plants. Steading, supporting and feeding the plant, it is what's below the surface that counts! Our roots are important to us, keep us grounded and remember it Is what is on the inside that matters more than what the world can see.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Update your plant collection, both inside and outside and select your favourites from inshore.&nbsp;</p>

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