Preparing your garden for selling in September

If you want to get your garden ready for the busy September selling season, now is the perfect time to grab the secateurs and head outside. Summer can be a busy time with children on their extended summer break, but if you only do two things in your garden this month, deadhead your plants and keep watering. The following guide will help to get your garden in shape before the summer ends:

Shrubs

August is the ideal month to prune summer-flowering shrubs such as buddleia, fuchsia, and wisteria as soon as they’ve finished blooming. Cutting off the flower and its stalk just above the next bud will keep plants flowering through to autumn, as well as leaving plenty of time for new growth that will carry the flowers next year. The timeless beauty of wisteria makes for an instant elevation for any property, and giving some attention to your wisteria now will make sure it’s looking glorious come the spring.

Perennials

Experts love to say that the difference between a garden that’s watered and fed and one that isn’t is never more obvious than in August. To keep yours looking fresh, deadhead lilies, annuals, roses and dahlias to encourage further blooming. Lots of plants in the garden will produce more flowers if you deadhead, but even if they don’t, a timely trim will make the garden look better.

If you want to add colour to your garden at this time of year, visit your local garden centre and choose some late-summer perennials. It’s fine to plant them now if you can keep them well watered. The ones with bright colours, like red hot pokers, rudbeckias and achilleas are vibrant now and will continue to brighten up their surroundings through to autumn. If you’d prefer late-flowering plants in cooler colours, opt for white and pink Japanese anemones and gauras and purple Verbena bonariensis, Russian sage and nepeta.

Collect seeds

Nothing is aseasy, cheap, and rewarding as collecting seeds. Harvest them on a dry day and then store in paper bags so any moisture can escape. Write the name of the seed and the date on the bag and then store it in a cool, dry place. Some seeds need to be kept very cold for several weeks, and you can make sure they stay at their best by putting them in the bottom of the fridge for winter.

Veg patches

• If you have a veg patch, keep watering and keep picking. Courgettes don’t need much encouragement to grow but do need regular harvesting so they produce more flowers and fruits. Blackberries, raspberries, early apples, and pears will all be ready now and tomatoes ought to be red and ripe for harvesting.
• Top of Form
• Bottom of Form
• Carrots and beetroot can be harvested as needed.
• Lift potatoes, dry onions, shallots, and garlic when the leaves are yellow. Hang them or store in hessian sacks.
• Keep picking beans or they’ll stop producing fruit.
• August is the last chance to sow lettuce and other salad leaves, spinach, chard, and beetroot. Similarly, there’s still time to transplant the runners of strawberry plants, either into their new positions or into containers.
• Plant Christmas potatoes now. These are tubers that have been cold-stored by suppliers and, if planted now, should be ready in three months. Put some in over the next few weeks for Christmas lunch. The idea is that the tubers form before the first frosts. Once the tops have died down, you can lift the potatoes.
• Friends and family are always grateful for any glut, and you can also freeze and dry any fruit or vegetables that you don’t need.

Hedges

If the weather isn’t too hot and dry, it’s time to cut yew, beech, and hornbeam hedges. A hot day for this job isn’t ideal as it will need time to recover and grow back, and high temperatures won’t help its health while it’s weakened. Don’t trim in moist conditions either, the hedge won’t be as easy to cut. Once you get going, one of the easiest mistakes you can make when trimming a hedge is cutting away too much. It’s easily done, particularly if you notice uneven patches and continually cut back to even things out. Before you know it, you’ve trimmed away too much so try to cut it back gradually. You can always cut more off, but once it’s gone, it’s gone. Always start with a pair of loppers or hedge shears and manually cut away any immediate excess foliage by hand. Once you’re happy with what you’ve removed, you can use a power trimmer to shape the hedge.

Lawns

Even the healthiest lawns can struggle under the hot weather we’ve been having recently, but you can easily give them a boost and keep your grass thriving. Watering is key to stop grass turning yellow, allowing enough water for it  to soak down to the roots where it does the most good. Early mornings and evenings are the best times to water, helping to minimise the water lost due to evaporation during the hottest part of the day. Although it can be tempting to keep your lawn looking trim, avoid heavy mowing this month. Longer grass shades itself from the sun and reduces evaporation, helping retain valuable moisture needed in summer. August is an excellent time to sow grass seed too. Even if your lawn looks good on the surface, overseeding is a way to give it an extra boost, making your grass thicker and healthier.