August — It's Hot!
We are busy people. Between the trips to the mountains for camping, and to the beaches, theme parks, swimming pools and barbeques, and oh, yes, work, we fill our "free" time with gardening. This month we are enjoying the labors of our earlier planting and planning for the second big boom season, fall, is on its way. Fall vegetable gardens can be started now, replant lettuce seed for fall crops. Keep beds moist to plant seed of peas, rootcrops, cabbage, brocolli, and cauliflower. Find the seed for Foeniculum vulgare azoricum, Finnoccio, fennel grown for its white bulbous base that is sauted and used in Italian and French dishes. This varies from the wild fennel growing on the hillsides; it is a more refined cousin. Add autumn color by planting fall blooming bulbs. Most nurseries start getting their fall bulbs in late August, or early September. Plant in late fall blooming crocus, (C.speciosus), and Colchicum, (C.autumanal), aka, Meadow crocus or Autumn crocus. Crinodonna, a cross between Amaryllils belladonna and Crinum, shows off 4 inch long and wide pink tubular bells. Spider lilies (Lycoris) may or may not bloom the first year, but if you find them, put them in anyway, they like to be well established, and crowded, to bloom their exotic, spidery, coral red flower clusters. Also plant Naked Ladies (Amaryllis belladonna) for a surprise August appearance every year. Crocus sativus, the Saffron crocus, is easy to grow and yield the very expensive saffron threads that can be harvested for a paella feast. Interestingly, unlike spring blooming bulbs, naked lady, crinum, lycoris, and nerine lilies are most sucessfully transplanted or moved while they are in bloom.
Perennials that are a must in the fall garden are Japanese anemones, Salvias in all colors, Lion's tail, (Leonitis) , and California fuschia (Zauschneria). Coreopsis just keeps on blooming, as do penstemon, gaura, and day lilies. If you are finding your garden lacking color at this time of year, it is a good idea to go the nurseries and see what is blooming now. Transplant in the morning or in the cool of the evening to minimize transplant shock. Most perennials will benefit if you mix soil amendments with the now hard clay soil. I like to mix about half and half of either organic potting mix or fir mulch. As always, dig a good sized hole for the plant roots to grow out into the soil, at least twice as wide and 1 and a half times as deep as the container works well, Moisten the potting mix evenly before you mixing it with the native soil. You can water the soil in advance to soften it but avoid getting it too wet as it gets too sticky to dig and does not mix with the amendments evenly. Break up heavy clods when you are mixing and remove rocks and stones. I like to first dig the hole with a potato fork, which loosens the soil and them remove the soil with a shovel. The fork penetrates the soil and also crumbles it up, is lighter to lift and requires much less effort than the shovel alone. Areas that I could never dig with a shovel because they are too hard, I can get at with a fork.
Cut back perennials that are done blooming to keep them strong and full. Continue to "dead head " spent flowers on annuals and perennial, and roses. A light pruning back of roses, to the first set of five leaves on spent rose stems, accompanied by a feeding, and continued watering will bring another flush of bloom in the fall.
Feed azaleas, camellias and rhododendron as they are setting buds right now and will benefit the plant helping it to produce bigger and more abundant blooms for next spring. Mulching is very important now to conserve water and keep to keep the soil evenly moist. Mulched soils do not form the hard crust that unmulched soils get. Use compost, firbark or cedar bark, straw, alfalfa, or composted manures as organic mulch. Inorganic mulches to use are weed cloth with rocks, bits of sea glass, favorite rocks collected from your travels, even shells, well rinsed, no salt allowed. A soil that has crusted over keeps water from penetrating into the soil, and causes runoff to occur. By simply turning the soil is a form of mulching, but unless you are able to do that after almost every watering, the crust will quickly form again.
Tomatoes are coming fast and furious. Pick them fully ripe. If you pick them too early and refrigerate them, the ripening process will be halted. A tomato that is chilled to below 55 degress will continue to change color and appear to have ripened but the flavor and texture is lacking. Market bought tomatoes that have been chilled will likely spoil rather than ripen if brought out into room temperature but a home grown tomato, even if picked green will continue to ripen if kept in a warm place and was never chilled. Once fully ripened, put them in the fridge. The same goes for peppers.
Enjoy the summer, go out and play. The garden will wait for you to get back from vacation, just don't forget to water.
Carol de Maintenon is a member of Garden Writers of America and owner of Benicia Garden & Nursery.
