Vegetables need regular deep watering in August
Neronius showers bring Claudius flowers? For a brief time, the month of May was renamed “Claudius” and the Emperor Nero changed April to the month of “Neronius.”
Neither name stuck, though August, as the name of our eighth month, still honors Augustus Caesar.
August means venerable and majestic and is indeed a majestic month in the garden. Most flowers are in full bloom and most vegetables are producing nonstop. One of the nicest chores of the August garden is harvesting. The more you pick the more the plants will produce. Once vegetables have gone to seed, the plant begins to decline. Many plants, like most cut flowers, squash, beans, peppers and eggplant, will stop producing new vegetables altogether if the existing vegetables are left to fully ripen.
You can also thin fruits so the remaining ones reach full size.
Vegetables need regular, consistent deep watering. Erratic watering causes problems and diseases such as tomato blossom end rot and cracking. Irregular watering can even make vegetables bitter tasting.
Plants that dry out often drop fruit and blossoms. Water- starved plants are also more susceptible to disease and insect attacks.
To control insects try organic solutions such as diatomaceous earth, the fossil shells of ancient sea creatures. The sharp edges of the diatomaceous earth cut into insects’ shells and kill them, but diatomaceous earth is completely harmless to pets and humans.
Keep your garden well fed, but not overfed. Both flowers and vegetable plants probably can use a fertilizer boost by August. A weak liquid organic fertilizer such as fish emulsion can help. You can also “side dress” rows of plants by scattering a little granular fertilizer along the rows. For plants that you grow for their flowers and fruit, go easy on the nitrogen fertilizer. Too much nitrogen will actually cause lots of leaf growth and hold back vegetable production.
Make sure your plants are getting enough sunlight. Often by the middle of August, your plants have grown so thick and lush that the leaves actually block the sunlight. Trim extra-large leaves or remove gangly plants that no longer produce well. Almost all vegetables ripen faster in sunlight, and sun-grown vegetables are often tastier. Plants that are shaded by neighboring plants will not be as healthy and are more at risk to damage by insects and diseases.
Finally, make use of the bright, warm days of August and plant replacement crops so you will have new plants ready to start producing as your older plants fail.
You can plant quick crops like bush beans, carrots, radishes, zucchini and lettuce every two weeks right up until fall. Leafy crops such as lettuce, Swiss chard, kale, spinach and mustard greens can all be harvested for salads even when tiny, so you can plant these right up until frost.
If your garden has been booming in the August heat, so too have your weeds. Mulch can also be applied to hold down weeds. Weeds, after all, compete with your flower and vegetable plants for water and nutrients, right at the peak of the garden growth. And weeds and August seem to go together. After all, before we called this month “August” the eighth month was known in English as “Weodmonao” or “weed month."
