Growing in August
A month of full baskets, ripening fruit and small sowings that will keep the garden productive as summer begins to fade.
Photo: Amie Roussel via Unsplash
August is often the month when growing your own really begins to feel worthwhile.
Courgettes, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and soft fruit can all be ready at once. Regular picking becomes more important than starting lots of new plants, and spare produce may need freezing, preserving or sharing.
The shortening days also bring the first signs of the next season. Empty beds can be replanted with hardy leaves, onions and green manure, while pumpkins and squashes need help to ripen before autumn.
August at a glance
Keep sowing small
Sow short rows or containers of spinach, oriental leaves, winter lettuce, spring onions and other hardy crops.
Harvest regularly
Beans, courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes will continue producing when mature crops are picked regularly.
Use every glut
Freeze, preserve, cook or share surplus produce before it becomes too ripe to use.
Create free plants
Root strawberry runners and save suitable flower, pea and bean seeds for next year.
Help crops ripen
Give tomatoes, pumpkins, squashes, apples and sweetcorn the time and light they need to finish developing.
Prepare for autumn
Clear finished crops, sow green manure and protect young winter vegetables from pigeons, caterpillars and slugs.
What to do each week in August
Follow the month one week at a time or jump straight to the guide that matches where you are in the growing season.
A garden full of food
Harvest courgettes, beans and tomatoes while making small sowings of salads, radishes, spinach and autumn vegetables.
Read Week 1 August Week 2The turn towards autumn
Lift onions, prune summer raspberries, root strawberry runners and begin using newly cleared beds for autumn crops.
Read Week 2 August Week 3Help the harvest finish
Ripen pumpkins and squashes, check sweetcorn, gather early apples and preserve herbs for the colder months.
Read Week 3 August Week 4Prepare for September
Store the late-summer harvest, care for winter crops and begin preparing beds, containers and covered spaces for autumn.
Read Week 4What you can sow during August
August sowings should be small and carefully chosen. Growth will begin slowing as daylight decreases, particularly in northern England.
- Winter spinach
- Winter lettuce
- Corn salad
- Winter purslane
- Mizuna and mustard leaves
- Pak choi
- Spring onions
- Fast-growing turnips
- Winter radishes
- Overwintering onions from seed
- Coriander, parsley and chervil
- Green manure on empty beds
What may be ready to harvest
- Courgettes and summer squashes
- Runner beans and French beans
- Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and chillies
- Carrots, beetroot and turnips
- Second-early and early maincrop potatoes
- Onions, shallots and garlic
- Sweetcorn
- Salad leaves and Swiss chard
- Blackberries and autumn raspberries
- Plums and early apples
- Fresh herbs
Harvest dates will depend on the variety, when it was planted and the conditions in your own growing space. If something isn’t ready, give it more time.
August’s main priorities
- Pick productive crops regularly
- Water containers during dry conditions
- Lift and dry onions before storage
- Root healthy strawberry runners
- Prune summer-fruiting raspberry canes
- Support heavily laden fruit branches
- Help pumpkins and squashes ripen
- Protect brassicas from butterflies
- Freeze or preserve surplus produce
- Sow hardy leaves for autumn
- Cover or replant empty beds
- Keep a record of successful crops