Monthly Gardening Guide – August
Updated for 2024!!
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Welcome to your Monthly Gardening Guide for August! Below you will find information on what I will be doing, (or trying to do) for the month of August. These are goals, not standards and some months I am on top of it and other months I blow it. But somehow, and thankfully, the garden is forgiving. Your garden to-do list may look different than mine, and that is okay. Perhaps you will glean something from my list and please, if you have any suggestions, opinions, tips & tricks feel free to contact me! I would love to hear from you. Now, let’s get our hands dirty and get growing!
If you didn’t finish up your July Gardening to-do’s, go double check the post HERE!
Hello all my gardening friends! 2024 is upon us and boy has it been a wild ride so far. Weather has been up and down, life has been as well. I hope you are all doing super great this year and reaping bushels and bushels of produce to stash away for “whatever” may come our way. I have entered the phase of life where I just cant do what I use to do in my beloved garden(s), so I am in a major downshift and learning curve. Look to the future for some BRAND NEW content all about gardening over 60 – when the aches and pains rule!! Happy Gardening all, do what you can – how ya can and always keep those hands dirty ‘-)
**If you make it to the bottom of this post this month, there are some FREEBIES for ya!!**
Main Goal
This month in Texas is notoriously hot, hot, HOT! The main goal this month is keeping everything watered and alive. Harvest what you can and keep alive the rest! We also start seeds this month for our FALL gardens. Yep, we can get a good harvest, sometimes better than Summer, in the FALL garden. At the beginning of the month I will plant out into the garden beds more cucumbers, beans, southern peas, okra, collards, squash and melons. Also tomatoes if I haven’t been able to save my summer crop. Towards the end of the month I will start planting seeds in ground of lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, turnips, broccoli, cabbage, kale and cauliflower. By the time they germinate and break ground we “should” be in the upper 70’s – 80’s and they will flourish.
Is your Basil growing like gang-busters?!!
Use your homegrown BASIL to make delicious Tulsi Tea!
I have a great recipe for ya for Tulsi Tea! Check it out over at Botanical Interests HERE.
Prepare
How to prepare for gardening in August? By maintaining your plants and also looking towards your fall garden. Here is a checklist:
- Prune off old, dead, burned foliage of your plants. Open them up for air circulation.
- Keep watering as much as you can. Find alternative ways to water if your are restricted in your water use. Save your water from the kitchen when washing veggies etc.
- Don’t forget to keep feeding your plants. Keep a schedule and stick to it.
- Shade them with shade cloth. It does help quite a lot.
- Remove plants beyond their prime, old and diseased plants will not serve you at all and only bring disease.
- Do not leave bare soil to the heat and elements. Prep your soil for fall with good compost and your preferred amendments and then mulch. I use straw and it works great.
- Start new seeds that have time to germinate and grow to fruition before you need the space for a fall or winter crop. This is called succession growing. Ideas would be Squash, Okra, southern peas, bush beans.
I am highlighting videos this month from a good friend here in Texas, Jill from North Texas Vegetable Gardening. She has been living and gardening here in North Texas around the Fort Worth area for a long time and knows her stuff. Please go and check out her YouTube channel and show her some love. She has not only gardening videos but canning and recipes galore!! You can find her channel HERE
Plant’em
What seeds am I planting this month for fall?? Here ya go…..
Tomato – Mountain Merit Bush – classic slicer tomato. A beautiful red beefsteak, this determinate tomato has a condensed harvest period, handy for preserving your tomatoes at once, and compact plants, perfect for containers.
Cucumber – Lemon Cucumber – This lemon-sized cucumber has excellent flavor and is a great slicer or pickler. It is delicious eaten with the skin on, just like you would an apple; non-bitter and burpless. Plants are more drought tolerant than other varieties.
Zuchinni – Costata Romanesco – These zuchinni offer a harvest of high-quality, pretty fruits with amazing flavor and firm texture. The striped and mottled skin stays tender even when they grow bigger. They say you can stuff the male flowers, there seems to be an abundance of them.
Collards – Georgia Southern Collards – A staple in the South, collards are a nutritious and versatile vegetable that grows in hot or cold regions with ease. ‘Georgia Southern’ has been enjoyed since the 1800s. The large leaves not only make delicious steamed greens, they also make fantastic wraps (a low-calorie substitute for tortillas), and when young, hearty salad greens. Fall frosts make them sweeter, and they may overwinter, as they can survive temperatures down to 20°F. Excellent container variety
Southern Peas – Pinkeye Purple Hull Bush Cowpea – Pinkeye Purple Hull’ are productive, compact, 2′-tall plants that don’t need to be staked, and produce prolifically in drier conditions than other beans. Cowpeas, also called crowder peas, are very nutritious, low in fat and high in fiber and protein. Serve with cooked greens, ham hocks, and rice for a traditional Southern dish, or add to your favorite soup or stew. 62 days for fresh; 90 for dry cowpeas.
Bush Beans – Contender Bush Bean – Why is this bean called ‘Contender’? Because it vies for the number one spot among beans! And rightly it should; a stringless favorite since 1949, it produces after only 50 days from sowing, and tolerates heat and powdery mildew where other varieties suffer. Disease resistant.
That’s it for this months seed selection. I will have more at the very beginning of September. Look forward to broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, onion, garlic, lettuces, celery, beets, turnips, peas and more!
Here is a general chart for planting veggies in the fall in North Texas. Please note; I try every year to keep my tomatoes and peppers alive throughout the summer and then I don’t need to replant for the fall. If it’s a very hot and dry summer (this year is) I will replant tomatoes, which means starting them from seed indoors under my grow lights in July for planting out. This year has been so very strange with extreme heat and NO rain so I started my tomatoes in the first week of August and will be planting them out by the end of August-first of September. I did save my pepper plants, yay!
| Southern Peas | July 1 – August 15 | |
| Winter squash | July 1 – August 10 | July 1 – August 10 |
| Okra | July 15 – August 15 | July 15 – August 15 |
| Pumpkin, small | July 15 – August 15 | July 15 – August 15 |
| Potato, Irish (seed pieces) | July 25 – August 10 | |
| Beans, pole | August 1 – August 25 | |
| Broccoli | August 1 – August 25 (indoors) August 25 – October 15 (outdoors) |
September 1 – November 30 |
| Brussels sprouts | August 1 – August 25 (Indoors) August 25 – October 15 (outdoors) |
September 1 – November 30 |
| Cabbage | August 1 – August 25 (indoors) August 25 – October 15 (outdoors) |
September 1 – November 30 |
| Cauliflower | August 1 – August 25 (indoors) August 25 – October 15 (outdoors) |
September 1 – November 30 |
| Corn, sweet | August 1 – August 25 | |
| Cucumber | September 1 – 15 | August 1 – August 15 |
| Squash, summer | August 1 – August 25 | September 1 – 15 |
| Beans, bush | August 1 – September 15 | |
| Chard, Swiss | August 10 – September 30 | September 15 through winter |
| Greens (Collard, Mustard) | August 1 – August 25 (indoors) | September 15 through winter |
| Spinach | August 1 – August 25 (indoors) | September 15 through winter |
| Lettuce | August 25 – October 15 | September 1 – November 30 |
| Carrot | September 1 – September 30 | |
| Kale | August 25 – October 15 | September 15 through winter |
| Turnip | August 25 – October 15 | |
| Beets | September 1 – 30 | |
| English/ French Peas | September 1 – 15 | |
| Leeks | September 10 – October 31 | September 10 – October 31 |
| Onions | September 10 – October 31 | |
| Radish | August 25 – October 15 | |
| Garlic Cloves | November 1 – 31 |
Whether you are brand new gardener, or a seasoned pro having resources to turn to are important. We are always learning as we go and I have a few tried and true reference sites that I lean on when I come across something I do not understand or know how to grow. Check these sites out, bookmark them and trust me, you will visit them often:
Aggie Horticulture began serving gardening and horticultural crop production information in October, 1994. Our factsheets, guides and databases are based on years of testing and practice. More than 50 teachers, scientists, and Extension specialists contribute their work to this website. Our goal is to serve the students, producers, professionals and gardeners of Texas…and the World.
Denton County Master Gardener Association Website
The Denton County Master Gardener Association (DCMGA) is a volunteer program designed to grow horticultural information throughout Denton County. To become a Denton County Master Gardener, a participant attends 70 hours of instruction, conducted under the guidance of the Denton County Extension Agent in horticulture, then shares this knowledge by donating 70 hours of volunteer service back to the community. We work on dozens of projects each year, as well as three special projects: the annual Garden Tour and Plant Sale in the spring and the Fall Garden Fest in October.
Neil Sperry grew up in College Station. He’s been a plant geek all of his life, tracking along with his dad, a Range Management professor at Texas A&M University. Neil owned and operated a nursery and landscaping business in high school, and many of his trees still line major streets of his hometown.
While you are checking out his site, do NOT forget to sign up for his weekly email that lets you know all the “stuff” you should be doing in your garden in North Texas! This man knows his stuff! You can also get his book on his website – I did and it’s become my Gardening Bible for sure!
Go HERE to check out his book and order one!
(p.s. I get absolutely NO commission from recommending this book, it’s just terrific for North Texas and I want to pass along a good thing!)
Prune’em
Yes, there is some pruning to be done in August. But not much considering the heat. Here we go:
- Pinch your annuals: Coleus, impatiens, begonias, geraniums to encourage new denser growth.
- Remove dead and dying flower heads and stalks from your perennials. Now is the time to cut back by 1/3!
- Bush roses should be pruned back by late, LATE this month, try and get this done before Sept 1 to encourage a flush of growth and blooms in the fall. While your at it, give them some love with a complete organic slow release fertilizer and/or organic water soluble fertilizer.
- Mow your grass. We are tempted with the drought and heat and everything burning up to let it grow tall, but that is NOT a grand idea. That equals pests and disease.
Feed’em
Give your plants some food. Especially in these harsh conditions this year, make sure you are supporting them to stay alive and flourish. Pay particular attention to any plants (veggies or flower) in pots and containers. YOU are the only way they get water and food!
- Feed your grass, apply good quality nitrogen fertilizer.
- Feed your containers plants using a slow-release or organic fertilizer OR organic water soluble balanced fertilizer.
- Got plants that have yellowed leaves, dark green veins? They may be iron deficient. Add a iron/sulfur product to their feeding.
The Look Out For’s & To-do’s
Water, water and more water. This is a challenge this year and a MUST!
- Use the cycle & soak method for watering
- Hand water if some plants need more water. Do NOT run your sprinkler system an extra day or longer than normal. Believe it or not, this may result in OVER watered plants.
- Use a moisture meter. Don’t guess if a plant is dry when you can know for sure. Moisture meters are effective and inexpensive. I recommend THIS ONE.
- Replace plants that don’t survive the heat.
Monthly Garden Check-list for August
PRUNE: A little dead-heading and light pruning will keep your plants in great shape during the heat. Avoid hard / heavy pruning as that stimulates growth, and we don’t want to encourage this until next month when the weather hopefully starts to cool down. Pick-prune to maintain shape on shrubs and shrub-roses, such as ‘Knockout’ and ‘Drift’ roses.
FERTILIZE: In the heat of the summer, use only slow-release or organic fertilizers. You don’t want to cause extreme growth spurts at this time of year. Use organic all purpose slow release fertilizer AND water soluble fertilizer on container plants to keep them happy and blooming in the heat. Use palm food on palms to give them a boost during the warm weather.
WATER: Continue to be ‘Water Wise.’ With the heat of summer here, be watchful with your water use. Check your landscape often and water if it is dry and needs it. Use a moisture meter and probe around if you’re uncertain. This handy gadget can save you tons of money.
Check your colorful container plantings daily. They may or may not need water, but hanging baskets and container gardens will tend to dry out quickly in summer’s brutal heat. Water in the mornings to give your plants the water they’ll need through the day.
Remember to check your irrigation system once a month during summer. Especially your drip irrigation. Without being able to see the amount of water output, you could be under or over watering your beds. Both symptoms look similar on your plants.
PESTS: For bagworms & webworms, BT (bacillus thurengensis) will take them out.
Scale is a major nuisance! When it’s over 90 degrees, we suggest a non-organic systemic insecticide to control scale. — Serenade is a great organic control for a broad range of fungal problems.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST: Maintain 2″ to 3″ of mulch in planting beds to conserve moisture and moderate soil temperatures. You should have no bare soil in your planting beds.
Now is a good time to plan for fall plantings. Fall has the best weather so get those ideas on paper now.
During August heat we all appreciate shade. Make note where to plant that tree to provide shade to your patio or home. Mark the spot so when you plant in the fall, the tree will give you shade next summer.
That’s all for this month, see you in September!
Oh yeah….those FREEBIES!
I hope you enjoy these freebies and that they assist you in growing your most abundant garden ever!
May you find joy & wonder in your garden, and may your hands always be dirty,
Dig in with more Gardening Articles:
I'm married to an amazing man, we have 4 crazy kids, and 4 crazy cats.Pull up a seat, grab a glass of sweet tea and stay awhile!
- Monthly Gardening Guide – August - July 28, 2024
- Beat the Heat – Shade Cloth for your Vegetable Garden - July 25, 2024
- Monthly Gardening Guide – November - November 4, 2022
We’ve started pruning back some of our tomato plants, and we’re starting seeds for fall!
Thanks for such a thorough article. I enjoyed it and love the schedules.
Your Welcome! Sorry it was late. I hope it was very helpful.
I love your monthly posts! It is super helpful!
Thank you Leigh, I appreciate that and I’m glad they are helpful. Let me know if you would like to see any other information.