Gardeners Checklist: Here Is What to Do on the Week of August 21

By Ron Kujawski

• Fertilize strawberry beds by applying one half pound of 10-10-10 fertilizer (or equivalent) per one hundred square feet. Make the fertilizer application before Labor Day. Organic gardeners can apply fish emulsion, dried poultry manure, dried blood, or other natural sources of plant nutrients. This fertilizer application is important since June bearing strawberries will soon be setting buds for next year’s fruit.

• Make one more sowing of leafy greens, including spinach, chard, mustard greens, and leaf lettuce. These will thrive as the days get shorter and the nights cooler. With a little protection — from a row cover — you should be able to harvest these well into late fall.

• Harvest fall bearing raspberries at least every other day. Allowing fruit to over ripen tends to attract picnic beetles which feed on the berries. The canes of fall bearing raspberries now producing fruit will yield another crop next summer.

• Shop early for spring flowering bulbs. The early bird gets the best quality bulbs; the late bird gets leftovers. Pity the late bird.  Plan to buy a wide variety of species of different flowering times. This will extend the flowering season for spring bulbs.

• Avoid pruning trees and shrubs since doing so this late in the season may stimulate new growth that may not harden in time for cold winter weather ahead. Also, with trees and shrubs going into dormancy, pruning wounds tend to heal slowly; this may result in some dieback at the wound site.  So, put off any thoughts of pruning until next late winter. The exception to this rule is the removal of dead, damaged, and diseased branches.

• Gardening makes scents.

In spring, it’s the scent of fresh mown grass – aah, fresh!

In early summer, it’s the scent of roses – aah, perfume!

In August, it’s the scent of maturing vegetables – aah, sweet corn!

This August, it’s the scent of rotting vegetation – ugh, P-U!

Despite the seemingly unending rain of June and July and the drenching thunderstorms of August, gardens have been lush with verdant foliage and colorful flowers.  Unfortunately, all that rain has caught up to plants, and the once healthy and attractive leaves, stems, and flowers of many plants have turned to mush (technical term for rotting plant parts).  This mush is much like a fungal and bacterial sauce, and has the potential to infect other plants this year and next.  So, it makes scents….err, sense to begin fall cleaning a little early.  Collect all diseased plants or plant parts and bury them or bag them to send to the landfill.                                              

I started seedlings of broccoli in late March, set them out in early May, harvested the central heads in June and July, and then left the plants intact in the garden.  Broccoli is a vegetable that keeps on giving. After the central head is cut, the plant continues to produce a steady supply of side buds, albeit much smaller than the central head.  Our twelve plants yield enough side buds for a couple of side dishes of broccoli each week, and even some for the freezer.  To keep this production going, the plants need frequent watering, a dilute application of water-soluble fertilizer every few weeks, and an occasional spray of an organic insecticide (Bt or spinosad) to control cabbage worms.   Some of the lower leaves turn yellow and we cut these off regularly to guard against disease development.  We treat our cabbage plants in much the same way.  That is, we leave the plants intact after cutting the central head.  Small heads will develop from side buds for harvest this fall.

Ron Kujawski began gardening at an early age on his family's onion farm in upstate New York. Although now retired, he spent most of his career teaching at the UMass Extension Service. He serves on Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Horticulture Advisory Committee. His book, Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook, is available here.