Whew, it’s hard to believe August 6th marks the peak of summer, with the first day of fall just 48 days later. Per the 2023 update, the first frost dates for USDA cold hardiness zones 6 and 7 now range from early October to early November. All this means there is still plenty of time to garden!
Virginia Tech has a wonderful chart breaking down the sowing, transplanting and harvesting of each vegetable in relation to the first frost date for the fall garden and the last frost date for the spring garden. Check it out here.
While it’s typical to think late summer means the end of gardening, this chart proves otherwise – August is the start of the fall gardening season! Now is the time to dust off the indoor seed growing supplies to sow the seeds of the Cole crops or brassicas. This includes sowing indoors broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, collards, kale and mustard seeds while direct sowing into the garden turnip and radish seeds. Don’t forget to sow seeds indoors for lettuce, arugula, spinach and leeks, too. The seeds you sow will typically be transplanted to the garden in September, or once they have their first set of true leaves, not just the cotyledon or feeder leaves which emerge from the seed.
When I move the vegetables from the indoors to outdoors during the summer I always place them in the shade for a number of days before exposing them to the morning sun and then to the full sun. I have also planted them directly into the garden with makeshift tents set up using heavyweight row cover fabric to provide the shade, which I then slowly remove to allow more sun in. I have even placed old baskets over the seedlings to create the shady conditions needed for their tender leaves to adjust to the intense UV rays of the summer sun.
Even when I move a plant around in my landscape during the growing season, I create shade by tenting cloth or with large baskets, and even umbrellas to reduce transplant shock. I remove the temporary shade once the landscape plant is acclimated, which I define as not wilting in the sun.
When it comes to pruning shrubs, please hang up your pruning shears at the end of this month. You want to do so because pruning initiates new growth, and if done after August, that tender new growth will not have time to harden before the wintry weather moves in. Think of a plant having a finite amount of energy and putting that energy into new growth is good, but it is for naught if the frost kills it. You don’t want to set a plant up to waste its precious energy!
Another thought to keep in mind is by August, the spring blooming shrubs and trees have their flower buds already formed so prune them minimally, if at all. However, this is a wonderful time to cut back the branches of your foundation shrubs that are growing up against the house. This will increase air circulation, which will reduce mold and mildew and it will also reduce any damage, plus that scratching sound from branches rubbing in the wind. I cut an 18” wide corridor along the perimeter of the house. The good news is, no one will see it from the front and you know you are protecting the largest investment you own: your home.
We are passing that halfway point in the growing season so do not give up on your garden! Instead, revive it and reinvigorate it with fertilizer, fresh mulch, delicate well-intentioned pruning and by deadheading your flowering plants so they provide joy until the first frost. While sowing the seeds for the fall vegetable garden remember to order those spring flowering bulbs you want to plant this fall.
Happy Gardening!
- Peggy
