August monthly gardening activities

Explore our monthly activities to do in the garden with your children and young people in August.

1. Trim herbs such as rosemary and lavender and create plants for free by taking semi-ripe cuttings. You can also take softwood cuttings from herbs like mint, basil and sage.
2. Lift and pot up any rooted strawberry plants you have been growing. Looking to create more strawberry plants for free in your garden? Follow our step-by-step guide to learn how.
3. Collect seeds from hardy annuals on a dry sunny day, using a paper bag to collect them. Sow immediately, or store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place – the bottom of the fridge is ideal.
4. Worried about watering over the school holidays? Check out our school watering toolkit. 
5. Raise giant pumpkins, squash and marrows off the soil to prevent discolouration and rotting before they get too heavy to lift. Try using cardboard, thin wooden boards or an old pallet. Be careful to not damage the skin of your giant vegetables as it can cause scratches and splitting.
6. In mild areas, sow quick-maturing salad crops such as lettuce, radishes, salad onions and spinach for an autumn crop.
7. Harvest sweetcorn, onions, courgettes and cucumbers. If your school site is closed and you have a surplus of produce, offer it out to your community or a local food bank.
8. French beans, runner beans and peas will all be ready now and the more you pick them, the more you will encourage new pods to form.
9. If you have been growing summer fruiting raspberries, August is the month to prune them. Make sure all your raspberries have been harvested before pruning. With summer fruiting raspberry plants you need to cut away last year’s old stems and keep this year’s newly grown stems. These new stems will produce next year’s crop of raspberries. Remember to support these by tying them into a frame, wires or trellis.
10. Pick ripe chilli peppers regularly to encourage more to form. Water little and often to avoid the soil or compost getting waterlogged.

Upcoming monthly gardening activities

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Start buying and planting spring flowering bulbs. Read more	Pick apples and other autumn fruits. Read more	Take a look at all of our monthly gardening activities. Explore now