Early August Garden

Summer is a season with three distinct phases in my valley, and August is clearly Mid-summer. It's often very hot and very dry, but the days are noticeably shorter. It's time to think about the winter garden.

Agenda:

1. August harvest

2. August garden tasks

3. Prepare for the winter garden

4. August planting

5. Prune my raspberries

6. Drying peas

1. August harvest:

All year, your most important task in the garden is to harvest AND USE what you’ve already grown, or share it with others. Harvest the low maintenance, high value crops first, and figure out how to use them in the kitchen. Just do what you can and enjoy it, and give away the rest before it spoils.

My harvests aren't big - I'm picking a few tomatoes, raspberries, carrots, and collards.

2. August garden tasks:

I use the Second Breakfast Garden monthly guides because they are in zone 8b.

1. Watering: We've had no rain for weeks now, and while the soaker hoses are helping, I still have vulnerable areas that need a sprinkle every couple of days, and some trees that need a longer soak once a week. In August I start by watering the most vulnerable plants - my tomatoes, peppers, first year bushes (flowering currant), lupines. 
2. Mulch: Top up mulch in perennials and garden beds to keep soil moist and cool during the dog days of summer. If you use drip irrigation, drop mulch on top of your lines to retain more water. Use untreated straw, leaf mold, compost, or green mulch.
3. Weed: Weeds are an essential part of my ecosystem. I have stopped pulling weeds in some beds, and instead I tear them off at the ground and use them as mulch. This method leaves the soil untilled; tilling exposes new seeds, and you just get more weeds. But I still pull weeds that are close to my veggie plants.
4. Pick off cucumber beetles: They are striped yellow and black bugs that feed on leaves and stems, and a large infestation can defoliate plants. They also spread the deadly bacterial wilt disease.
5. Aphids: Wherever I see aphids, I can look also for little golden clutches of ladybugs eggs. (cabbage moth eggs look similar but maybe not in a cutch?)
6. Deadhead herbs and flowers often.
7. Prune raspberries: (See below)
8. Prepare space for the winter garden.

3. Prepare for the winter garden:

August is my best chance to prepare for the winter garden. It's really too hot to plant outdoors right now, until the temperature is consistently below 90º, but I've got plenty of garden cleaning, composting and amending to prepare the beds.

I try to clear one bed each week now, starting with a bed for fall spinach, and prepare it by lifting gently with my fork, then adding compost from my Darth Vader bin, that's been stewing most of the summer. I also add a layer of leaf mulch for the microbes. 

4. August planting:

I start seeds now indoors where I can control the water and heat, to set out later, when the temperature is consistently below 90º. When planting anything for the fall, make sure you plant indoors early enough to mature before the first frost date (FFD), which for us is on October 20th. My plans this year:

• Pok choy - start seed indoors 10 weeks before FFD - August 9.
• Cabbage- start seeds 8 weeks before FFD - August 23.
• Spinach - start seeds 8 weeks before FFD - August 23.
• Collards- - start seeds 8 weeks before FFD - August 23.

Direct sow in late August:

• radishes
• carrots
• beets
• peas

Warmer parts of this zone can plant a fall crop of potatoes. Try to get them in by the second week of September.

5. Prune my raspberries:

Everbearing first year canes

I have a difficult raspberry bed, because I have two varieties -summer and everbearing - all mashed in together. 

All raspberry plants are perennial, their crowns and roots live many years, and the canes are always in different stages. Right now I've got four things going on:

1. Primocane leafy growth of next year's summer berries,
2. Fruiting canes of this year's summer berries that are beginning to wither,  
3. Some everbearing fruit just flowering on the tips of first-year canes, 
4. And second year everbearing canes that are totally brown.

How to Prune Raspberries
I'm obviously going to leave all the first year canes: They have easy-to-spot green stems, while second-year canes have a thin, brown bark covering them. This week I do my first pass pruning, taking out any really dead wood, to give everything more room to breath. But I'll leave about a foot of cane, for small pollinators to nest in.

Then I will water and mulch, and finish up later this fall, when the berries have completely stopped. That's when I'll also take a shovel and dig up some plants to give away, leaving only 3-4 young canes per foot of row. And then in the spring I'll prune back dead shoot tips.

6. Drying peas:

My peas have all turned brown, so tomorrow I will pull them out to make room for more something new. It's best to let beans and peas dry on the vine, then collect them when they are starting to turn brown, with the seeds rattling inside.

Supplies: Shallow cardboard box, wax paper or screening, collected pea seeds, sticky notes, pen.

 

Mis en place for drying seeds: 

1. Prepare yourself: Take a few minutes to gather your supplies and clear a drying area in a cool, dark room; in my case, a counter in my studio. Then set an intention to honor each seed by giving it what it needs to survive. (If you create a love connection between you and the seeds, its got to help them grow better next year!)
2. Choose a small cardboard box for each type of seed, and put a layer of wax paper or screen mesh in the bottom (not paper towel or anything they may stick to).
3. Spread out the seeds so they don't touch - leave peas in the pods until completely dry.
4. Label and date the box, and leave to rest for a week to ten days before gently stirring them with your finger. (If you are like me, you will need to set reminders on your phone or calendar.)
5. Let them dry for another two to three weeks. At this point, they should be dry enough to put into storage for the winter.
6. Pack and label seeds with name, variety and the date you collected them. (Use saved seed within one year.)
7. Store in glass containers, tightly sealed, in the refrigerator.