Potting and planning to start the season off right
In August a gardener can begin plotting for the best planting season of the year, which begins in late October and runs though February. You can draw plans, start gathering plants from nurseries (keep them in their pots) and even prepare garden beds.
If you feel adventuresome, August is a surprisingly good time to start things from seed in pots or packs, and you can even sow or plant a few things in the ground, including early sweet peas, tomato plants that might bear fruit in winter, and some of the cole crops.
Sow seed
Out of the direct sun, seed germinates quickly in warm or even hot weather. If you plan to put in some vegetables as transplants later in the fall, now is the time to sow seed in small flats or packs. Most of the cole crops benefit from transplanting because they can be planted a little deeper to support the often crooked and un-sturdy stems. Don’t plant seed too deep, and keep it moist. Keep the packs and pots away from slugs.
Year-round vegetables
It’s too hot to do much planting out in the vegetable garden, even if you shade seedlings, though that is one trick used by gardeners determined to plant in every month. The trick is to sow seed in a trench about 2 inches deep, and then lightly cover the seed so the trench provides shade. Or sow seed between rows of maturing corn. Decades ago, truck farmers learned they could plant some of the painfully slow cole crops in August, such as cabbage and Brussels sprouts. The young cole crops need cool weather to mature, but they seem to stand up to heat quite well as youngsters.
Another August strategy, pioneered in Orange County, works wherever winters are mild and frost is nonexistent or nearly so. Gardeners have found that the varieties ‘Champion,’ ‘Celebrity’ and ‘Sweet 100’ tomatoes will produce in winter if planted in August, though the vines will produce only a few fruits. But you might get fresh tomatoes in January, to go with that winter lettuce.
Start sweet peas
In the ground, it’s possible to sow sweet peas in August and have flowers by Christmas, another trick learned by Southern California gardeners a century ago. Early Angelenos liked to startle East Coast holiday visitors with bouquets of fragrant sweet peas. To repeat the wonder, plant by Labor Day and choose “early-flowering” varieties such as ‘Early Multiflora’ or ‘Winter Elegance.’ Generally it is the kinds with shorter stems that bloom the earliest (it can be hard to put the cut stems in a vase) and they often have a powerful fragrance. Do a good job preparing the soil before sowing, adding lots of compost and some fertilizer. Seed germinates best if it is soaked overnight before sowing. Plant seeds 1 to 2 inches deep and press down on the soil so it is in contact with the seed. Protect from slugs and snails and from birds (with netting). Water two or three times each week until seed sprouts.
Time to divide
If they are to continue blooming, bearded iris rhizomes need to be divided every few years, a job often done in August, though coastal gardeners can start in July. This timing assures that the newly planted iris will grow enough to bloom next spring. Carefully dig up the rhizomes and shake or hose the soil from the roots. Cut back the leaves to about 6 inches and the wiry roots by about one-third. Discard old rhizomes, and replant the fat healthy ones. Space them about 12 inches apart -- facing them in the direction you want them to grow -- and bury most of the rhizomes but don’t cover the very tops. Leave about one-half inch exposed to the sun. Water and by next spring they should be ready to flower.
Naked ladies
Flowering in shades of soft pink when everything else looks pooped, naked ladies (Amaryllis belladonna) bloom at the end of summer and get their common name from the fact that they have no leaves while in flower. The leaves follow in winter.
Few things are as tough and carefree. They can get by with no irrigation and may even prefer it. They are often seen growing in long-abandoned gardens, even in cow pastures where houses used to stand. The denser the clump, the happier they seem to be, but if you must thin them or move any of the fat bulbs, do so right after they flower. Don’t bury the bulbs too deep -- the necks and top third of the bulbs should be above ground.
Water, water everywhere
It’s safe to say that all plants -- even non-thirsty natives and other Mediterranean-climate trees and shrubs -- will benefit from a deep, thorough soaking in August. Although one good drenching might do for the truly drought tolerant, bedding plants and lawns may need several irrigations each week, and pot-bound plants sometimes require watering twice a day. Remember to irrigate early -- automatic sprinklers should be set to come on around 4 a.m. -- so soils are dry by nightfall.
