What Foods to Plant in August (Vegetables, Fruit & Herbs)

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August is definitely an ‘enjoy the garden and wait a bit’ month on the calendar for growing your own foods.  There are jobs to be done but a lot less planting than in other months of the year.  So let’s look at what’s on our jobs list for foods to plant in August and jobs to keep them growing nicely.

What vegetables to plant in August

While the sun is high in the sky, it might feel weird to be thinking about autumn and winter but with looking at the garden, that’s what we are doing.

Direct sow outdoors

Vegetables that are winter hardy can often start to direct sown outdoors to create a crop in the spring.  Examples of these include spring onions such as ‘White Lisbon’ or ‘Performer’.  Swiss chard is also planted in drills now to get those autumn leaves and spring crops.

Keep going with speedy crops such as radishes and salad leaves so you have a continuous crop into the autumn.  You can also try Kohlrabi as it can be ready in as little as 8 weeks if you properly prepare the bed.

It’s the last call to plant turnips in drills and also raddichio if you want those autumn salad leaves.  Spinach varieties such as ‘Perpetual’ can be sown now for autumn and winter crops.

For spring cabbages such as ‘April’ this is the time to sow them or you could miss the window.  The same applies to summer and autumn cauliflower and winter cabbages.  Kale can be planted now for winter and spring harvesting.

Sow in the greenhouse or indoors

The greenhouse isn’t much needed at this time of the year but it is where you can sow winter lettuce such as ‘Winter Gem’ towards the end of August.

It is also the last window for ‘Speedy’, the dwarf beans that live up to their name.

What fruit to plant in August

Fruit isn’t a big thing to start in August but the main thing is to plant any strawberries that have been grown in pots and need to go into the ground.  Make sure the ground hasn’t been used to grow the crop for at least 3 years to ensure it is healthy.

What herbs to plant in August

In the greenhouse, you can plant some parsley, coriander and chervil so that they keep going through the winter and provide fresh crops in the colder months.

Other jobs to do

There are other jobs on the list for August to keep everything moving nicely towards those late summers, early autumn harvests.

Vegetable jobs

Try to keep watering fairly regular for things like tomatoes, runner beans and root vegetables, especially during the dry spells.

Weeds steal water and other resources so keep on top of them.

Marrows need to be raised so they are slightly off the ground to stop discolouration and this is the best time to do this.

Earth up celery, using a layer of paper between stems and soil.

Watch out for any carrot fly females when thinning late-sown carrot seedlings.

Fruit jobs

Summer prune any sideshoots on trees that are grown in restricted ways such as fans or other shapes.  Prune around 3-4 leaves down to get fruiting spurs.  This applies to apples and pears mostly.

Prune nectarines, apricots and peaches after fruiting and the same with plums and damsons.

Use ties to loosely bind blackberries and berry canes to keep them going where you want them.

Prune any raspberry canes that have fruited and tie up new ones.