The Garden in August

Daily waterings, weekly feedings: a garden past its peak, but still filled with flowers

With all the summer slogging and weather app doom-scrolling I’ve been doing lately I was preparing for my August garden update to be very very meager, but maybe it’s not so bad? Is it as lush as the July garden? Of course not, but I could never expect it to be. The heat and humidity have been taking their tolls on the plants, and there have been some casualties—a few deaths and illnesses—but I do still have a garden that gives me flowers to put on the table every couple of days, so I can’t complain.

This isn’t a July garden, of course—it’s an August garden that’s taking on a new look of its own. I’m trying my best to regularly water and fertilize, but most of my work in the garden this last month has been more about taking way than adding to any new growth and lushness. It’s been a lot of pruning—picking away yellow or questionable-looking leaves to prevent the spread of any underlying disease—which means the garden is looking a lot leaner. But I’d rather have some skinny-looking zinnia plants than no zinnias at all. The August garden is about some clever rearranging of pots, showing off the good sides of plants and hiding what’s not looking so good I think it also might be about finding some quick fixes to fill up empty gaps, and I’m very much still learning how to do so.

My new stoop find pot, with new seedlings of cornflower, cosmos, and sunflower. Not much to see here in the way of flowers, but that little lobelia is still going

Sowing

Certainly one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned this year is that I need to sow more plants throughout the summer so that I can fill up any gaps without having to go to the nursery. I’ve probably complained about it already, but it’s really hard to pay full price on annuals at this time of year, when you know you’ll only get a few more months’ worth out of them. If I had my own tiny plant nursery going I wouldn’t need to worry about it.

Better late than never, I think, so I did sow some seeds for plants that may or may not have enough time to bloom before the frosts. I found this big plastic pot on the sidewalk and took it home and filled it with potting mix and then dug in some sunflower, cosmos, and cornflower seedlings I sowed a few weeks ago. Maybe they’ll bloom and maybe they won’t, but it’s nice just to have some more green in the garden. And also something to watch and coddle and look forward to.

I’m also thinking about sowing some quick growing vegetables, if only for their gap-filling foliage. Right now the biggest garden eyesore is the pot with the bamboo wigwam in it. At first I had sweetpeas climbing up, and when they went over I took them out and put in my thunbergia plants, which looked great for a few months. But now that the thunbergia vines have reached the top of the canes, they’re really struggling. All the bottom leaves turn yellow and then fall off. I can’t figure it out—it seems like a water issue (too much?) or feed issue, and I’ve tried to address both, without any luck. So the plan is to leave the plants in so I can let them do their thing, still flowering at the top of the wigwam until they stop. I’ve sowed some ‘Marvel of Venice’ climbing beans at the bases of the canes, and the baby plants have already climbed quite a bit. They’re pretty fast. Ideally I’d love for them to flower (don’t care as much about the beans) but even if they don’t at least I’ll get a bunch of green foliage to cover up those sad-looking thunbergia vines.

See what I mean about the thunbergia? Hopefully that empty space will be covered soon with climbing bean leaves

In Bloom

• Celosia: I’m really beginning to appreciate these late blooming flowers so much more, especially at this time when I get bored and need to look forward to something new to see in the garden. I’ve been growing ‘Pink Champagne’ for the last three years and always enjoy seeing what comes up, since the shapes and colors vary. Also very economic to grow every year since it produces so many seeds!

• Verbena: This is the first time I’ve grown ‘Bonariensis’ from seed, and I’ll probably also be growing it every year from now on. So easy to sow, which makes sense since it’s a heavy self-seeder. Just a very simple, low-investment kind of plant that gives height and airiness to the garden.

Celosia ‘Pink Champagne’

• Snapdragons: So impressed with these! The ‘Chantilly Light Salmon’ and ‘Madame Butterfly Dark Red’ are still blooming and looking healthy as can be, and even though I didn’t think they’d do well in the heat they really don’t seem to mind it.

• Roses: Another strong performer. My ‘Carding Mill’ has been sending out roses all summer and is about to start blooming again—I’ve lost track of how many flushes it’s had but I’m thrilled with it.

The verbena with the sunflowers that are about to bloom

• Zinnias: I’m determined not to let these succumb to any powdery mildew or botrytis or any other zinnia sickness, because I’m still getting lots of flowers from my plants, and overall they do look fairly good. But this means I have to be on top of removing any questionable-looking leaves. Anything with powdery mildew, brown spots, or yellowness has to go.

• Dahlias: Same story with these ones. My tall dahlia, the only one that’s really producing for me since my other dahlia is just kind of small and droopy, had to be moved to the corner of the terrace, where it can get some more protection from the heavy winds and storms we sometimes get. I’ve also had to be pretty religious about taking off any of the bad leaves, so the plant is looking a bit rangy, though the flowers still look good.

• Cosmos: I tried pruning back all of my cosmos, but I don’t think it worked, especially for the ‘Rubinato’ plants, which I eventually ended up pulling out. I do still have flowers on the ‘Apricottas,’ though the plants themselves have seen better days.

• Clematis: Another one I was excited for that finally started to bloom. My goal of covering up the privacy fence completely with a clematis plant wasn’t quite achieved this year, but if I keep growing it I know it can eventually get there. I love the little white flowers and the pretty green leaves of ‘Sweet Autumn.’

Clematis ‘Sweet Autumn’ covering a bit of the fence

Planning

I always need a plan and something to look forward to in the garden, so I’m already doing some research on spring bulbs and the best ways to plant them in pots. I’m still looking after the lunaria and hollyhock seedlings I sowed last month, and the scented geranium cuttings I took last month are all taking, amazingly enough.

But this year’s garden season is far from being over. My July-sown sunflowers are very close to blooming, and the tiny linaria I sowed in terracotta pots are not too far behind them. And I’m really hoping for a cooler September so that some of my fellow heat-hating plant friends can make a comeback. My violas have been blooming all summer, but could be blooming better, and wouldn’t it be wonderful if verbascum ‘Southern Charm’ came back? It seemingly died back in July, but now there’s new foliage, and surely it knows how much I’ve been missing it.