The worst of the summer heat has either passed or is about to in almost every gardening zone, which means it is time to prepare your fall garden.
Don’t tell me that you have wrapped up the garden year with the end of summer. Fall is the best time to grow edible plants. There is less threat of pests (which, let us agree, destroy our summer gardens), fewer weeds, and rarer chances of plants bolting in the heat. You can sow so many cool-weather crops – including vegetables and flowers – from seeds in fall months, starting right now in August, and be ready to harvest throughout the season.
If your summer crops are still producing, you can use seed-starting trays to speed up the germination and growth before transplanting the seedlings into the ground. Here are the vegetables and flowers you should plant in your garden in August for fresh fall produce later. Be sure to add a couple of inches of compost to a freshly cleaned and raked garden bed before you sow the seeds or add the saplings.
Vegetables to Plant in August
August marks the beginning of a nip in the air. With it arrives the hope anew for your garden without pests and weeds to hinder growth and consequently, the harvest. You can start planting cool-hardy crops in the month, especially leafy greens, which do not do well with the summer heat. Here are the best vegetables to plant in August:
- Kale
- Spinach
- Swiss Chard
- Sweet Snap Peas
- Beets
- Carrots
- Radishes
- Turnips
- Broccoli
- Kohlrabi
- Chicory
- Cabbage
- Lettuce
- Arugula
Flowers to Grow in August
There is still time to grow not only vegetables but flowers as well. Summer is not a much-preferred season for many flowers. Most of them start dying once the temperatures rise, which won’t be the case in autumn. August is the perfect month to plant fall flowers that you can enjoy until the first frost. Here are the ones to plant this month:
- Calendula
- Cornflowers
- Forget-me-nots
- California Poppies
- Cosmos
- Zinnias
- Marigolds
- Snapdragons
- Sunflowers
- Stock
- Pansies
If you wish to enjoy a lush fall garden, the last week of August is the ideal time to sow seeds. If summer is still going strong in your zone, you can start fall seeds in a cool space inside your home and wait for the temperatures to drop a little before transplanting the seedlings outside.
But the action window is narrow for zones where the temperatures have already started dropping. So you should get on with it and start preparing for your fall garden before August ends. Happy Gardening!
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