The hot days of August are not conducive to active gardening, but we can enjoy the returns for our early labors: fruits, vegetables and flowers. Since the growth function of the plant must go on even in the heat, harvesting must be accompanied by watering, fertilizing, weeding and mulching. The big task is to see that plants have sufficient moisture. No matter how much fertilizer is used, plant food must he in solution before it can be absorbed by the roots.
Fertilizing in August must be done wisely. This is particularly important with permanent plants. Strange as it may seem, much winter injury occurs among certain plants fed heavily in late summer. The broad-leaved evergreens are especially affected. Plant tissues must be completely hardened by late summer and applications of fertilizer delay this process. Deciduous plants harden later and, besides, their bare winter branches are less prone to injury than those of evergreens.
Feeding Benefits Shade Trees
Feeding benefits shade trees, and especially those growing in poor soil or those that had their growth checked by last summer’s drought. Using a 10-8-6 formula is best., but a 5-10-5 fertilizer is adequate. Measure the diameter of the trunk at about breast height and apply 3 to 4 pounds of fertilizer for every diameter inch. With a digging fork, perforate the soil underneath the branches several inches deep. Scatter the fertilizer, and wash it in.
Now is the time to sow or plant lettuce, endive, Chinese cabbage, curled or upland cress, radishes, turnips and kohlrabi for late fall harvesting. Up to southern Connecticut, snap beans are still a possibility, and plants of an early cabbage variety, such as Copenhagen Market or even Golden Acres. will mature by late fall if put in now. But it’s too late to start cabbage from seed.
Dependable vegetable varieties include Salad Bowl and Oak Leaf lettuce, Broad-Leaved Batavian white escarole, Tendergreen mustard, Extra Early White Milan turnips and French Breakfast and White Icicle radishes.
A great wealth of trees and shrubs flower in spring and early summer, but too frequently in planning, those that flower in summer are forgotten. In the milder Eastern sections, vitex, or the chaste-tree, is a good July and August-flowering shrub. The variety macrophylla has especially large leaves and lavender-blue flowers. It is not particular in its soil requirements but must have sun.
Coming into bloom later than vitex, but remaining in flower over a longer period are the bluebeards. Caryopteris mongholica is very hardy and will grow into northern New England. C. incana is also hardy. The summer sweet, Clethra alnifolia, which is a July bloomer, will also survive New England’s cold winters. Though found in moist places, it seems to do just as well in dry locations and in some shade.
There are only a few late-flowering trees and perhaps the most handsome is Oxydendrum arhoreum, sorrel-tree. Its northern limit seems to be central New England although some specimens are found in parts of the Hudson Valley. It requires a slightly acid loam soil that is not too dry. Creamy white flowers appear in August at the tips of the branches. If grown to two or three stems, it looks like a large shrub.
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