Come August, many gardens and gardeners are just bone-weary. The summer heat has taken its toll, and in some of the warmer climates, August is the hottest month of the year. To combat the late summer blues, stay strong and start fall garden planning — just the thought of cooler weather is often enough to help me hang in there.
Plan
Continue updating your garden journal, making notes about heat, temperatures, humidity, and rainfall. Have shadecloth on hand to give your summer veggies a bit of a break from the strong sun — my peppers, in particular, appreciate this gesture. Begin planning for your fall garden — what to plant, and where and when to plant it. Order your garlic for fall planting.
Prepare and Maintain
Remove flowers on pumpkin vines and tomato plants to direct the plant’s energy into growing the existing fruit.
Prune tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant to encourage new growth. Your peppers, tomatoes, squash, and eggplant may even appreciate a bit of fertilizer to catch their second wind. Cut basil back to keep it from going to seed.
Remove dead or dying plants — it’s not worth the extra effort to keep them alive this late in the summer. Cooler climates should watch the forecast for early frosts — be prepared to protect plants from damage.
Warmer climates can continue planting and harvesting. All climates can save seeds from the best and healthiest plants in the garden.
Sow and Plant Indoors
Sow and Plant Outdoors
Garden Harvest
All climates should harvest anything that is ripe, including beans, chard, cucumbers, eggplant, tomatoes, melons, okra, onions, peppers, squash, and potatoes.
Get a Jump on Next Month
In gardening, time moves quickly, well not when you are waiting for plants to sprout and to fruit time seems to slow down in those moments, but when there are chores and seasonal transitions get the jump on next month with our September Garden Checklist
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Hi! Are zones 9+ left off intentionally? Loving these checklists as a planning tool for our school garden in zone 9b. Thank you!
Hi Brooke, sorry for the lack of thoroughness. The article was meant to highlight zones in which the weather, and therefore gardening tasks were changing the most. Once the weather starts changing for the more southern zones we will make sure to to highlight the garden tasks for those zones! Hopefully this helped, and happy gardening!
It’s discouraging to read an article and to find nothing about our zone…
Really, do you think it’s nothing to do in 9-11 zones?
Thank you!
Hi Christina! It is pretty hot in these zones in August, they would fall under prepare and maintain warmer climates. You can start some seeds indoors but right now the temperatures are bit high to start planting in the soil. September talks more about planting for these zones. https://www.kellogggarden.com/blog/gardening/september-garden-checklist/ We also have a guide that goes month by month for each zone. https://www.kellogggarden.com/monthly-organic-gardening-ebook/
Hi, I just moved to Fairfield Idaho last year and I have no idea what zone I am in. I am actually in a strip that is colder in the winter than the rest of the area. If zip code helps 83327
Thank you
Judy
Hi Judith, you are in zone 4b. To learn more about planting zones you can check out this blog post, https://www.kellogggarden.com/blog/gardening/how-to-find-your-planting-zone/. We also have a monthly gardening guide by zone here: https://www.kellogggarden.com/monthly-organic-gardening-ebook/
I live in zone 7A. When is a good time for me to plant peas?
Hi Patricia! You could start planting peas indoors right now or wait for the temperatures to cool down and plant them directly in the soil mid to late September. We have a September Garden Checklist https://www.kellogggarden.com/blog/gardening/september-garden-checklist/ and a monthly gardening guide by zone here: https://www.kellogggarden.com/monthly-organic-gardening-ebook/
Being new to your site and failing miserably this year with new raised beds, I appreciate the knowledge you share each month. Thank you.
Hi Terri! We are sorry to hear that you a struggling a bit. Finding your garden rhythm can take a little time but connecting with other organic gardeners can help. If you are on Facebook this is a group you can talk about garden in https://www.facebook.com/groups/organicgardennation/