EP343- Seed Sowing Guide For August: What To Sow In August For Autumn Harvests

This weeks sponsors: 

Seeds Ireland High Quality Seeds: See link below for listener offer. 

https://seedsireland.ie/master

August arrives and the seed sowing list shrinks, but that does not mean the growing season is over. We talk through a practical August sowing guide that keeps your veg patch productive, especially if you garden in a UK or Ireland climate where late summer can still deliver plenty of growth when you pick the right crops.

We start with the dependable staples: spring onions for steady succession sowing, then lettuce choices that actually make sense now (think loose-leaf and butterhead rather than tight-heading types). We cover spinach variety switches as the month moves on, and why you can often sow a little more at this point because bolting pressure begins to ease. From there we move into quick, rewarding options like radish, plus the love-it-or-hate-it turnip, and how overwintering cabbages can be raised under cover and planted out for an early spring payoff, as long as you plan for protection from pigeons.

Autumn salads get a proper spotlight too: rocket, mustard leaves, winter cress, tatsoi, pak choi and endive bring flavour and continuity when summer salads slow down. We also touch on herbs still worth sowing, plus chard and kale under cover. Then we share a fun late-season project: Christmas potatoes grown in containers using cold-stored early varieties, including why blight vigilance matters and how the container routine flips as frost approaches. We finish with the August essentials around watering tomatoes, tidying beds after onions and garlic, and staying alert for caterpillars, slugs and disease.

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Transcript

Welcome And The August Window

SPEAKER_00 0:12

How's it going everybody and welcome to episode 343 of Master My Garden Podcasts. Now, this week's episode being the last Friday of July, it's a seed sowing guide for the month of August, which starts tomorrow. And wow, the year just seems to be moving at such an unbelievable pace. It's hard to believe that we're up to you know August now at this stage. And yeah, really, I don't know. The last couple of months just seem to be flying by. The seed sowing guide is definitely getting smaller. The you know the workload in terms of the garden is in terms of the edible garden for sure is reducing. And this month there's kind of a it's a lot reduced. While July, we talked about you know the importance of July because it can get a little bit written off, a little bit forgotten. August is one that you know the window is definitely on, uh albeit that there is some still good and essential seeds to be sowing this month.

Sponsor Seeds Ireland

SPEAKER_00 1:17

So before we get into it, I mention for this week's sponsor it's Seeds Ireland. So Seed Sowing Guide, sponsored by Seeds Ireland, which is you know a nice connection there. And Seeds Ireland is an Irish company who have five-star reviews on both Google and Trustpilot. They re have a big selection of seeds, you know, all the different types of flowers, fruits, or flat flowers, vegetables, herbs, lots of sundries, microgreens, all of that sort of thing. Uh, personally, from use of the seeds, really high germination rates, uh, really good quality seed, fast delivery. Um, you know, mentioned that before as well. So that's that's something if you forget something and you need to get it quickly, that's a good one. So, yeah, big selection, growing all the time, fast germination rates, and five-star reviews. So, really, really worth checking out. So, Seeds Ireland, I'll put the link in the show notes, but uh for now we'll get into this week's this month's sewing guide.

August Sowing List For Edibles

SPEAKER_00 2:16

And as I said, it's a greatly reduced list, so may kind of be in the crescendo in terms of what we can sow, in terms of the amounts or the number of varieties of vegetables and fruits and flowers that we can sow. But now you're looking at you know uh a kind of a reduced list, and we do still have our eye into autumn and winter. So the usual suspects are on it, um, so we still have our spring onion there, constant on it. Mentioned spring onion last week on our 10 essential vegetables to grow, and yeah, it's one that will kind of be on the list any time that we are doing sowing. Uh at this stage of the year, you can kind of increase the number. So if you grow to on a monthly basis to sort of have crops for you know the six weeks' time and for the period for a period of about a month in terms of harvest. From from in August, you can kind of sow a little bit more because they're not going to be bolting or growing, you know, going to seed anywhere near as quickly. So that's the first thing. Um, so that's as I say on the list every month. You can also start switching to you know your your overwintering uh spring onions as we get into end of the month or into early next month. So you'll be switching away from say your white Lisbon to more of your Japanese bunching styles in the in the over the next month, towards the end of August and to September. Uh next one on the list is lettuce. And again, here now we're switching to more of the loose type lettuce. So your icebergs, etc., that form a really tight head, they don't tend to form at this stage of the year. There's not enough time for them. But you can still you can still definitely sew, you know, all the loose head lettuce, all the butterheads, your Loderossas, your you know, oak leaf, any of those type lettuce, the looser type leaves, you can definitely sew at this stage. Spinach is another one. Again, you may start to switch your varieties. So if you've been growing, for example, Amazon over the over the winter over the summer period, you might start switching at the end of August to you know some of the overwintering ones. Um and they'll just mean that'll just mean that they'll sort of not run to seed, and they'll be they won't be run to seed as quickly anyway, hopefully over the next you know, over the next month as temperatures sort of stabilise and and come down through end of August and into September. So spinach is another one can definitely sow this week month. Uh, radish, still on the list, they're just so fast, you know, you're gonna have a harvest within a couple of weeks, so they're really, really, really worthwhile. Another one on the list, you either love them or hate them, it's the turnips, so your little small turnips like the Milan purple tops or your snowball type um turnips. Don't love them myself. I do grow them occasionally throughout the year. I haven't grown them yet this year, so I may well, because you know there's not much else that you'll be harv- or growing sewing at this stage, so I might sew them uh over the coming weeks. Uh, next one on the list is cabbages, and at this stage, you're going to be sowing sort of overwintering cabbages, and you're going and they can be planted outside, so they'll need a bit of protection, but you can sow them now in your greenhouse, in your module trays, then transplant them outside and they will overwinter, and then next spring, hopefully, you'll have nice early uh spring cabbage from them. And they that can be a lovely welcome crop in the earlier part of the year, depends on weather and so on, but they will need protection, you know. Particularly here, pigeons will be the one that will love them at that time of the year, so they'll need they'll need a bit of protection. Um, in terms of sewing, you wouldn't sow, say, the likes of your overwintering vegetables, but you may well the likes of red cabbage, um, purple sprout and broccoli, etc. But if you haven't got them planted or sowed, then you could get the plug plants and still get them in at this stage, and you'd still you'd still get a crop at some stage over the winter, depending on your growth cycles and so on. Autumn salads, these are really important ones now as we start to transition in away from our summer veget our summer salads. Um now we still have a little bit of life in our summer salads, you know, your spinach and so on, but we are transitioning, as we say, at this stage to autumn ones. So we're looking at rocket, some of the lettuce leaves that I mentioned, uh, mustard, winter crest, tatsay, pack chai, end dive, uh, mustard, I think I mentioned that already. So they're kind of good ones, and they'll hold for a long period of time, they'll grow you know relatively quickly. Uh, you'll get harvest over the winter. Now they all tend to be you know a spicier type of taste than what you'll get, what you'll get uh from your summer salads. But you know, it's a nice you know to have uh a salad at that stage of the year. Um for growing indoors in your polytunnel, the likes of chard can still be sowed, and they are a really good crop, brilliant crop for winter salads and for you know stir fries and so on. Uh kale is another one you can grow in your in your polytunnel because the temperatures are coming down. Um good for you, the herbs can still be grown, so your coriander, dill, shhervil, parsley, you know, pretty much a lot of the herbs can be sowed at this stage. You won't need your basils and so on. You'll you'll be harvesting at the moment. You know, there's no need probably to do another sewing there. Um so all of those herbs are still useful. And yeah, that's kind of it. So I'll just shoot over them again. So salad leaves, your lettuce in the loose head form there, the summer, the normal summer ones, we're still still can sow those. Uh they won't form heads, you should just loose leaves that will be harvesting. But in with any of these, we can increase the amount that we sow. So if you're typically sowing, you know, six or so uh lettuce plants, you can increase that now because they're not going to be running to seed as quickly. I know it's still quite warm, but you know, things are slowing down in terms of growth, so that'll help. Spinach is another one again, increase your sewings of those, your autumn salads, again, rocket lettuce, mustard, tatsai, pack chai, endive, winter crest, uh, herbs, coriander, dill, chervil, parsley, any of those really can be sowed. Um, radish, turnip. I'd probably still do another sewing of beetroot in the tunnel. Ideally, it's like no you're not going to get a recommendation for going that generally, but I'm going to try it. If I don't get bulbs, I'll definitely get I'll definitely get a you know a leaf harvest, which will be good. Uh and then kale and chard are two other ones. So you can see it's a very, very small list this this month.

Perennial Flowers To Sow Now

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Uh we are transitioning in terms of you know the ornamental garden. A huge amount of our perennials can be sowed now. And yeah, I mentioned we'll come back on the perennial grow along, set up something properly on that. But you know, a lot of our Echinaceas, our verbenas, um Achilleas, Rebecca's, all of those types of perennial plants, fox gloves, I know they're biennials, but all of those can be sowed now in the month of August, and they'll be germinate, they'll grow, we'll pot them on later in in the year, and then going into next year you'll have plants that will flower and and fill up fill up our beds. Um I had a success story from somebody that you know took took part in the grow along last year who filled a flower bed with seeds that were germinated. And yeah, we'll we'll talk about that a little bit more, but there's loads of flowers that we can be sold as well. So it's quite a decent list, but it is certainly reducing, and it will reduce further as we go into September.

Christmas Potatoes And Blight Risk

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Other thing that we can do at the end of this month, it's not it's not uh you know, seeds as in the small seeds, but late in the month, if anyone wants to grow potatoes for Christmas, you can you know, certain garden centres will stock uh Christmas uh potatoes, that's that's what they're called. Essentially, what they are is they're early varieties that have been remained in cold storage somewhere from last last winter, and now they get planted and they act like your early potatoes that you would normally plant in the spring. So bestie, because the temperatures are high, they'll grow really, really quickly. You do have to be vigilant with them with blight because typically speaking, air leaves that are planted in the spring they're out of the ground before blight becomes a problem, so you never really get that issue with them. But at this stage of the year they are quite vulnerable to that. So you're planting for Christmas and you are you know hoping to have a harvest of of new potatoes essentially for Christmas. So it's a it's a it's a lovely idea and it does work. Um very few places do them, but if you if you are, and there's kind of limited amounts of them available. So if you are of a mind to do that towards the end of the month, then get yourself set up. They're better at to grow at this stage of the year. Well, not better, it's it's important to grow them at this stage of the year in containers because at the start of the year with your rarity potatoes, if you plant them in containers, typically what you're doing is you're looking to get them started inside, like in your polytunnel. And as we get further through the year and frost pass and so on, then we can move those containers outside to allow them to reach maturity outside. But with the Christmas ones, we're kind of doing that in reverse. So we're starting them outside because the temperatures are quite warm, they're easier to mind outside. Do have to be vigilant of blight, as I said, but then as we get to the to the you know October, November, and maybe our first frosts are coming, first frosts of the winter, then our containers need to go inside to protect them. So it's kind of a reverse in terms of container growing, but it does work and it will ensure that you could you know that you would have a nice harvest of new potatoes for Christmas, and yeah, that would be nice for for Christmas dinner.

Watering, Weeding, Pests To Watch

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Um other things to be doing in this month, so it's while it is a quieter month on the seed sowing front, we're still, you know, our our uh tomatoes, for example, we're doing weekly deep waters there. Um don't don't water them every day, just once a week. If they're in obviously if they're in containers, you have to keep an eye on them more than once a week. But for me, they're growing in the ground. So I do a deep watering once a week there. I don't touch them then, other than that. So on the day that I do the watering, I'll you know, do my stringing up a little bit, um, do my harvest, take off any leaves that are not uh useful anymore at the bottom, yellow yellowing leaves and so on. Be vigilant for diseases, keep your ventilation right, um yeah, and just keep an eye on those. So that's kind of one of the things. The other thing that'll be happening this month is that a lot of us will either have just taken out our onion and garlic harvest or we will be just about to do that. And that's what I'm saying to you, you know, with the likes of your purple sprout and broccoli, your savior cabbages and so on. If you don't have your sewings done of those, then get yourself a few plants and replace, you know, when your onions or your garlic come out, just get those in there because you have the space, just utilize it. So that's another thing that's happening. Um, the other thing to keep watching for is you know weeds, any type of weeds popping up in your in your beds, especially again after you've taken out your onion harvest. For example, there might be a few little weeds here and there within the bed, give it a light hole, cover it with a little bit of compost or a little bit of fresh grass clippings, and then go back in with your next crop. And you know, you're automatically you're automatically getting your your beds utilized and availing of all that space that's available to you. Pests this month, you know, pests and diseases this month is you know, you have to be hyper-vigilant. Um I have quite a lot of caterpillars. I didn't net, I chose not to net. Um and I have quite a few caterpillars on some brass. And yeah, I've been kind of removing those. They have done a bit of damage and quite quickly. But yeah, that's something that's also you need to be vigilant on this month as well. Um slugs are not really a problem at the moment. It has been so dry over such a long period, but as soon as the wet comes back, then slugs will will become a problem again. Watching out for things like potato blight, you know, still again hasn't been the worst because we've had that long dry period, but can come back and you know still become a problem at some stage. So they're all the the kind of things that we're watching out for. But it you know, it's uh it's it's a less pressurized month than say the likes of May and June and harvests are should be in full flow at this stage. So it's uh it's a nice month as well. And it's uh as I say, the seed sowing guide is much reduced and it will reduce again further next month. Hopefully, next month we'll be able to tie it in a little bit more with the with the perennial sowing, because that is that's such an such an easy win, is the perennial sowing. You know, you can sow seeds at this stage of the year and then produce really good, healthy plants to fill your borders next year uh without a huge amount of effort, and uh yeah, really easy to do and really rewarding. It also probably is you know creating more resilient plants, plants that are grown on your site, that are suitable to your site, that are accustomed to your site. So when you plant them in, then they kind of thrive. So, yeah, that's that's something to look forward to next month in terms of seed sewing.

Wrap Up And Next Month Tease

SPEAKER_00 16:50

But for now, that is the seed sewing guide for August. Quite a small one, as I said, but uh a really important one. And again, thanks to this month or this week's sponsor, and it's Seeds Ireland. So, again, a nice tie-in there with our seed sewing guide. Link to Seeds Ireland is in the show notes, and that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening, and I'll tell you next time. Happy gardening.