TOP JOBS FOR AUGUST

STEPHANIE HAFFERTY OUTLINES THE ESSENTIAL TASKS FOR YOUR VEG PATCH AND PROTECTED CROPS

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PICK BEANS

Keep picking beans, checking the plants every three or four days. This encourages the bean plants to keep producing more pods over a longer period of time

HARVEST SWEETCORN

Sweetcorn is ready to harvest when the silks turn brown. Make sure by pulling back a little of the husk and pushing a nail into a kernel. If a milky liquid emerges, then the cob is ready to eat

SOW ONIONS

Sow overwintering onions such as 'Augusta' mid-month. They'll remain quite small until February next year, when they'll start growing with enthusiasm

CHECK MELONS

Check whether melons are ripe by smelling them! If they have a sweet, fruity aroma, then the fruit is ready to pick. If you're growing watermelons, after eating the flesh use the skins to make tasty pickled watermelon rind

HARVEST HERBS FOR WINTER

Remember to keep harvesting and drying homegrown herbs for winter use! It's easy to forget in the busyness of August harvesting, but is so easy and worthwhile. Jars filled with fragrant herbs are a welcome reminder of summer months during wintertime, adding gorgeous flavours to meals.

Dried herbs such as lemon verbena, chamomile, lemon balm and mint make delicious herbal teas, too. As well as being a culinary herb, and amazing when infused in sugar, lavender flowers are an ingredient in tea mixes, and can aid relaxation when added to a warm bath.

Regular picking encourages many herb plants to produce more shoots over a longer period than if left to flower. However, I always allow a few shoots to flower for pollinators.