Allotment advice and tips - August - Holidays are fine if you have strimmed the grass, weeded, watered thoroughly, and asked a friend to continue the harvest while your away.....

Month by month guide:
Vegetables, Herbs and Fruit.

Vegetables Herbs and Fruit to put on the table this month:
Globe Artichoke
Dwarf French Beans
Runner Beans
Beet
Celery
Cucumber
Lettuce
Marrow
Onion
Peas
Radish
Shallot
Spinach
Sweet corn

Apple
Blackberry
Cherry
Black Currant
Red Currant
Gooseberry
Loganberry
Pear
Plum
Raspberry

What to do in the allotment in August? Apart from harvesting the above.

General Tasks
Still time for constructional tasks. Repair, treat and paint sheds, greenhouses and other structures
Fix water butts for leaks.
Water generously to requirements.
Feed the birds.

Vegetables:
Sow seeds of spring Cabbage.
Sow lettuce for early winter use.
Sow Brussels for early spring crop.
Harvest sweet corn cobs

Herbs:
Take cuttings of Bay, Hyssop, Lavender, Mint, Rosemary and Sage
Insert in sandy soil in open ground or pots in a cold frame
Divide Chives every four years
Collect and dry Dill and Fennel seeds.
Store dried herbs before they re absorb moisture

Fruit:
Pick early apples and pears.
Summer prune apples and pears.
Pick loganberries, cutout fruited shoots and tie in new shoots
Spray blackcurrants and cherries
Prune fruited shoots of well trained peaches
Support heavily laden plum branches and complete pruning.
Protect September fruiting raspberries
Plant rooted Strawberry runners
Protect ripening Grapes with glass.

More suggestions?

Some suggestions that have been sent in.

Composting: All you need to know

Manure: Some suggested uses

Wormeries: How to create a wormery.

If you have any advice on anything to do with allotments please contribute.