Lawn & Garden

Alabama Gardener’s Calendar – August

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Learn—month by month—the necessary gardening activities for lawns and shrubs, annuals and perennials, fruit and nut trees, and bulbs, roots, and tubers. Included is a timeline for activities such as soil testing, planting, pruning, fertilizing, pruning, mulching, indoor plantings—from cauliflower to okra, from camellias to dahlias to heirloom roses.

Fruits and Nuts

  • Cut out old blackberry canes after fruiting and then fertilize and cultivate for replacement canes.
  • Remember to order new catalogs for fruit selection.

Shrubs

  • Propagate woody plants, such as hydrangeas and azaleas, by layering.
  • Do not fertilize woody plants in late summer. It will stimulate new growth that might not have time to harden off before winter’s first frost.

Lawns

  • Apply 1 pound nitrogen per 1,000 square feet to bermudagrass and St. Augustinegrass. Skip this month for fertilizing centipedegrass and zoysiagrass.
  • Mow often (every 5 to 10 days) to remove just 1/3 the grass height at each mowing.
  • Water lawns as needed (grayish color or curling leaf blades).
  • Stop fertilizing warm-season turf types at the end of the month.

Roses

  • Keep roses healthy and actively growing.
  • Lightly prune hybrid teas and floribundas to prevent a scraggly appearance.
  • Old-fashioned roses will experience second bloom flush, so no need to prune these types.

Annuals and Perennials

  • Water as needed. Plant perennials and biennials for spring.

Bulbs

  • Divide old iris plantings and add new ones.

Miscellaneous

  • Keeping flowers, shrubs, trees, and lawns healthy is the major task during this month.
  • Closely observe for insects and diseases.
  • Water.

Hand holding a leafVegetable Seeds

  • Whole state: Continue planting beans and squash.
  • Central and North: Continue planting cole crops, beets, carrots, collards, kale, lettuce, mustard, Swiss chard, parsley, radishes, and turnips.

Vegetable Transplants

  • South and Central: Plant certified seed potatoes for Irish and red-skinned varieties until mid-month.
  • North: Plant cole crop transplants that were started in July.

Questions?

Call the Master Gardener Helpline at (877) 252-4769. A Master Gardener Extension volunteer is waiting to answer your call.

 

See other months from Alabama Gardener’s Calendar at www.aces.edu.

 

Peer ReviewKerry Smith, Extension Associate, Horticulture, Frances Sledge, Horticulture Intern Auburn University. Originally prepared by Dave Williams, former Extension Horticulturist, and Ron Shumack, former Extension Horticulturist.

Reviewed July 2022, Alabama Gardener’s Calendar – August, ANR-2620

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