Monty Don urges gardeners to do urgent job now and reap the benefits next year
There is one task that gardeners often skip in August but could give you an even better garden come next summer
August can quickly become one of the most important in a gardener's calendar, as it can prepare you for not only the autumn but also the summer to come.
There's a long list of things you should be doing, according to gardening specialist Monty Don, including cutting hedges and long grass. Although, there is one task you can complete that will set you ahead of time: prepping your garden for summer 2027.
The gardener suggests that as the end of summer nears, August calls for the perfect time to take cuttings. By this he means cutting a small piece of plant, whether that be a stem, leaf or root, from some of your healthy plants already thriving in your garden.
While this may seem pretty backwards to help your garden grow, what you do with it next determines exactly how it benefits your plants's futures.
He suggests: "As August progresses, semi-ripe cuttings taken from the current season’s wood that has started to harden off are increasingly available and also increasingly likely to root quickly."
Monty advises on choosing healthy and strong growth from any flowers or flower buds and placing them in a polythene bag, ready to be potted immediately.
Next you want to strip all of the flower leaves and any side shoots from the flower so that less than an inch of foliage remains. To give it the best chance at growth, you want to cut it with a sharp knife and bury it in a container filled ideally with gritty compost or even pure perlite.
He explained that in order to form good roots, the plant will not require any sort of nutrition apart from the simplicities of oxygen and water. With this in mind, you need to ensure that whatever you're putting the plan into must have space to allow for drainage so it doesn't dry itself out.
By the time the roots have formed, you will start to see the signs of growth, and that's when it will require some intervention with nutrition and putting in some much better, healthier compost. This will take you well into late September or October time.
As for where to let this live, it needs to sit somewhere warm with plenty of light, although not in full sun, as it can scorch. At this point, it needs to be watered well and kept moist with misting in order to soothe the leaves and prevent them from drying out ahead of time before the roots have fully formed.
Due to this time of year, it will take roughly four to five weeks to produce viable roots straight from cuttings. The moment you know that the roots have formed is when you begin to see fresh new growth or when you lift the pot up and thin roots are visible at the bottom.
That is when the cuttings can be removed from the pot and placed into fresh compost and cast aside over the winter, before picking back up again and replanting in the spring.
The simple task can save you lots of time and is something to look forward to beginning again when spring rolls around.
While August is the ideal time to do this, as suggested by Monty, it's best practice to carry out these steps of taking cuttings in the morning. This is the best time, as the plant is full of moisture, but doing it in the evening shouldn't have any drastic effects on their quality.
