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AUGUST IF ST, BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY BE CLEAR, A PROSPEROUS AUTUMN COMES THAT YEAR (24th August) More weather folklore Flower of the month - GLADIOLUS Plants in herbaceous borders which have passed their best can be trimmed back and if too big for their site should be divided. Leave the ones which have attractive seed-heads, for winter display, eg. Agapanthus, Eryngium - the birds will love the seeds as well. Rose-of-Sharon, Hypericum calycinum, is good for softening the edges of paths and will grow in the smallest crevice. The flowers will have finished by now and the berries are quite attractive, but will soon ripen and spill their seed if not removed. To prevent this and keep it low-growing shear off the top-growth to about 75mm. If you have been preparing to sow a lawn area it can be sown toward the end of the month. Remove any weeds and rake over the area. When sowing mark off the area with string in metre-wide strips, split the quantity of seed per square metre (usually 50gm/sq metre), in two and sow in different directions over the surface. This will give a more even distribution. After sowing lightly rake with a spring-tined rake, the tines turned upward, to cover most of the seed. Hardy annuals can be sown now to give earlier flowering next year, eg. Nigella, Alyssum. After pricking out keep the young plants in a cold frame or under cloches, over the winter. Some may not survive a hard winter but it's worth trying for an early show of flowers. Now is a good time to do some renovation work on established lawns. The grass will have time to recover from any treatment before growth halts for winter. Use a spring-tined rake to remove the thatch which built up over the summer. Spiking and top-dressing can also be carried out. Both of these actions should help to prevent diseases such as Red Thread. Apply a low nitrogen fertilizer to set the grass up for winter and early spring. Improve the quality by oversowing with a luxury seed mixture after scarifying. Vine Weevils are on the move at present and for a flightless insect, they certainly get around. The adults do not do much damage, they eat notches in the leaves. The most damage is done by the maggot-like larvae which devour roots, especially in potted plants. There are no males, the female lays eggs in the soil during August and September. A new chemical control, Provado, came on the market recently. You can also leave corrugated cardboad around, the adults crawl into it and can be removed. There is also a biological control, a small nematode, Steinernema bibiones, which enters the larva and consumes it. You need to apply these at this time of year when the eggs are hatching and the soil is still warm. Blackbirds and thrushes forage through leaf litter for insects and slugs. A mulch of compost or bark chippings provide the same habitat so inevitably they will pick through these scattering it around to the annoyance of tidy gardeners. You could try using the black plastic netting for keeping leaves out of a pond. Stretch strips of it over the mulch near to paths and lawns, and pin it down with stout wire staples ( a bit like a hair net ). The nutrients in containers and hanging baskets will be mostly used up so a liquid feed would prolong the flowering of annuals. Permanent plants may suffer later from frost if new soft growth occurs, so they should not be fed at this time.

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