Gardening: Every cloud has some silver foliage

Behind every cloud there really can be silver foliage. August always flatters to deceive and catches me every year watching it batter the windows with rain whilst packing for a week away.

One of the biggest headaches of going away is keeping the garden ticking over and alive for a week. It makes you realise how much work you put in solely in terms of maintenance even, never mind planting and harvesting.

Entrusting your garden with someone can be a worry so just give them straightforward tasks like watering that keep plants alive and tasks that are a need rather than anything too technical. I'm lucky in that I have younger adult children who will begrudgingly allow themselves to be bribed into watering and mowing (once!) .If you aren't so fortunate it’s an opportunity to create or develop a relationship with a neighbour or fellow gardener and swap jobs for a week. It might only mean half an hour of their time but asking them could open up a new mutual support network or you might even pick up a few tips or encouraging comments about your own patch.

Beyond maintenance and holidays it's dead-heading and pruning in the beds which is so relaxing it can transform you into a trance like state I've found. Once you’re satisfied that there is no brown material to be seen, then you can think about planning.

Take advantage of the moisture in the soil by planting some biennials and hardly annuals to give them a good start. Sweet scabious, nasturtiums, phlox, poppies, love in a mist and orlaya grandiflora will all make it through the winter slowly and give you a satisfying and exciting thrill come next spring when you’ve forgotten all about when you planted them.

Biennials are often impressive colourful plants like digitalis, sweet williams, honesty, erysium or teasels to draw in charms of goldfinches darting around like enthusiastic clouds of red and gold shards. If you plant it they will come!

On the Plot

Onions need to be planted from seed now and then need thinning out to help them soak up all the nutrients and mineral they need to get through the winter. Eventually they will need half the length of an old school 30cm ruler and they will look after themselves until they’re ready for the chopping board.

Harvesting time can’t be underestimated as a celebration and congratulate yourself on a job well done. I squeeze out as many plaudits as possible by informing anyone within a half mile radius that ‘I grew these myself’.

It’s still not to too late to be sowing beetroot using the ubiquitous Boltardy variety whilst also planting perpetual spinach to see you through winter and beyond as the name suggests.

Give the herb garden a haircut and bring some indoors to see what they will do to transform boiled potatoes or salads.

Winter potatoes can be sourced now to be planted indoors over the next few weeks when the tomatoes have all been removed and replaced with fresh compost. Potatoes will clean the soil somewhat so you don’t need to be buying expensive bales of it but you can use some of your own from the bins or compost heap.

Get your nails dirty by potting up the strawberry runners in sandy soil ready for their slow burning growth through the winter for a glut of fresh berries next summer. They pull out at the roots quite easily and will be co-operative when being planted snugly in a pot.

Keep being mindful and listening to summer sounds like the busy green woodpecker or even the nearby cricket match before football takes over and remind yourself its the high point of our gardening year.