August, south of the equator

August is when the southern year turns, and it turns earlier than most gardening calendars allow for. The blossom is out, the soil is warming, and the sowing season opens several weeks before a northern gardener would expect. It is the busiest month after September.

In the garden

Sow and plant almost everything. Beans, beetroot, carrots, lettuce, spinach, radish, Swiss chard and onions go in directly as the soil warms. Start tomatoes, peppers, chillies and aubergines under cover in the colder regions and directly in the warm ones. Plant seed potatoes.

Plant the summer bulbs. Dahlias, gladioli, liliums and arums all go in from this month, and they will flower from midsummer onwards. Plant hydrangeas and other deciduous shrubs before they break, and finish the bare root work, because the window closes as soon as the buds move.

Sow the summer annuals: cosmos, marigold, zinnia, petunia, nasturtium, alyssum and salvia. Feed everything, because growth is about to accelerate and hungry ground shows up in July’s plantings first. Mulch after feeding, and get the irrigation working before the heat arrives rather than during it.

Two different Augusts

On the summer rainfall side the ground is dry and warming, the storms are still weeks away, and everything sown now has to be watered by hand until they arrive. In the winter rainfall Cape the rain is still falling, the soil is moist and cold, and the risk is rot rather than drought, so seed goes into raised or well drained ground and sowing is better late in the month than early. The plant lists overlap almost entirely and the watering does not.

Wherever you are, get the irrigation working this month rather than in the first hot week of October, when everything else needs doing at once.

In the house

Look for the first new leaf, then act. From that point the watering interval shortens week by week and a half strength feed can begin. Do not start either on a date, because a plant that has not resumed growth cannot use what you give it.

This is the beginning of the repotting window, and September is its best month. Get the compost and the pots ready now and check which plants have roots out of the drainage holes or dry within a day of watering.

Move plants back a little from the brightest glass. The sun is climbing and a leaf that has spent the winter in weak light burns easily in late August sun.

What not to do yet

Do not plant tender things outside in the colder inland regions, because a late frost is still perfectly possible. Do not feed at full strength until growth is clearly under way. And do not repot everything at once, because a plant that did not need it resents the disturbance.