Late winter is the perfect time to refresh your garden before spring arrives. From tidying up garden beds to preparing your soil, these essential August gardening jobs will set you up for a thriving growing season.
Chores
For optimists, August marks winter’s turning point: the moment the garden shows the first sign of return to life. In mine, it starts with the tiny blue forget-me-nots, offering the first intimation of spring. And the bulbs — jonquils, early daffodils, crocuses and hyacinths — blooming alongside the hellebores, violas, polyanthus and primulas, all conspiring to remind us that the garden never really sleeps and that we also need to get cracking.
Sprout
Potatoes can be chitted now, which means encouraging seed potatoes to develop shoots from the eyes. When these are about 1cm long, the potatoes are ready for planting. It can take up to a month. Place seed potatoes in a single layer on a tray – egg cartons are good for this – and store in a warm, dry place. While early potatoes are a true treat, extend the harvest season by growing later varieties as well.
Start sprouting kūmara by cutting a mature tuber in half and sitting it in a dish of water, cut side down. Keep in a warm spot with plenty of light. Shoots will appear when they are about 10cm to 15cm long; detach them carefully and place in a glass of water to root. Plant out late October, or once all danger of frost has passed, by placing each slip into the soil in a loose J-shape.
How to kick-start seed germination
For slow or reluctant germinators, such as capsicums and tomatoes, a short pre-sprouting stage in a damp paper towel can trigger faster and more even germination. Dampen a paper towel with warm water and squeeze it out so it is moist but not wet. Spread the seeds across one half of the towel, then fold the other half over them, enclosing them.
Place inside a resealable plastic bag, leaving a small gap for ventilation. Store the bag somewhere warm, such as a hot cupboard and check daily to ensure the towel remains damp. When a tiny root appears, carefully transfer it to a pot of fine, free-draining seed mix, taking great care not to touch or damage the emerging root. Keep soil damp but not wet.
Get it in
Sow tomato, eggplant and capsicum seeds indoors for planting out once frosts are over in late spring, or into glasshouses earlier. Plant out brassica seedlings, cold-weather lettuces, peas, spring onions, silverbeet and spinach. Also, coriander, parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme. The warmer your climate, the sooner these may be planted out – just avoid planting or sowing in sodden soil.
Consider this: Seedling widger
The kind of tool you always knew you needed but never knew existed. Pricking out and transplanting tiny seedlings with their delicate root systems is fiddly with bare fingers. Then, finally, comes this natty seedling widger to simplify and speed up the process. Its stainless-steel double-ended scoops, support and protect the roots in both stages of the operation. It is cleverly tapered, which means differing-sized seedlings are catered for.
Landscape 101: The Chelsea vibe
Chelsea 2026 has packed up and gone home, leaving behind a trail of ideas to steal, adapt, debate or simply admire.
The biggest story? Gardens have loosened up. Planting is wilder, softer and more naturalistic. At least on the surface. Behind every apparently carefree tangle lies the same meticulous choreography that once governed the herbaceous border and, later, the great drifts of the New Perennial Movement.
Colours have warmed. Terracotta, apricot, dusty coral, butter yellow and deep plum dominated, softened by sage foliage and smoky lilacs and pinks. The mood is less jewel box, more sun-baked landscape.
The stars of the show were bearded irises in shades of caramel, chocolate, rust and bruised plum, accompanied by apricot and white foxgloves. Verbascums were everywhere too. Also known as mullein,
this inhabitant of dusky roadsides has undergone one of horticulture’s most successful image makeovers. Dusky purple and plum salvias stitched looks together while alliums hover overhead like purple thought bubbles.
Grasses remain indispensable, but finer textures are now favoured. Stipa, molinia, deschampsia and quaking grass bring airy movement without bulk.
Trees have also shed some weight. Multi-stems are hot. The airy canopies of amelanchier, silver birch and melia filter light to the understory. The look is less specimen tree, more woodland glade.
Water has become quieter, with half-hidden reflective pools and narrow rills. Seating follows suit: simple benches, solitary chairs and places designed for lingering rather than entertaining.
Edibles complete their return from the cold. The divide between ornamental and productive shattered, herbs commandeer borders, fruiting shrubs are woven into mixed plantings. No longer an add-on, edibles are part of the overall design.
Steal this
Rich browns, rusty hues and sunny yellows formed one of Chelsea Flower Show’s most striking colour combos this year, seen here in the spires of Verbascum nigrum ‘Dark Mullein’ (left), whose soft lemon blooms are set off by their dramatic dark eyes.
Alongside, a sumptuous red- and rust-toned Bearded Iris ‘Red Pike’ adds depth. While this cultivar may not be available here, there are many similar ones to choose from for the same effect. Yet to come into flower here is the limey-yellow Euphorbia ceratocarpa. Both in and out of flower, it is a background foil. Out of shot and adding brilliant dashes of purple – purple and yellow were a popular combo this year – is Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’ and Baptisia, with its spires of violet pea-like flowers. Restraint is the secret to the success of this planting scheme – just a handful of species repeated in loose drifts.
Read more:
- Composting at home: How to create your own ‘black gold’
- Take a tour inside the medieval-inspired garden opening at Hamilton Gardens
- Landscape designer Guy Hessell on growing native plants in New Zealand gardens
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