August Jobs in My Forest Garden

My forest garden in August is a busy and abundant space. Those of you who have your own gardens will likely understand that this is a busy time of the year but also, excitingly, a time when much of your hard work will be paying off in the form of several fruit harvests.

August Chop and Drop

One of the main jobs that I have been getting on with this month is chopping and dropping.

Chopping and dropping is something that I will tend to do repeatedly throughout different parts of the year. But late summer is a time when many herbaceous plants in the garden are chopped and dropped, including the comfrey, for the last time this year.

I find it beneficial to chop and drop at this time to neaten things up a little after the boom in plant growth over the last few months. It allows me to make sure that I can access all areas easily to manage the top fruit harvests that are to come.

Chopping and dropping in August also helps to ensure that the soil does not dry out—though this year here, where I live in Scotland, we have had an extremely wet summer with far more rain than we would usually expect.

Pruning and Propagation

Chopping herbaceous plants and dropping them as mulch is also accompanied by pruning some trees and shrubs.

Another reason for chopping and dropping, and pruning for mulch is to spread nitrogen-rich material throughout the garden. I have a pile of Elaeagnus prunings, for example, awaiting shredding once we manage to get the garden shredder repaired.

I will also shred the old raspberry canes once the raspberry harvest is done, and several other sources of material to replenish mulches and pathways.

Some pruning is also undertaken at this time for the health of the trees or shrubs. Cherry and plum trees will usually have been pruned by this point—I usually prune them in July. But this month, there is still some summer pruning to do.

In the case of some plants, like rosemary and lavender, for example, late summer pruning, harvesting, and propagation are all things to consider at the same time. Often, all these things are one and the same gardening job.

Harvesting From the Forest Garden in August

Of course, August in the garden is dominated by harvesting. Some of the soft fruit harvests have now come to an end. The strawberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, red currants, and white currants are all either eaten, canned, or frozen, but the raspberries are still coming, and other harvests—like the blackberries, for example, are yet to come. The apples and plums are also still ripening on the trees.

As well as harvesting raspberries on an almost daily basis, August is also the time to harvest plenty of other things from the garden.

There are sorrels and a number of other leafy greens in abundance, and interestingly, as summer wears on, a number of different seeds that I collect for culinary use. For example, nettle seeds, dock seeds, hogweed seeds, and the seeds of good king henry plants (like amaranth or quinoa) are among those that I collect.

Forest gardens, of course, do not just offer edible yields. One further yield that I can harvest in July/ August is the nettles, which are at the perfect stage for cutting and processing the fibers to make my own natural twine and take on other craft projects.

Each time I go into the garden, there is something further to harvest/forage from the space. So I am sure to take a basket or other receptacle with me every time a make a trip out there throughout the spring, summer, and autumn months.