Hello August. We are right in the middle of cooler temps and rain.
Most deciduous trees are currently losing or have lost their leaves and I like to leave these in-situ, where they form a nice living mulch rich in organic matter.
Unless... you had the very persistent leaf curl fungus on your stone fruit leaves, in which case remove all leaves and either hot compost them or bin them.
Stone fruit are forming buds for next season's fruit so be ready with an organic sulphur or copper-based spray, available from your local hardware store.
Timing is critical in application - to be most effective apply at bud swell but before opening, to the point it drips from the tree.
If you miss that window by a few days to a week it's still worth spraying, but once most of your flowers are out it's pretty much then too late.
I recently heard of a garlic concentrate spray that can be applied to a tree in full leaf and it is supposed to work although I've no personal experience attesting to its effectiveness.
Try google if this is something you are interested in.
If your deciduous trees are in the wrong spot now is a perfect time to transplant them.
Wait until they have lost all leaves and are completely dormant.
Prepare the new spot with plenty of good soil and try to dig a hole that is at least two times as large as the root ball of the tree you are moving.
We had some very large stone fruit trees in the school garden that were removed earlier this year.
I had tried with little success to prune them back to a smaller more manageable size several times but unless you have a dwarf variety, constant pruning of a large tree doesn't really work.
Number one, you're often cutting back the very growth that would give you fruit and number two, a large tree will always have a large root system.
By cutting back the canopy you're sending a message to those roots to devote masses of energy into new growth.
You'll end up with huge amounts of new growth every single year - and very little fruit.
There comes a time when you must assess the tree and the space around it, and if a mistake has been made in variety, size, location, or any other factor, permanently rectify it. Sad, but necessary.
What to plant in August?
If you don't already have the staples like lettuce, silverbeet, rainbow chard, beetroot and spring onions, get them in the ground. There's still time for potatoes and sweet potatoes too.
Ask around and you'll likely find someone with an out-of-control sweet potato vine.
Take a cutting, put it in a jar on a windowsill, and wait for roots to form. Then plant. It's that easy.
But beware - they spread far and wide and for this reason I recommend planting them in a contained space.
A half wine barrel in a sunny spot is perfect.
It's time to start forward thinking to the warmer spring months that will soon be here so if you've a hothouse you can start to sow trays of tomatoes, beans, zucchini, tromboncino and the melons.
Or you can make a poor man's hothouse by turning a clear plastic storage box up-side-down.
This is what we do in the school garden and you'll see very good results using this method.
But don't be tempted to plant out too early as any cold nights or frosts will kill your young seedlings.
You may also need to harden off your seedlings - acclimatising them from hothouse to outside over the course of several weeks slowly exposing the seedlings to increasing amounts of time outdoors while avoiding extreme lows and highs in temperature, wind fluctuations, and full sun.
Try to locate all the seeds you saved from last season and start to think about planning for their germination (seed tray or straight into beds), hardening off, bed locations and potential pest control.
Have a chat to friends and locate over the next month any summer seed crops you want to try growing this year, so you are ready to germinate them when nature hits the switch and we move into spring.
Happy gardening everyone, and remember to look around your neighbourhood and see what people are growing. Buying plants doesn't have to be expensive.
Green thumb friends and neighbours are usually more than happy to share their produce, plants, equipment, and knowledge.
All you have to do is ask.
