What to sow & do in the August kitchen garden

An August kitchen garden brings us rich pickings, plenty of maintenance, and opportunities to prepare for the next growing season. It isn’t too late to get some kind of kitchen garden started during August either, if you work around the hot weather and take action fairly soon.

There are several different seeds you can sow this month, and a few more jobs to get on with after that. However, many parts of the UK are experiencing drought conditions in 2026, so be aware of these limitations.

Seeds to sow in August

It’s high summer and most edible gardens are well established, but there are still some seeds you can sow now to provide food later this year and into the next. As always, check individual seed packets for sowing dates as certain varieties have different ideal planting times.

Try not to sow in broad sunlight on very hot days, as it’s likely to interfere with germination. If possible, wait until the worst of the heatwave has subsided and keep the sowing areas well watered. It may also be better to start the seeds off at sundown if the sun’s been intense.

• Carrots (Autumn maincrop varieties)
• Chicory
• Endive
• Japanese onions and hardy White Lisbon Spring onions (to overwinter)
• Kale
• Kohl rabi
• Leaf beet (perpetual spinach, to overwinter)
• Lettuce (baby leaf and hardy types such as Winter Density)
• Oriental greens and mustard leaves
• Radishes
• Rocket
• Spinach
• Spring cabbage, Spring greens (to overwinter)
• Swiss chard (eat some as baby leaf in a few weeks, eat the rest next year)
• Turnips
• Winter radish

You may also be able to sow beetroot to eat as baby beetroot, a last round of dwarf French beans, and late maincrop potatoes to dig up at the end of November.

PGs Tips: If you’re sowing dwarf beans, try to track down one of the relatively drought resistant varieties.

Some of my favourite places to get seeds and small plants include:

• Dobies – great seed catalogue from long-established company
• Marshalls Garden – good variety of seedlings and plants
• RHS – good for ‘Garden Merit’ tried and tested varieties
• Suttons – lots of 99p seeds and handy advice for beginners
• Thompson & Morgan – all kinds of seeds, strawberry plants, fruit bushes etc
• Wilko – the bargain seeds are back, plus lots of multi-buy offers

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Apart from sowing seeds, there’s plenty to do this month while the garden’s growing in the warmer weather.

Garden jobs to do in August

1. Planting out in August

• Sprouting broccoli seedlings
• Winter cauliflower seedlings

Be sure to water them in as well as you can, and avoid planting out in direct sunlight during the hottest part of the day. You might also need to place a net or other partial shade above them to reduce excessive sun glare.

2. Care of vegetables in August

• Check tomatoes & potatoes for blight, remove yellowing leaves at the base of stems
• Pinch out (‘stop’) cordon tomato tips if you haven’t done so already
• Remove one or two pumpkin leaves if they’re shading fruit (end of the month)
• Put straw or upturned saucers between ripening pumpkins and the soil
• Lift and dry onions and garlic

3. Care of fruit in August

• Cut back old canes of Summer-type (floricane) raspberries if fruiting is over
• Tie in new canes of Summer-type (floricane) raspberries for next year’s crops
• Plant out new strawberry plants for next year
• Summer prune damsons, peaches, plums, nectarines etc if they’ve finished fruiting (check pruning requirements of individual varieties)

4. General jobs to keep on top of in August

One of the main things to do in August kitchen garden is to pick loads of fresh crops as they ripen. This often keeps them producing for longer, which means more food.

Here are your other reminders:

• Check crops for pests and diseases
• Deadhead flowers of companion plants
• Earth up potatoes & Jerusalem artichokes
• Feed plants with liquid feed every 7 – 14 days
• Protect fruit from birds
• Slug and snail protection
• Tie in plants as they grow
• Turn compost
• Ventilate greenhouse or cloche, use netting to prevent sun scorching
• Watering – harder than it looks in a hosepipe ban, I know!
• Weeding

My August kitchen garden diary

As mentioned earlier, we have a hosepipe ban here. That means some difficult decisions have had to be made about what to prioritise. We do have some limited water, so that’s going on annual edible plants (courgette, cucumber, tomato) and more permanent edible plants (cherry tree, rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, woody herbs.)

It’s all systems go for the tomato plants, and we have plenty of basil surviving in the ones in pots. The cucumbers are okay but not much to write home about, and the courgettes are surviving for now.

I’ve given up on the salads, apart from the rocket underplanting the tomatoes. Nothing’s surviving in this heat unless it originated in the Mediterranean. Once the current heatwave calms I’ll try to start off some kale and other brassicas to overwinter, but won’t be getting my hopes up too much!

Enjoying this article? You may also like:

• What to sow & do in a July kitchen garden
• British seasonal food in August (what to pick this month)

Are you growing your own fruit, vegetables and herbs this season?

How’s your plot looking right now? Crispy as mine is, or a bit better?