August Fruit Gardening in the UK...

The Fruit Gardener's Guide - The month of August in the UK

By the time August comes around, most of the soft summer fruits have been harvested and enjoyed. Apples and plums are coming into their own, and some varieties are ready for picking when they can be pulled easily from their branches

August is the time to:

Prepare:

• The ground for fruit trees and bushes to be planted in Autumn
• Dig up old strawberry beds

Prune:

• Blackcurrant stems
• Trained wall fruits

Harvest (when ripe):

• Early apples
• Plums

Proporgate:

• Blackberries
• Loganberries

Things to do:

- Cut out raspberry canes to ground level once they have finished fruiting

- Cut out two or three of the older stems on blackcurrant bushes after they have finished fruiting

- Older strawberry plots should be dug over and the plants relocated to a new area after three years in the same position

- Blackberry and loganberry plants should be proporgated by the means of tip layering

- Order new fruit trees and bushes ready for planting in the autumn

- Support the branches of plum trees if they are heavily laden with fruit. Pick fruit as soon as they are ripe to take off the strain