August on the Dacha: 10 Important Tasks to Remember

We asked landscape designer Irina Lukyanova to tell us about the tasks in the garden in August. Don't forget about them to make plants on the plot bloom beautifully for as long as possible, better survive the winter, and come back to life faster in spring.

Irina Lukyanova, landscape designer. More than 15 years of creating and implementing greening projects for private and urban territories in Moscow and the Moscow region.

Continue fertilizing the lawn. But only with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers, nitrogen fertilizers should be removed. For top-dressing, you can use superphosphate (60 g/m²) and potassium sulfate (30 g/m²).

• Liquid fertilizers are added to the automatic irrigation system or special sprayers.
• Granular fertilizers are distributed over the area manually or using a seeder.

It is better to apply granular fertilizers in different directions: first walk along the lawn lengthwise, using half of the prepared mixture, then crosswise, applying the remaining fertilizer.

Design: Irina Lukyanova

Trim live hedges. Also, design decorative pruning for glossy kizil, lawn grass, western thuja, and bubblefruit.

Some shrubs (e.g., Japanese spiraea) can bloom a second time in late August to early September. For this, after the first flowering, trim the shrub by cutting branches where seed heads are located. After pruning, new flower clusters will appear.

Design: Irina Lukyanova

Plant perennials. August is the time for planting perennial plants, for example, if they have been growing in one place for a long time and now bloom poorly.

Phlox, lilies of the valley, delphiniums, primroses, hostas, lilies.

Dig up the perennial shrub and divide the rhizomes into small parts with well-developed leaf rosettes or buds using a knife or sharp spade. After planting, water the plants with a solution of "Kornevin" or "Heteroauxin" for better rooting.

Design: Evgenia Russo

Iris and peonies.

Trim the iris curtains, divide the rhizomes into small pieces, leaving a fan of leaves on each rhizome. Treat cuts with ash or a weak potassium permanganate solution and dry the rhizomes for a day. Then plant them, not burying too deep in the soil so that the top part of the rhizome is visible.

The dug-up peony bush is also divided into parts, leaving three to four buds for renewal, but preferably one or two: this way the peony root system is fully renewed.

Unlike irises, peony buds should be planted 3–6 cm deep: if buried too deeply, it can negatively affect flowering.

Design: Susan Gohan

Lilies (if they have formed more than 6–8 bulbs).

After the bulbs are dug up and divided, plant them immediately in a prepared place. Do not allow the bulbs to wilt or roots to dry out. The planting depth depends on bulb size, on average up to 20 cm.

Design: Tim Cuppett Architect

Take care of roses.

To ensure that roses survive the winter well, stop fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizers in August: this reduces growth of new shoots. They won't survive the winter and will rot, which can lead to the death of the bush.

Prune faded flower clusters so that the plant doesn't waste energy on seed maturation.

Design: Environmental Center 'ECOPOLY-LLD'

Transplant plants grown from seeds in July to their permanent location in the flower bed. From perennials, these are forget-me-nots, bluebells, daisies, Turkish carnations, and from biennials — snapdragons, stock roses, bellflowers, night phlox, leucojums.

Design: BUGAEV Park & Gardens

Plant small bulbous plants. Crocuses, scillas, snowdrops, primroses, muscari should be planted in the second half of August. The main rule is that the plant should root but not sprout. The rooting period for small bulbous plants is about 20 days.

Prepare the area for tulips and narcissus planting. But don't plant them yet — this should be done later.

Conduct treatment of trees and shrubs.

Against powdery mildew, treat trees and shrubs with "Topaz".

For live hedges made of thuja, use "Fitosporin" or "Fundazol".

Fruit trees are treated with fungicides "Scor" or "Horus".

If July was rainy, in August treat shrubs and trees for fungal diseases.

Pay attention to annuals. To make them bloom until the end of September, in August fertilize them and remove faded flower clusters.

Design: Irina Lukyanova

Plan autumn planting of trees and shrubs. Draw up a plan on paper: include a list of plants and write down the planting scheme. If construction work is being done on the plot, it is necessary to finish it and remove waste to prepare the soil.

On the cover: Design project by Elena Sergeeva