Gardening

Fruit

It is still a good time for planting dormant deciduous fruit trees like apples, pears and vines. Apply sprays like white oil to control overwintering insect eggs before bud swell. Give citrus trees a light reshape if necessary and a good feed. Prune old season's wood on tamarillos back to a new shoot or healthy bud as they fruit or on the current season's growth.

Vegetables

The aim is to create a warm environment so start seedlings off by using the kitchen window sill, a green house, cloches, cold frames, plastic bottles or even old glass lampshades. A cylindrical clear plastic bag held with four bamboo canes can create a very useful and protective open top cloche.

Marrow, cucumber, pumpkin, asparagus, dwarf beans, beetroot, capsicums, sweet corn and tomatoes can all get a good start in seed trays with quality seed mix, newspaper pots, or even old egg cartons. A warm water and liquid seaweed feed to overspray the likes of lettuce will see them responding with rapid healthy growth.

Miniscule carrot seeds have to be sown directly into the soil and the plantlets painstakingly thinned out since they don't tolerate transplanting. By the end of the month you'll be transplanting a wonderful array of other vegetable seedlings into your prepared patch. Extra vigilance is necessary to deter the ravenous slug and snail population, whether that's with beer traps, bait tubes, scattered pet friendly Quash pellets, or even for nightly 'stalk-and-pick' sessions with your torch.

Incidentally, this is a good thyme-planting month. This low-mounding aromatic herb suits being tucked between paving slabs as edging on pathways as well as alongside other herbs.

Flowers

Get some of those favourite summer annual and biannual seedlings on the go.... sunflowers, poppies, aster, lobelias, alyssum, salvia, cosmos, honesty, zinnias, chrysanthamums and penstomen among many. August is a good time to divide large clumps of perennials like day lilies, plant summer flowering bulbs like gladioli and add lime to flowerbeds especially around delphinium and dianthus.

Shrubs and Climbers

If you haven't tackled it already, this is the last chance to prune hydrangea back to two strong buds. Cut back abutalon, tibouchina and buddleia and tie in your climbers like clematis. Evergreens can be clipped but leave spring flowering shrubs until after they have flowered. Protect delicate frangipani with frost cloth in case of late frost and spray camellias with white oil to kill scale and wintering insect eggs.

Lawns

Established lawns now need less-frequent mowing - just a light high cut because grass growth has slowed and it's a recommended time to aerate with a garden fork if the ground is waterlogged. Most lawns will appreciate a good winter feed. If you're getting ready to create a new lawn, make sure the area is well prepared, rolled and level for sowing grass seed or laying turf in early spring.