Muddy Boots

Landscape Designer, Keith Edwards, and 'Garden Girl', Elisabeth Kingman, join forces to bring an engaging, informative, and entertaining take on all things gardens. From growing perfect produce to garden design, Keith and Elisabeth will cover it. Come along and get your hands and boots muddy. For more information follow us on Instagram @muddybootspodcast

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Muddy Boots

What to Grow, Sow and Know This Month: August

July 28, 2026 • Keith and Elisabeth

0:00 | 18:03

August is all about getting ready for the spring rush. In this practical seasonal episode, Keith talks through the key jobs to tackle before the garden takes off, from sowing warm-season seeds and planting flowering annuals to improving soil, feeding organically, protecting fruit trees from disease, and staying alert for late frosts. It’s a useful preparation episode for gardeners wanting to build stronger soil, get ahead of pests and diseases, and make the most of the final weeks of winter.

Seeds to sow indoors or in greenhouse

Tomato
Chilli
Capsicum
Eggplant
Black Passionfruit
Cosmos
Snapdragon
Marigold

Seeds to sow directly into your garden

Snow Pea
Sweet Pea
Cornflower
Poppy
Carrot
Potato
Radish
Turnip

Seedlings to start in August

Broccoli
Cabbage
Kale
Silverbeet

Products & Tools recommended in this episode

Where you can find all things Muddy Boots!

Website: https://www.muddyboots.net.au/
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SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hello, I'm Elizabeth, an obsessive backyard gardener, who might be able to offer you a couple of tips.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

And I'm Keith, a landscape consultant, and I'm also passionate about gardening.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

The one thing we both have in common is muddy boots. August is a month of anticipation in the garden. Spring is just around the corner. Plants are beginning to wake up, and there's plenty we can do now to set ourselves up for a productive season ahead. So today, Keith and I are going to talk about the key jobs to tackle in Australian gardens during the month of August, aren't we, Keith?

SPEAKER_00 0:35

We will, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Okay, so then what are the most important gardening jobs to focus on in August, taking into consideration there are only four weeks left to spring?

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Well, uh probably the most important thing to think about this month is actually the high growth period for for for this month. And that is from the 15th uh of August until the 25th of August.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

It's always a pretty good period.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

It's a great period. And and why this is such an important month for me in particular is because this is the time that we sh that we shall be sowing seeds of tomatoes, chilies, capsicums, eggplants. And these are all the all the plants that take a long time to actually get up and get above the ground and get growing and start to become a sizeable plant that you can then stick in the ground once the soil temperatures start to warm up a bit, which is going to be around about November. Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

So you're sowing those seeds and putting them in your greenhouse in your hot house. They're going in the hot house. So people can uh other gardeners can sow them now and put them inside. Is that a hot house?

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

So depending on where you live.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Yeah, but there's look, there are lots of um and uh and more so now I I've noticed having you know looked at some and some other posts on Instagram that there's lots and lots of small containers now that you can get that are portable little hothouses that they've got little lights, they've got temperatures, they've got everything in them that set you up for success for starting and growing. But the key to all this, as I said before, is is knowing when the when the high growth period is. So that moon calendar is very important.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

You need to have if you haven't got the moon calendar. Why haven't you got you need it? But it's apart from vegetables, there are things like obviously this is the time to plan your spring bulbs, dahlias, things like that. Plant citrus. Is it a good time to plant citrus now?

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Well, yeah, yes, it is. Um it's a great time to be doing that. Um and things that aren't those sorts of things like vines. You know, there are there's some vines you could be starting. And and one that I would really, really, really recommend people have a go if they want to have in their garden a black passion fruit.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

So this is a time that that you can actually start um sowing seeds of black passion fruit in a warm environment and get them up and going. Okay, because they'll just take it.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

All right. How can we improve our soil before the growing season begins? Well, we always tell people because if you don't have good soil, it's something the garden doesn't grow well.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

It's something we've just got to keep on hammering because um to remind you, yeah, in case you've forgotten. And and I'm noticing that also on on Instagram now that there are uh are other organisations coming on board just promoting just how important soil health is. Oh, good. Not just not for not just for us residential places, but more into the commercial lines of things too. Okay. So big, you know, mass farms and all that sort of stuff, they're really starting to push this now.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Oh good.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

And I think that's yeah, it's great. And it's about time they all caught on. You know, we've we've been banging on about this for I don't know how many years. Um, there was a I I I planted a um uh a um an aspaliated apple the other day and did up did it did some posts on it, and um I had a guy comment to say, Oh, gee wish, I wish I had soils of the quality that you've got there, Keith. And I, you know, and I thought, gee wish, that's hang on a minute. That's how I started out was poor soils. You know, it was rubbishy soil that I started out with. But now everyone looks at it and say, Oh, goodness gracious, how did he get that good soil?

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Hard work. Exactly. So did you respond to that? I did respond to that. Exactly what he needs to do. Yep. Well, can you remind us again very quickly, what do we need to do?

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Well, we need we need to incorporate as much compost into the soil, and if you can get hold of the lignite humate, that is a wonderful thing to retain moisture and provide uh spaces for for microbes to live in. Um utilise utilise things like organic mulchers uh underneath the soil. Mycogold if you're going to be planting any anything that's that's a you know that has longevity, like uh, you know, trees and shrubs. Um and also utilizing uh or or putting microbes into the soil by putting in populate or uh go-go juice. You know, these are incredibly important.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Monash rock dust.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Monash rock dust is another great one. EEC.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

That's right. Liquid fish fertilizer. That's right, yeah, yep. So I think if you don't know that well, if if you're commenting like that, the like that guy was commenting, he just needs to just need to.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Yeah, but I mean you don't know how how long these people have been following you. They might have just started yesterday. Yeah, true, true. Oh, I just saw a hole you dug. You saw it looks fabulous. Oh, well maybe. But it's the reason for it.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yes, exactly. It doesn't just happen, unfortunately. It would be good if it did. Um how what sort of fertilizing should we be doing at this time of the year?

SPEAKER_00 5:34

If you're going to be fertilizing, make sure you you you're applying organic fertilizers. Don't ever put any granular fertilizers that are that are a synthetic basis because all you're doing is destroying what's beneath the soil. Yep. Um to an extent. So so anything organic. So rooster booster is one that that I I love. Um I I've just applied some rooster booster to all my lawn areas, for instance. Um then yesterday I went out the backyard and with my EEC, and I've got a I've got this fertigator now that just plugs onto the tap. It's got a f it's called a fertigator. So it it's I put the concentrate of of EEC into the container, plug it onto the tap, plug a hose into it, and go and water the water put the water with the liquid fertilizer all over the garden.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

You've got all of the little implements haven't you? You what do you where do you get a furtigator from?

SPEAKER_00 6:27

You can we can get online and and um I will have a have a a thing we can send to people at the end of this show.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Yeah, right. The link to the link to that particular site.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Mine's only a little three-litre unit, but it is just absolutely fantastic. And as we speak, our friend Matt Phillips will be using mine today to put over the over a lawn he's just laying as we speak now, and then fertilizing all the plants that he's put in in this landscape job across the road from my place.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Perhaps he can use it when he comes to my house.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

He will come to you come and do it here at your place. And and I tell you what, don't go outside because it smells.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

I like it when it smells because you know something something positive is happening. Um what herbs and vegetables can we actually plant in the ground in August? Is there anything you can have you got a list that you can mention that is a good time to do that, or is it not really should we No, you could you you can certainly put put um lots of lettuces and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Tell us. Yeah, um I I guess that the way that you look at this is that if you if you go down to your local nursery and just have a look at what you're missing in your garden. So just recently I've I've I've just pulled out marjoram, for instance, out of the out of the tub because it was getting to you know three or four years old, so it starts to get long and leggy and and the branches become rather thick and twiggy. So I've just ripped that out and replanted some new marjoram and it's going absolutely gangbusters. And we'll harvest that and dry that and then have put it into jars, which is just superb.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Oh, okay, that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Um I've planted thyme and I've also put in a new salvia, a new, you know, edible salvia sage. Yep, okay. So we call it sage.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Beautiful. I've got some rocket out there, which is I've been so busy trying to take all the flowers off because I didn't want to self-seed that I've taken every flower off and now it looks like it's it's I've it's gone. So because I'm so scared things are gonna, you know, self-seed. And so I need to get some more rocket and my mint. So rocket arugula and mint and things like that. Ne that mine's been in a pot, my mint's been in a pot for too long, and it's looking a bit sad, and I need to do the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

So that's Tom, and I've I've I've just cut our mint right back, and of course now it's now that it's uh it's coming back in you know leaps and bounds.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah, you've just got to sometimes you have to go for the new stuff. It's obviously going to be quite different up up north where it's warmer, but um, you know, we just have to look at, as you said, go to the nursery and see what is available. Yeah, fantastic. Can you recommend some beautiful flowering plants that we can pop in now for spring, Keith? Because that's what we love to see in spring. Some colour, some lovely colour.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

You can you can put lots of lots of um plants in now. You can direct sow, for instance, this time of the year, snow peas.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

All right. Um you can put in sweet peas.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Yeah, I was yeah, I was going to the earth, right.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Um and have those beautiful colours.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

So they'd be slightly later flowering because we're putting them in there.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

So this month is the time to direct sew those. Yeah. Uh cornflowers, another great one to be putting in. Beautiful. Uh poppies are also good. And then, of course, uh to start indoors in this month are things like cosmos, snapdragons, um, and and marigolds, which are going to be fantastic if you're going to be putting in tomatoes later on as as a companion plant. Yes, yes. So those sorts of things can go can go in into into the house and and uh and get them up and growing.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

So you can put them in in uh just take over the house, don't worry about furniture. Plants are more important. Um what pruning jobs should gardeners be tackling during this month around Australia?

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Okay, so the pruning jobs that you would you'd want to be doing now in this month would be having a look at your apple trees and your pears. Um of them might might still be carrying some foliage, particularly some of the later varieties, but don't worry about that. It's also a good time now to get out there and and and to s to uh to prune those back. With your uh other other fruit trees, which are all bare at this stage, which would be your nectarines and your peaches um and and your plums, it's a great time now to be thinking about putting some lime sulphur or some copper fungicides on. So go out because particularly with with um leaf curl on peaches and nectarines, this is when you need to be applying those the the lime sulphur and then alternate it with a copper fungicide. And also if you if you've got fruit trees, you you there's a there's a particular fungus that hits fruit trees that's called shot hole. And and the reason it's called shot hole is when you look at the leaf, it's got all these little holes through it, and that's a fungus that hits it. So now's the time to be spraying lime sulphur and copper and a copper fungicide on a weekly alternate basis. But you've got to spray it to the point where it's running off the branches. You can't just go out there and just go wish wheez-wish because it's got to get into the actual bark where the spores are lying dormant and and kill those little mongrels. Okay. Otherwise, you're gonna have trees full of leaf curl and disease.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

I've gone onto the disease. We were talking about pruning, you've moved on to the disease, but anyway, nothing else to prune.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Um just you just need to be going around you should have already pruned peaches and nectarines. You know, I had someone contact me the other day and saying, when's the best time to prune peaches and nectarines? Summer, after you've harvested the fruit. That's when you prune your peaches and nectarines.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

What about our ornamentals and things?

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Ornamental things, well, your roses, you want to be going around now and having a look at your rose before they start to kick in. And once again, it's a fungicide time to be spraying for those for black spot. So get onto that. Yeah. Uh pruning all those back. And then, of course, your any other trees, it's a great time to be shaping them up for for spring flowering plants.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

You know, pop. Yeah, full lesson. Yeah, that big pop. Yep, no problem. Uh okay, we what about pests? I know you've just talked about you know the shot hole, whatever it was called, things like that. But any other pests we should be, as usual, looking out for?

SPEAKER_00 12:08

It's it's probably a good thing to do for p particularly for apple trees, um, is is now thinking about um coddling moth that are in the in the soil dormant. So um and and if people have have followed me last year and and they've put bands of of tape around the tree that have got um Vaseline on them as a physical barrier to stop them climbing up the trees, it's a good time to either take the old one off and put a new one on a little bit higher up the tree and and and re-vaseline it, or get ready to do that that sort of thing. So that's something else you want to be looking at. Um and and just have a look at at what is also prevalent in the garden. It's also uh things like aphids at this time of the year are getting into into your your plants. So have a look at all your leaves of your brassicas, for instance, and make sure that they're all nice flat leaves. If they start to curl at the ends, yeah, it's a general indication that you've got aphids sitting in underneath that lip that are sucking out the goodness and the leaves tend to curl over and collapse.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

So we should have been spraying our echo nehmen and echo oil on a weekly basis so that that doesn't happen. Okay, fantastic. Um what jobs can we do now that will save us some time and effort in spring? Anything in specific that would apart from uh mulching and uh soil conditioning and all those sorts of things?

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Yeah, they're these sort of things that you know you you should be doing on a time. All the time on a uh on a on a monthly basis, is going and doing all those and checking those things. Um this is also the time probably for for the last lot of the bare-rooted stock that you might be getting at. Yep. Um you know if you want to you want you want to get a cheap tree, uh whether it be a um you know a deciduous ornamental or whether it be a fruit tree, have a look at the what's available now with this month in in bare root stock um and get those in. This is probably gonna be about your last opportunity for you know putting picking some bare-rooted stock up. So get those in. And and if you're doing that, um before you make sure you dug your hole, lots of compost in it. If you can get hold of some mico gold, put that in the hole first as well before you you backfill it and put the plant in. But if you if you get your your bare-rooted stock, have a look at the root system on it and put it into a bucket with a a seaweed solution in there for you know for an hour or so and then put it in the ground, and then just prune that up so that it's it's giving a nice presentation.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Yep, fantastic. Great advice, Keith. Thank you so much. What is one often overlooked August gardening task that can make a big difference, Keith? Put you on the spot.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

God. Welling, yeah, I'm I mean, I'm more I'm more curative rather than preventative. You know, so I'm going around making sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Keep at it all the time, keeping at it all the time, you know. Don't suddenly go out there and think, ooh, I haven't done anything for a while.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

No, yeah, I mean the the the on golf courses and garden places you have people called curators. So that's curative. But their job is preventive, you know, so they're they're doing things on a regular basis to make sure that they're not having those big problems. Yeah. So so so just go out in the garden all the time and and keep your eyes open, enjoy the space, but also have a little look at you know at what's possibly happening out there. And get on top of the change. That's what I do all the time. I know.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

And don't rain, don't rain. Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

And the other thing too, I uh you know, even even though we're in into August, we're only four weeks away from from spring.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Which is exciting.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Yeah, which is very exciting. But we uh you there's still possibility of of of frosts.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

You know, so have a think about that. And if there's a likelihood of frost, then I always recommend um regular spraying with a sea seaweed solution. The seaweed solution will help thicken up the cells in the actual leaves and and that will make them more resilient to to frost burns and all the rest of it. And if you have any plants that have have suffered from frost, for goodness sakes, don't cut off the the burnt foliage, leave it because it's protecting the new stuff that's underneath. Okay, it's as simple as that.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

All right. We mentioned the moon calendar and how everyone should have a moon calendar. What uh during the month of August, what are the moon phases? What what should we when should we when can we be removing plants from the garden, like vegetables from the garden beds? Yep. That sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yeah, that's that's that's all on your moon calendar if you haven't got one. But you know, you've got a great opportunity to pull out weeds to do do your final pruning and fertilising on the days of the fourth until the eighth.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

So this is the dormant period, yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Yep, um, according to the moon phases. And then, of course, we've got an opportunity this month to be planting root crops. So we've got two two lots, so um any carrots, um potatoes, radishes, turnips, these sorts of things, you can plant those on the 9th and the 10th of August, and then again on the 30th and the 31st of August to get the best possible growing rates for um root crops. And then, of course, we've also got an opportunity this month to be replanting seedlings, not seeds, but seedlings of all the brassicas, so the the broccoli, the cabbages, the kales, the silver beets. Yeah, so this is a late push in into spring that will still give you a good crop coming up up into the up into uh late spring. So there's some great other great opportunities for this particular month.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Fantastic. So there's plenty to do. So it seems that August is all about preparation and potential. A little effort now can make our spring gardening more rewarding and our gardens much easier to deal with. Enjoy the last few weeks of winter. Just a few left, which is great. Um, before everything ramps up and our gardens spring to life again. So happy gardening, Keith.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Happy gardening.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Thank you for listening to Muddy Boots. For more information on today's podcast, please go to muddyboots.net.au and happy gardening.