What to Plant in August (UK)

August is the month of plenty. The plot is heavy with courgettes, beans and tomatoes, and your job is mostly to keep up with the picking. But it's also the quiet turning point of the year — a few late sowings now keep food coming right through autumn and into next spring.

Use the planting calendar to check exact timings for your area, and dip into the month-by-month guide for the full year at a glance.

Sow indoors

A short list this month — most sowing happens straight outdoors now.

• Winter lettuce and hardy winter salad leaves — start in modules to plant out next month.
• Parsley for a windowsill supply through winter.

Sow outdoors

The soil is warm and seeds romp away. Sow into moist ground and water in well.

• Oriental leaves — pak choi, mizuna, mustard and rocket for fast autumn pickings.
• Spring cabbage — sow now to overwinter and crop in the hungry gap next April.
• Spinach and chard for autumn and winter greens.
• Radishes — three weeks from sowing to plate, perfect for filling gaps.
• Winter salad leaves — lamb's lettuce, land cress and winter-hardy lettuce.
• Overwintering onions from seed (end of the month) for an early crop next summer.

Plant out

• Spring cabbage and other brassica plug plants raised earlier in summer.
• Leek transplants — keep watering leeks puddled in for fat stems by winter.
• Strawberry runners — peg down or plant strawberry runners now for a strong crop next June.

Harvest now

This is the main glut, and the most rewarding part of the year. Pick little and often to keep plants productive.

• Courgettes — check every day or two; miss one and it becomes a marrow.
• Runner and French beans — pick young and regularly to keep new pods setting.
• Tomatoes — outdoor and greenhouse fruit ripening fast now.
• Cucumbers — keep picking to stop them turning bitter.
• Sweetcorn — ready when the tassels brown and a squeezed kernel runs milky.
• Maincrop onions — lift and dry once the tops flop and yellow.
• Plums and blackberries — the hedgerow and orchard are in full flow.
• Potatoes, beetroot and the first autumn raspberries.

Jobs for August

• Water deeply in dry spells — containers and squash plants are especially thirsty in the heat. A good soak twice a week beats a daily splash.
• Feed tomatoes, peppers and anything fruiting in pots with a high-potash feed once a week.
• Order autumn garlic and onion sets now — the best varieties sell out by September, and these go in from late autumn.
• Keep weeding and harvesting — a tidy, well-picked plot stays productive and healthy.
• Save seed from your best beans, peas and tomatoes if you fancy it.

New to all this and not sure where to start? Our guide to the easiest crops for beginners points you at the wins, and starting a vegetable garden covers the basics. Browse all the getting-started guides for more.