Ready, Set, Grow: Your August Gardening Guide

Author

Nathan Schwartz
August 09, 2024

G'day Aussie gardeners!

A chilly welcome to the August edition of the Aussie Green Thumb Newsletter!

As winter begins to wind down, now’s the perfect time to start prepping your garden for vibrant spring blooms that are just around the corner. So grab a cuppa, put your feet up, and let’s dig into this month’s garden goodies!

Monthly Wrap-Up:

  • Our featured edibles this month are radishes

  • Our featured bush tucker is the Macadamia (Queensland Nut)

  • YouTube videos to get you inspired

  • Latest blog posts from our website

  • Native plant spotlight this month

  • Garden tasks to prep for spring

  • Tool guides for an organised summer garden

Let us know what gardening projects you’ll be doing in August and what you’re going to be planting in spring, we’d love to find out! If you want any information covered by our team, let us know and we’ll happily oblige. We love helping and hearing from our community!

How to Grow Radishes in Your Garden

Radishes grow best in spring and autumn in Australia but can be grown all year round. If you’ve ever found that your summer radishes are tough, and your winter radishes are sluggish, this guide will bring the best out of your plot.

Macadamia integrifolia (Queensland Nut) Growing Guide

Macadamia integrifolia has a long harvest window that can spread out over six months of the year, from March to August. During that time, your tree can have nuts ripening at different times, or all at once, so check for the signs, and avoid just picking everything as soon as it swells to the right size.

❝

Fertility, drainage, and plenty of water are the three keys to growing macadamia, which prefers rich loamy soils, with excellent drainage, and a rich mixture of minerals and nutrients to help develop the leaves which pack their seeds with the sugars that make macadamias so irresistible.

This Month on YouTube 📺

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel

Latest Blog Posts 🌱

Here’s the latest from Aussie Green Thumb this month.

How to Grow Endives (Cichorium endivia)

Endives are the most refined leaf of the lettuce world, making them a staple in fancy restaurants and an essential accessory in culinary photography. Endives add sharpness and bite to fresh salads and a mellow sweetness to dishes when cooked.

24 Different Types of Radishes to Grow at Home

Radishes are massively underrated veggies. Their spice levels are just as variable as peppers and chillies, and the colour and crunch they add to salads are outstanding. This guide selects some of the best, brightest, largest, and most disease-resistant types of radishes to grow in Australia, and every single one is worth growing.

Check out our helpful video guide below for more info!

How to Grow French Breakfast Radish

The French breakfast radish may not be your go-to choice for breakfast, and they’re not really eaten during French morning meals either. However, with their unmistakable crunch, vibrant colours and spice, radishes make for a delightful and attractive accompaniment to any meal, not just salads.

Here are some essential tasks to ensure your garden thrives leading into spring:

  1. Pruning: August is the perfect month to prune back summer-flowering plants to promote better growth and flowering in the coming seasons. Pruning 101: When to Prune Your Plants

  2. Mulching: Now is a great time to add a final layer of mulch around frost-sensitive plants to ensure the plant roots are protected from frosts leading into spring. See our full mulching guide here!

  3. Soil Preparation: It’s an ideal time to start prepping your garden beds for spring plantings by adding compost, fertiliser, or organic matter to improve soil health. How to Make Compost at Home

    I’ve just dug through some cow manure and compost into a new garden bed I’ll be growing tomatoes in. I put about 2 inches of the mix on top and churned it through the soil to add some nutrients so it’s ready for next month’s planting!

  4. Seed Starting: Start your seeds by sowing any seeds you want to plant in spring indoors or in a greenhouse during this month. Seeds that need some shelter while young are ideal like tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. I’ve also just planted my tomato seeds indoors in my new homemade greenhouse to get them ready for spring planting!

  5. Winter Pest Management: Now is a fantastic time to get rid of winter pests like aphids and scale insects to ensure you have a pest-free springtime.

9 Garden Tool Storage Racks and Organisers - Reviewed

Once a year, I give myself a full weekend to assess the garage. Whether it needs a complete redoing, or just a general tidy-up. This year, I decided to revamp our garden tool storage racks, and it was surprisingly cathartic. We have now got a garage that is fit for purpose, and tool storage that feels completely natural.

I took this stunning pic of a Golden Wattle in flower last year around this time in Hazelbrook!

Australia’s national flower, the Acacia pycnantha, is more commonly known as the Golden Wattle. This national beauty is a tree of the family Fabaceae, which is native to southeastern Australia.

Golden Wattles can be seen profusely flowering in and around Victoria, New South Wales and parts of the ACT right now. It’s a great time to go for a bush walk with the family to admire these gorgeous Aussie flowers!

There you have it, Green Thumbs! Your August Gardening Update!

Don't forget to check out our detailed guides and tutorials on our website for more in-depth information. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest gardening videos, tips, and DIY projects.

Again, feel free to let us know what gardening projects you’ll be doing in August and what you’re going to be planting in spring, we’d love to find out! If you want any information covered by our team, let us know and we’ll happily oblige. We love helping and hearing from our AGT community!

Happy gardening and we’ll see you next month with some spring gardening goodness!

Cheers,

Nathan Schwartz 

If you have any questions, feel free to contact our friendly team today!

Affiliate Disclaimer: Some of the links in this newsletter may be affiliate links, meaning that we earn a small commission if you purchase through these links, at no additional cost to you. These commissions help us maintain and improve the Aussie Green Thumb website, allowing us to continue providing you with valuable gardening tips and content. We only recommend products and services that we personally use and believe will add value to our readers. Thank you for your support!