In The Vegetable Garden This August

Pinch out the growing tips of your runner bean plants once they reach the top of their support. This encourages side-shooting and more beans at a manageable height for picking.

Water sweetcorn plants regularly and feed with tomato food to get the best cobs.

Apply a high-potash fertiliser such as tomato food once fruits start to form on peppers, cucumber and aubergine plants.

Cut back herbs to encourage a new flush of tasty leaves that you can harvest before the first frosts. Dry or freeze excess herbs to use in the kitchen later on.

Continue to harvest second early potatoes now, perfect for salads.

Limit the fruits on a squash plant to about three, but make sure these fruits are well established before pinching out the surplus.

Spring-sown carrots and beetroot will be ready to harvest now although they can be left in the ground to keep growing.

Pinch out the growing tips of your aubergine plants once they have 5 or 6 fruits. Pick fruits while they’re young and shiny.

Top Tip:

Continue to feed tomato plants with tomato food and remove lower leaves to help with air circulation and prevent disease. Pinch out the top of tomato plants to concentrate the growth into the fruit has already formed. Aim to leave 5 or 6 trusses of fruit per plant.