Monty Don has shared a key task that gardeners should be doing in August to help their lavender plants thrive and avoid them looking 'leggy'.
Prune lavender as blooms fade
The gardening expert recommends that August is the ideal time to give lavender a proper trim. He says that to prevent lavender from appearing "woody" and "leggy", annual pruning is essential, with the optimal timing being when blooms begin to fade.
This could happen anywhere from midsummer through to late August, though gardeners shouldn't delay until the flowers have browned or seed heads have developed. Rather, they need to allow sufficient time for their lavender to regenerate before winter sets in.
Trim into a compact form
Monty Don advises that the most effective preparation involves trimming the plants back into a neat, compact form, while ensuring adequate new shoots remain on each stem. This is crucial because lavender, he notes, frequently won't regenerate from bare wood.
He explains: "These new shoots will grow fast and provide an attractive and healthy cover to protect the plant in winter and provide the basis of next year's display."
With annual pruning, a robust lavender plant can flourish for well up to 10 years, but this longevity depends entirely on consistent trimming. Skip this essential maintenance, and you risk shortening its lifespan while seeing fewer blooms appear each season.
Deadhead dahlias for continuous blooms
Another job he recommends tackling in August is deadheading dahlias during this period. The beauty of dahlias lies in their generous nature - they'll keep producing fresh flowers right through to autumn, provided you deadhead them consistently.
His guidance points out that the easiest and most reliable method to distinguish between a finished flower and a developing bud is by examining its form. A bud appears rounded, while a spent bloom is pointed and cone-shaped, meaning the cone-shaped ones are what you need to remove.
He added: "Always cut back to the next side shoot - even if it means taking a long stem - as this will stimulate new flowers and avoid ugly spikes of stem."
The gardening guru insists that nothing else proves "so effective" at extending the life of summer blooms for as long as possible than frequent deadheading.
