Three Acre Tablea garden, a kitchen, a good excuse to gather
The almanac

August.

Late summer · Zone 6b · Hunterdon County, NJ

“Dry August and warm doth harvest no harm.”

Old farmer’s saying

Sun ↑
6:05
Sun ↓
7:55
Day
13h 50m
High
85°
Low
64°
Moon
Sturgeon Moon

Dog days

Full harvest and preservation peak. Fall garden goes in. Order spring bulbs. Sedum and Joe-Pye Weed carry the late-summer border.

The full guide

“Planning what comes after the tomatoes.”

The Zone 6B fall garden — the math, the palette, cold-hardy crops, row cover, cover crops.

Read the guide →

General chores.

August is preservation season, and it's the month where the garden is loudest. Tomatoes come in by the bushel; zucchini won't quit; the canning kitchen runs three days a week. But the real trick of August is that this is also when the fall garden goes in — so you're harvesting the peak and setting up the second act at the same time.

This month's job

“Pick squash and zucchini every day.”

One overlooked fruit signals the plant to stop making more. If it grows to soft-bat size, feed it to the chickens and keep moving. Daily picking keeps yields going through frost.

Keep the harvest coming

  • Keep weeding before they go to seed

    Weeds that go to seed in August come back as 500 weeds in April. Even if the crop is finishing, keep the seed heads off.

  • Pull plants that have stopped producing

    A tomato plant that's stopped setting fruit is now growing disease. Pull it, get it out of the garden, and put a fall crop in its spot — beans, lettuce, or a cover crop.

Setting up the fall garden

  • Pick fall-specific varieties, not generic packets

    Fall performance is variety-dependent. Winterbor kale, Napoli or Bolero carrots, Bloomsdale Long-Standing spinach, Winter Density lettuce — these outperform generic packets in NJ 6B by weeks of harvest. See the Fall Garden Planning guide for the full list.

  • Install row cover hoops now, while beds are still open

    Bending 9-gauge wire hoops or PVC into arches every 3 feet is easier before the lettuce is up. Get the frame in this month; drop the cover on the first frost warning in October.

  • Sow biennials outdoors

    Hollyhocks and foxglove need to be started now to bloom next year. Direct sow in a nursery bed and transplant in September.

  • Order spring-flowering bulbs now

    The best selection of tulip, daffodil, and allium varieties disappears by early September. Order now, plant in October and November.

  • Divide and move daylilies after bloom

    August is the ideal window to lift and split daylilies. Divided clumps bloom stronger next year; leave them longer and they get root-bound.

  • Sow a fall cover crop in late August

    Winter rye for beds you'll plant in May; oats for beds you want to plant early (they winter-kill and peel back easily). Crimson clover fixes nitrogen. One of the highest-leverage moves in the whole year.

  • Start perennials from seed for next year

    Perennials sown now root in before frost and are ready to bloom their second year. Coneflower, black-eyed Susan, columbine, larkspur — cheap way to fill a border.

The pest that shows up in late August

  • Row-cover brassicas or hand-pick cabbage moth eggs

    The cabbage moth (small white butterfly) peaks in late August through September. Yellow eggs on the undersides of brassica leaves become green caterpillars that strip a broccoli plant to ribs in a week. Row cover blocks the moth entirely; Bt spray handles caterpillars if you're already behind.

  • Watch for harlequin bugs on brassicas

    Black-and-orange shield-shaped bugs that pierce leaves and suck sap. Hand-pick into soapy water — sprays don't touch them. Clean up all brassica debris in November so they can't overwinter.

The one thing to avoid

  • Don't prune trees and shrubs this late

    Late-season pruning triggers new growth that won't harden off before frost. The new shoots die back and the wound stays open all winter. Wait until dormancy.

Plant & sow.

What can go in the ground now — and what still needs to wait. Start dates for indoor sowing, direct sowing, and transplanting, broken out by vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

First to go in

“Broccoli ('Belstar'), cabbage ('January King'), lettuce ('Winter Density'), spinach ('Bloomsdale Long-Standing') for fall garden.”

Vegetables — direct sow outdoors (fall garden)

  • Carrots ('Napoli' or 'Bolero') — direct sow early August for storage-quality fall roots

  • Beets ('Detroit Dark Red'), turnips — direct sow through mid-August

  • Kale ('Winterbor'), spinach ('Winter Bloomsdale'), arugula, leaf lettuce — sow August through mid-September

  • Peas: mid-to-late August for fall crop (they need to bloom before hard frost)

  • Swiss chard, mustard greens: late August

  • Watermelon radish, daikon: sow by early August — they need 60 days

Cold-hardy specialty greens — direct sow late August

  • Mâche (corn salad), claytonia, tatsoi, mizuna, minutina, sylvetta arugula — the winter salad garden

  • Overwinter under row cover; harvest fresh from October through March

Orchard & berries.

The orchard and the berry patch keep their own calendar. Apples, pears, peaches, brambles, blueberries, and grapes — pruning, spraying, planting, and harvest, in the rhythm they ask for.

The orchard's headline

“Peaches — continue through mid-August; freeze, can, and dehydrate.”

  • Asian pears (Kosui, Chojuro) — harvest

  • European pears (Sunrise, Blake's Pride) — harvest 1–2 weeks early (do not ripen on tree)

  • Raspberries — primocane varieties (Caroline, Heritage) begin

  • Blueberries continue through August

  • Blackberries winding down

  • Early apples (Zestar, Lodi) begin

  • Prune water-sprouts and root-suckers on apples and pears

By the middle of the month, the sun sets at 7:55 — the day still stretched wide, but shortening a minute at a time.

Harvest.

What's in season this month, roughly in the order it arrives at the kitchen door. Some crops are past peak by the last week; others are just beginning.

Wk 1Wk 2Wk 3Wk 4
  • Tomatoes (peak)
  • Peppers (peak)
  • Eggplant
  • Cucumbers
  • Beans (keep sowing and harvesting)
  • Sweet corn
  • Zucchini and summer squash
  • Cantaloupes (harvest when stem separates from fruit with gentle prodding)
  • Watermelons
  • Potatoes
  • Onions
In seasonPeak week

In bloom.

What's open in the beds and borders now — for the vase, for the pollinators, for the view from the porch.

The month’s palette

The signature bloom

Echinacea (coneflower).

continuing

  • Black-eyed Susan

    continuing strongly

  • Monarda (bee balm)

    continuing

  • Veronica

    continuing

  • Hardy hibiscus

    continuing

  • Sedum (Autumn Joy)

    beginning to show color

  • Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium)

    August bloomer for back of border

  • Gaura

    continuing white/pink cloud of blooms

  • Ligularia

    yellow/orange in moist shady areas

The sturgeon moon lifts over the ridge — a full month has almost turned.

Can & preserve.

What to put by while it's here — canned, frozen, fermented, or dried. Pressure-can low-acid vegetables; water-bath the high-acid ones. Freezer and dehydrator for everything in between.

The one worth doing

“Applesauce, apple butter, apple pie filling, apple juice (early apple varieties).”

  • Tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, ketchup, salsa, bruschetta (peak season)

  • Garlic — clean and cure for long-term storage

  • Peach jam, frozen peaches, canned peach slices, peach butter

  • Pear preserves, pear butter, canned pears (European pears ready)

  • Pickled peppers, pepper jelly, hot sauce

  • Cucumber pickles (dill, bread and butter, relish)

  • Corn — freeze plain or can as corn relish; pressure can plain corn

  • Dehydrate: tomatoes (sun-dried), herbs, apple slices

For the wildlife.

Native plants in bloom in the beds and borders this month — and what they attract. From the Field Guide.

Coming next

September

  • Watch for frost forecasts starting mid-to-late month

  • Add compost to top up garden soil; build organic matter for spring

  • Save seeds from favorite self-pollinating, non-hybrid flowers (marigolds, cosmos, sunflowers)

Look ahead →

Just past

July

  • Harvest regularly — letting produce rot on the vine reduces plant productivity

  • Water early morning or late evening to reduce evaporation

  • Fertilize tomatoes and peppers lightly as they load up with fruit

← Look back

Notes, delivered

A monthly letter from the garden and kitchen.

What went in, what came out, and what I’m cooking this week.

From the notebook

More on the almanac.

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