August Gardening Check List

August is one of the busiest months of the year for our garden. Fruit and vegetables mature, heat intensifies, canning equipment comes out, and we prepare for the abundance of harvest. Let’s take a look at whats on my August Gardening Check List!

I am sharing monthly garden to-do lists here on the blog for two reasons: for my future self to refer back to and for fellow gardeners to see the types of things I’m doing each month to stay on top of the garden. Go back and check out my July Gardening Check Lis t and June Gardening Check List to see what I was up to in the previous months.

Here’s what I’m planning to do for the garden the month of August:

Watering
Harvesting
Freezing tomatoes
Canning beans

Watering

Typically, July and August are the months when our sprinkler runs the most. I’ll continue to water two or three times per week (as needed, of course). I normally have to move the sprinkler four or five times and leave it running for 30 minutes in each spot to sufficiently cover the entire space (our garden is 50’x50′ ). This is a big need on my August Gardening Check List!

Harvesting

The bulk of our harvests will be in August. Tomatoes are all over the plants, the corn is producing silks, beans are abundant, and the peppers are nearly turning red! I’m pulling a little bit out every day, but soon it will be basket-fulls of tomatoes and the cucumbers will grow three inches overnight if I don’t stay on top of them.

I find that its a lot less overwhelming to do a little bit of harvesting every day rather than one or two bigger harvests each week.

Freezing Tomatoes

Rather than making lots of small batches of tomato sauce, I like to freeze tomatoes until I have enough for making and preserving a few large batches all at once. Any paste tomatoes that ripen this month will be placed into the freezer for a later date.

When the time comes, I’ll pull them out of the freezer to thaw overnight, run them through my food mill, begin simmering the sauce down to the consistency that I want, and preserve it in pint jars.

Canning Beans

I’m hoping to can more beans this year than I ever have before. I’ve frozen some in previous years, but with limited freezer space, canning is the best preservation method for beans this year.

I’ll soon be busy with canning tomato products, so this month I plan to do the bulk of my green bean preservation.

August Gardening Check List