Your Seattle Garden in August: What to Do Now and What Can Wait

The Seattle garden is changing. With more townhomes, condos, apartments and smaller lots, not everyone has a traditional backyard. But whether you’re tending a yard, a patio filled with containers or a pot on a window ledge, August brings its own gardening decisions: what needs attention now, what can wait and what to start thinking about for fall.

Home & Garden Seattle spoke with garden expert Pam Jones about how to extend the garden season, whether you have a large border or a few pots.

What to do now: Watering, harvesting and selectively deadheading are some of the top things you should be doing now, says Jones. Water established plants deeply when needed. Give containers and new plantings extra attention. Harvest your vegetables, herbs and flowers as needed, and watch for disease or pests. But overall, she says, just enjoy what’s still blooming rather than assuming summer is over.

Add a little late-summer color: Look for “dead” zones in your garden borders and containers, and head to your favorite nursery for fresh plants that are in bloom now, or will be soon, to fill in those gaps, she says. Jones suggests plants such as hardy fuchsias, asters, sedum and goldenrod. Now is also the time to prune summer-flowering shrubs after they finish blooming.

What not to do yet: While many plants and flowers are wrapping up the season, Jones says to resist the urge to cut everything back. Spent flowers and seedheads can provide visual interest to the garden throughout the fall and even into winter, both in borders and containers, as well as provide food for birds and other wildlife. Also, don’t immediately replace something because it looks tired this time of year.

Start thinking about fall: August is also a great time to start thinking about fall. Although many flowers are wrapping up their bloom now, there are plenty that will provide fall color, such as native Douglas asters that can be planted now for fall blooms through October. Drought-tolerant evergreen native shrubs such as coyote bush can provide flowers from late summer into December. If you have a lawn, think about lawn work such as reseeding and composting, as well as spring bulbs such as daffodils that need to be planted in the fall.

Whether your garden is a large mixed border, a townhouse patio, a few containers or a single window ledge, August is a good time to look closely at what’s growing. What’s thriving? What struggled? What would you like more of next year? The garden is giving you information this time of year. The best thing you can do for your garden in August may be to pay attention.

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Thanks to Pam Jones for her gardening advice for this story.

Photo locations: Sky Nursery, Go Natives! Nursery and Sequoia House Seattle.