Jobs in the garden: August

Here's what to do this month in your fruit and vegetable garden

It's time to...

Check sweetcorn to see if it's ripe and ready to pick. This is when the tassels start to go brown
Shorten sideshoots growing from the framework of espalier, fan and cordon-trained fruit trees back to about five leaves from their base
Pick fresh herbs for drying
Pick gooseberries, currants, strawberries and other fruits as they ripen
Support heavily laden branches on plums, apples and pears with wooden props
Water fruit to increase yields then cover the soil with a mulch, such as grass cuttings, to conserve the moisture
Water strawberry runners, cutting them from the parent plant when well rooted
Sow dwarf French beans for a late crop
Prune out fruited canes of raspberries
Spray gooseberries against sawfly attack and to prevent powdery mildew

What’s in and what’s out

Vegetables that can be sown outside during August include:swedes, spring cabbages, beetroot for leaves, winter lettuces, radishes, coriander and Japanese onions.

This feature originally appeared on the Gardeners' World website.

To find out what jobs you should be doing now in your garden, as well as gardening tips and advice, visit Gardeners World - what to do now