Gardening in August: Getting Your Garden Ready for Spring

Last month was all about pruning and getting bare-rooted plants into the ground while everything was still dormant. August is a different job — this is the month you start waking the garden back up, protecting what’s fragile, and setting yourself up so spring doesn’t catch you out.
Here’s what’s worth doing now.
Protect young and wind-battered plants
August winds can be brutal, especially on anything newly planted or still establishing. A simple short-term wind barrier — even star pickets with shade cloth or hessian stretched between them — can save a young plant from being flogged around for weeks. Check stakes and ties on anything you planted over winter while you’re at it.
Start feeding again
With plants stirring out of dormancy, this is when fertiliser actually starts to do something. Feed roses with a rose-specific fertiliser once you spot new shoots, and give citrus and natives a low-phosphorus feed if they’re pushing out fresh growth. If you’ve got spring bulbs finishing their flowering, don’t pull the leaves off yet — remove the spent flower stems and keep feeding the green foliage fortnightly with a liquid fertiliser so the bulb builds up strength for next year.
Tidy up what’s finished flowering
Trim spent chrysanthemums and move them into a sunny spot in the garden if they’ve been in pots. Prune winter-flowering natives once they’re past their peak or between flushes. Give ornamental grasses a hard cut back close to the ground with shears or a whipper snipper before new growth starts pushing through.
Deal with early pests before they take hold
Aphids love the soft new growth that shows up this month. A firm blast from the hose knocks most of them off roses without needing to spray anything, and encouraging ladybirds into the garden will help keep numbers down naturally. Keep an eye on azaleas for lace bug and petal blight too — remove any spotted or soggy flowers promptly.
Give the lawn a wake-up call
If your lawn’s looking flat and compacted after winter, aerate it now and follow with a seaweed solution or light top dress to kick it back into gear. It’s also worth getting on top of early weeds, like bindi, before they properly establish.
Start thinking about summer, not just spring
This is the sleeper job of the month. If summer is shaping up to be a hot, dry one where you are, August is a good time to sort out a watering system, check your irrigation is actually working, or even look at a water tank before you’re in the middle of a heatwave scrambling for one.
None of this is glamorous work, but it’s the difference between a garden that eases into spring looking after itself, and one that’s playing catch-up all season. What’s on your list this month?