August to do in our subtropical garden

Well the pond is done, and it was definitely overdue. The water chestnut harvest normally happens before now. The few water chestnuts we got out of the mass of roots were planted out in a new area, separate to the other water plants and that should make for an easier and much lusher harvest next year. But for now as I look around the garden, there is just so very much to do, and with me not having spent much time in the garden last month I need some serious catch up time.

My to do list this month is epic, more than a little overwhelming and the month is almost half gone. Some things have truly gotten out of control, a bit like the pond.

The asparagus in the garden beds has been cut back already (in our climate it doesn't die back completely), I'd managed to top up the beds with some compost and composted manure, but I haven't yet put on it's warm weather sugar cane mulch protective layer. I've found this is essential, even with wicking beds, it helps to stop the soil drying out like concrete. I still have to make a decision on the asparagus in the 20 litre buckets, do I make them wicking garden beds this season and plant them out as was the original plan, at three years old now they are well and truly ready, but I still don't have it straight in my head where their long term place will go. Worst case scenario, they need cutting back, topping up and mulching, along with being moved to a sunnier position then where they were dumped while we put up  the side fence.

One of the wicking Asparagus beds, topped up with compost, but still waiting to be mulched and I'm running out of time as it's already put up it's first fronds while I wasn't looking.

Asparagus still in 20 litre buckets. It was on this winter's to do list to get a long term wicking bed ready for them. That hasn't happened yet and I don't know whether it will now. We can still harvest from the buckets, but they aren't as productive and I doubt there's much growing room left there.

The soil level in the wicking planters has dropped, they all need a top up with great compost, as my own home made stuff still isn't exactly producing any great quantity it will have to be bought in. I normally mix a combination of composted cow manure and standard compost. This then gets topped with a good couple of inches of sugar cane mulch (it's amazing how this just disappears into the soil) and at the start of spring growth a feed of organic chook pellets. We planted new hedges last summer, and although they are in the ground rather than a wicking bed, the poor quality of our island soil means that to thrive, these plants will also need a good feed, added compost and mulch, after a really good weed!

And talking of compost, I feel it's time we built another chook compost bed. These beds are the same size as our wicking beds, and the chook pen fits over them in the same way. The idea is we put all the garden waste, kitchen scraps etc in them and allow it to build up, the chickens while roaming have the occassional dig and turn it over a bit, then when getting fuller, we top it with some soil, seed with green manure, and then when a good bit of growth is reached, move the chook pen onto it for them to dig it all over.We have two beds now, started last summer. The chook pen has been residing on one across winter, and the remnants are now a fine compost, but what started as a layer of more than a foot in height has dropped to just a couple of inches. Apart from a little sugar cane mulch, we don't add anything to the bed while the chickens are there, so the other bed is right to the brim with garden waste and ready to be topped with soil and green manure cropped.And another pile of garden waste is sitting on our driveway waiting for a place to go. While I intend to rotate the chickens across the garden beds in the coming month or two, I still feel an additional compost bed is required to make the rotation timing better in the long run.

The wicking beds need to have all the remaining Jerusalem artichoke, ginger, turmeric, indian arrowroot and possibly the chinese artichoke (not sure if it's ready yet) harvested, then if time permits a rotation of a green manure crop as mentioned above, followed up by the chook pen to work it all in.

Turmeric, some ginger and Chinese Artichoke in this wicking bed awaiting digging up so that the bed can be prepared ready for new spring crops.

Add to this that almost all of my potted plants need repotting into bigger pots ready for spring growth, my potting bench area and accompanying stacks of pots is completely covered in leaves (no seriously, it's buried under a layer of leaves), and I haven't even begun to think about spring crops, let alone get seedlings underway! The list could just keep going, but for now, this will keep me occupied enough until September when we'll bring on Spring proper.

What's on your garden to do list this month?