Weed and grass growth may have been much slower than usual through a very dry July, but there are still plenty of things to keep gardeners busy as August rolls into the frame. Chief of these is making sure to harvest all the lovely things you have grown and to use them as best you can. There may be gluts of some crops much earlier than you are used to. The hot dry conditions in July have put a certain amount of stress on some plants and this pushes them towards earlier flowering and cropping. Embrace the range of different fruits and vegetables and use the freezer, plus your bottling and storage skills, to preserve the harvest.

Start storing the glut

Early and second early potatoes came out of the ground in beautiful clean condition, if you lifted them while the ground was dry. There was no sign of blight in July and my favourite variety, Charlotte, always gives a big crop. These are delicious eaten within the first few weeks after digging, but they also keep in perfect and tasty condition until Christmas. I put sound potatoes into large flat boxes and cover the top with a blanket or dustsheet (to exclude light but allow moisture to escape). Potatoes are stored in a cool, dry shed and checked regularly to make sure there are no problems. Onions and garlic are lifted as soon as the tops flop over and bulbs stopped swelling. Dry leaves and necks thoroughly before plaiting into strings. Climbing French beans have cropped prolifically for the last few weeks and they don’t look to be stopping any time soon. There’s a limit to how many can be inflicted on the family, so I make batches of beans in a spicy tomato sauce to put in the freezer. Add a bit extra chilli and you can dilute the green bean mix with a can of cannellini beans when you want to eat it.

Blueberries are cropping well, although no fruit is producing as much as it did last year. Pick before the birds help themselves and before ripe berries drop to the ground. Blueberries freeze really well so get them into bags in the freezer – you can decide how to use them at a less busy time. Peas and broad beans freeze well. You can open freeze them on trays and pack into bags once frozen. There’s no need to blanche in boiling water if you intend to use them within a six week time frame. They will taste sweet and come out perfect. If you want to store your peas and beans for longer, then dip briefly in boiling water to reduce enzyme activity. Cool rapidly, under a cold tap, before freezing.

Sweetcorn time!

There’s nothing quite like the taste of a fresh-picked sweetcorn cob that’s boiled for four minutes then served with butter and seasoning. The earliest cobs are grown under cover in a greenhouse or polytunnel. Outdoor crops should produce well this year, but they may take a little longer to ripen. Plants grown under cover need a gentle shake to scatter pollen between plants. The aim is to get pollen from the tassels at the top of the plants to land on the hair-like silks that protrude from the end of the immature cob. Good fertilisation will lead to well-filled cobs. When cobs stop swelling, and the silks start to turn brown, it’s time to harvest. If unsure, peel back the leaves at the end of the cob and take a peek at the kernels. They should be plump and give out a milky liquid when you press a thumbnail into one. If you are unsure, try cooking one cob and use your judgement. Over-ripe cobs turn starchy and lose sweetness.

Sweetcorn cob swelling nicely

Runner bean flowers

Runner bean plants tend to crop a little later than climbing French varieties. Many are covered in lovely scarlet flowers now and your aim is to give a hand with pollination. These flowers may not set pods in hot dry conditions. Give a light mist of water to slightly dampen the pollen, without soaking it, and bean-set should improve dramatically. You don’t need a hose-pipe to do this. Use a hand-held sprayer (recycle any spray bottle if you don’t have one for garden plants), or you can dip a large paintbrush into a bucket of water, stand back, and flick it at your bean plants so an even spray hits the flowers and foliage.

A light spray of water helps runner bean pollination

Pest and disease alert

Be vigilant! Watch out for pest and disease attacks and be prepared to act as soon as you spot a problem. It’s easier to deal with one problem, on one plant, than wait until more plants are affected.

Keep sowing

Lettuce and salad leaves, Spring cabbage, Swiss chard, spinach and spinach beet, winter turnips.