Such unsettled feelings stem from my childhood when summers seemed so long and yet too short, the looming shadow of ‘back to school’ reaching towards me as every sun-soaked day passed.
There’s an inescapable melancholy about August. If that’s not an option, move plants away from brightly-lit windows to a cool, shaded spot and water generously before you leave. If your shed has windows, ensure nothing valuable is visible and hide anything that could be used to smash glass or force open a door. This is when next year’s flower buds are formed and a lack of water now can mean no flowers in spring.
Check hedges for resident wildlife before you start working on them. If house martins are resident where you live, create a patch of mud somewhere in your garden so that they can use it to repair their nests.
Leave seedheads on plants such as teasel, lavender, sunflowers and Verbena bonariensis. Stop deadheading roses too, if you wish the hips to develop.
Young hedgehogs hoglets need fattening up before they go into hibernation in late autumn.
