What to do in the garden and home in August

August is usually the driest month of the growing season, so the jobs that matter most this month are about protecting what you already have rather than starting anything new. A few tasks do have a genuine window now, and leaving them until September makes them harder.

Lawns and watering

If your lawn has gone brown, leave it alone. A dry, straw-coloured lawn in August is usually dormancy rather than damage, and it greens up again once the rain returns. Watering a whole lawn back to green uses a lot of water for a result that would have happened anyway by autumn.

Where watering does help is anything planted this year: trees, shrubs and hedging that haven't built a deep root system yet. Give these a proper soak once or twice a week, because shallow watering encourages roots to stay near the surface where they dry out fastest. Raise the mower blade a notch and cut less often while the ground is dry, since scalping a stressed lawn slows its recovery.

Hedges and pruning

Most birds have finished nesting by now, which is why August is the month many hedges get their main cut of the year. Check for any late nests before you start, particularly in dense or evergreen hedging, and hold off if you find one still in use.

Keep deadheading (removing spent blooms to encourage further flowering) on roses, dahlias and bedding plants. It's a small job done regularly, and it keeps beds flowering into early autumn.

Harvesting and tidying beds

Soft fruit is finishing, so pick as it ripens, to avoid attracting wasps or mould. Cut back early-flowering perennials that have gone over, and tie in climbers and rambling roses before autumn winds catch growth that's been left loose all summer.

Around the home

Dry, settled weather is the practical reason August suits exterior work that rain would otherwise interrupt. If pointing needs attention, or fascia and soffit boards want a coat of paint, this is a better month for it than October, when you're racing the first proper downpours.

• Check gutters for early leaf fall and blockages before autumn rain arrives in earnest
• Look at pointing and exterior paintwork while conditions are dry enough to let materials cure properly
• Check shed and fence timber for movement or rot while you can still get outside comfortably to fix it

For the wider run of seasonal jobs, the garden maintenance and home maintenance pages cover the detail behind each of these. If you're planning ahead, September's jobs pick up where this month leaves off, as the weather turns and the priorities shift again.