Prepared by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, Office of Public Affairs Tommy Irvin, Commissioner. Call Consumer Q's hotline at 1-800-282-5852.

August gardening tips:

Two or three leaves should be left when cutting gladiolus, so that the bulbs can ripen.

Transplant Oriental poppies now.

Rock-garden plants should be checked to see if they need thinning. Overcrowded plants will not stay healthy or attractive.

Sow these perennials outdoors for next spring: columbine, garden phlox, foxglove, centaurea, and primrose.

Hardy lily bulbs may be planted in the ground and left to over winter outdoors.

Cut back the flower stalks of perennials that have finished blooming.

Cut delphinum flower stalks to the ground, and a new, though smaller, flower stalk will develop. The flower will survive the coming cold days and even light frosts.

Q: I use a lot of garlic in my dishes and want to know about growing my own. Can you provided me with any information?

A: Garlic likes fertile, well-drained soil with a pH of 6.5 to 7. If your soil is on the thin side, add healthy additions of compost, plus aged manure or 5-1010 fertilizer. (Don't use fresh animal manure). For an easy and large harvest use heavily mulched, raised beds. Plant in raised beds for good drainage, and then mulch with about six inches of old hay after the ground freezes.

Break the bulb into individual cloves. The biggest cloves produce the biggest bulbs, so plant them first. Carefully place each clove flat (root) end down, pointy end up, about two inches deep. Space them three to six inches apart in rows 18 inches apart. Cover cloves with soil no more than one inch above the tip of the clove. For more information please contact the office of Consumer Services at 1-800-285-5852.

Q: Last year I grew pumpkins, winter squash, onions and okra. How can you tell when they are ripe?

A: The first two are ready to harvest when their skin hardens. Press your fingernail through the flesh. If you have to work at it, the squash is ripe; if it's very easy to pierce, the squash is immature. Pick okra pods when they are two-and-a-half inches long, or about four or five days old. Harvest green onions when the bulbs are one to two inches in diameter. Wait for the tops of storage onions to fall over and turn brown before you pull them.

Q: What vegetables should be started in the months of August and September?

Plant the following no later than the dates indicated below: August 15 Snap beans and Irish potatoes (seed can be sprouted two to three weeks before planting).

August 31 Cucumbers and squash; plant varieties resistant to downy mildew.

In order to calculate the planting date, determine the frost date and count back the number of days to maturity plus 18 days for harvest of the crop. If snap beans mature in 55 days and your frost date it November 15, you should plant on or before September 3.

Start plants for broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale and onions in a half-shaded area for setting out in September.

Prepare soil for September to October plantings of "cool-season" crops. Apply fertilizer and prepare seeded so rains will settle the rows and make it easier to get seeds to germinate when they are planted.

If watering is necessary to get a stand, open the furrow for seed, pour in water, plant seed and cover. Use starter solution on the transplanted crops.

Water the garden as needed to prevent drought stress.

If you have questions or problems with products or services regulated by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, you may write the Office of Consumer Services, Room 224, 19 Martin Luther King Drive, Atlanta 30334 or call 1-800-282-5852.