Every day the sun is setting earlier and earlier as September is a crossroad month for seasons. We can hopefully enjoy our gardens getting some rain as it has been so dry, but at night the temperatures will start to drop, so be ready to start protecting any delicate plants. There is good news however - your allotments, gardens and containers are full of wonderful organic crops ready to be harvested, eaten and stored, and flowers to be picked! Continue feeding them with a liquid plant feed to keep the fruits/veg and flowers coming.
Jobs to do in the garden this month:
• Sow winter hardy crops of lettuce and carrots
• Prune soft fruit back after harvest
• Lift onions when ready
• Sow spring cabbage
• Harvest sweetcorn, maincrop potatoes, onions, chilli peppers, aubergine, pumpkins, squash, marrows, swede, turnip.
• Harvest early apple varieties
• Pick pears, plums and damsons, melons and grapes
• Go blackberry picking - always a good family outing in search of laden blackberry bushes
• Dig up and split perennials and replant
• Collect ripe seed for future propagation and to do a seed swap with your gardening friends
• Lift faded bedding plants
• Dead head roses and give a liquid feed to encourage repeat flowering
• Continue to feed borders with Natural Grower Fertiliser
• Bring tender perennials inside for winter protection: Geraniums, Fuchias, Dahlias
• Plant Christmas flowering bulbs: Hyacinths and Narcissi
• Mulch around plants with our natural soil conditioner to provide nutrients that will strengthen them for the winter months
• Start to sow Annual seeds like Nigella, Cornflower, Larkspur, Sweet Pea, and Antirrhinum in peat free compost like our organic compost. They will germinate with the remaining warmth of the summer, and you can keep them in a cold frame or greenhouse over the winter. When the spring comes they will be ready to plant out, giving you flowers earlier than any spring sowings will.
lift onions, liquid plant feed, mulch, organic compost, winter hardy crops, blackberry picking
