Summer is still holding on (if you’re lucky) and you may get some late Sweetcorn to harvest. Autumn Raspberries are in full swing and your Pumpkins and Squashes are swelling. You may also have some Chilli Peppers in the cold frame and the odd Apple or two that is ready for eating.
- Start to clear away some of the crops that have gone over (ended) like Runner beans and Sweet Peas
- Expose Apples and Pears to the sun to ripen
- Sow some winter Lettuce
- Prune trained Peach trees, taking out any branches that are not needed or growing out at right angles
- Plant Strawberry plants to increase your stock. Aim to replace plants after their third year.
- Earth up Celery and Leeks
- Plant Japanese bunching onions
- Plant Spring Cabbage
- Lift main crop Potatoes - check they are ready by rubbing the skin, if it doesn’t easily come off they are ready.
- Plant Tulips for next Spring
If you have any more suggestions for September jobs, add them to the list.
Ooh ooh, I love my garden in the early morning. When everything is so fresh, green, slightly cold and covered in a thin layer of dew. There’s nothing better than padding around, cup of coffee in hand, and inspecting the new day.
The spiders are working at full pelt at this time of year. After a season of eating they’re big and juicy and able to spin the biggest webs that span the tall feathers on my Sweetcorn plants. Covered in dew they look like an Athena poster (look it up) just waiting to happen.
But my favourites are my pumpkins. All hard and cold, just waiting for the sun to toughen them up some more. Yes today looks like being a glorious day. Garden centre methinks - to buy some tulip bulbs.
I’ve never grown good parsnips before. In the past they have been small, forked or I’ve had problems with germination. It just goes to show that sometimes you can only cure a random problem with one vegetable by err… moving gardens, which seems a bit severe, but it’s true. This year my Parsnips are huge and to be honest I have done nothing differently. I have no explanation for my huge Parsnips - I sowed the seed at the same time of year and cared for them in the same way as last year. I also made sure (like last year) that the seed was brand new since I know that Parsnip seed doesn’t keep well. Nothing is different, except the soil. Which, as we all know, is crucial.
I had a job to get it out of ground, it was so big. But once I did I washed it, chopped it, cooked it, blended it and fed it to Jackson - not all of it! I put some in weaning pots to freeze and eat later.
He liked it! - well after an initial grimace and a few encouraging words from me, ‘it’s okay, I know it’s a strange taste but you really don’t want to be missing out on roast Parsnip at Christmas when you’re older, trust me’. Next time we may progress to Parsnip with butter - ooh!
If there’s no sunshine outside then I’ll just have to bring it indoors! These are Jackson’s Sunflowers. When he was born a friend’s mum bought him some tiny gardening tools and a pack of dwarf Sunflowers (thanks Mrs Price). I am ashamed to admit that I’ve been using said mini tools for my seedlings (I’m testing them!) and I sowed the dwarf Sunflower seeds almost immediately. Bad kitty, I know, but I can’t leave seeds unsown, it’s not in my DNA.
I’m glad I did sow them because now, just when I need a pick-me-up, my garden is overflowing with beautiful Sunflowers. And Jackson likes them too! Everyone’s happy, no?
I came back from holiday, tired, weary and very, very jet-lagged to find this in my garden. I could have wept right there and then. Virtually all of my Tomatoes were ruined by blight. Today, I spend an hour or so pulling up the dead plants and collecting the rotted Tomatoes in an attempt to keep the spores from lingering in the soil. It was like wrestling with the living dead! Horrid, dried-up, gnarled and crispy the plants spat pock-marked, flea-infested, brown gunk at me as I pulled them out of the ground and stuffed them in the bin liner. I hate Tomatoes.
