September comes a knocking, and the vestiges of a curious summer are left behind, the debris of a testing few weeks. The gardens have taken quite a thumping and just keeping things alive has been at times very demanding. There have been days when the heat has drained everything including enthusiasm. But we bash on, early evening watering has kept things alive and we may yet get a payback if September is kind.

A corner is being turned and autumn stretches ahead. So this month we can start to make changes. Keep up the maintenance of what’s left of summer, we can still see some late flowering and continued harvesting will ensure maximum productivity. Harvesting has been mixed thus far, fruit weight is light (we have plenty of small apples), tomatoes have been great, potatoes have been reasonable, but there is blight, so be watchful. Salads have been quick and quickly over.

I am still putting in small numbers of lettuce. There are other vegetables that you can plant out this month too. Perpetual Spinach is always a good choice, it’s hardy and reliable and it’s strong flavour can pep up dishes across the winter months. You can still pop in a bit of seed. There are cabbages about and spring cabbage popped in now will over winter perfectly.

As vegetable space opens up you can look at onion sets. The autumn plantings of Japanese onions can be really worthwhile and this years cropping has almost been better than the spring plantings. As a shop we sell a number of varieties, but from personal experience I encourage the use of the yellow ones. I am yet to be impressed by over wintered red ones.

My real joy at this time of the year comes from bulbs, over the next two months you can plant a wide range of spring flowering subjects. In September there is plenty of choice too, with a big range of Daffodils and Narcissi as well as tulips. If you do some succession planning these groups can deliver colour across three months (check the labels) and of course they come in many shapes and heights, so you select heights that fit in the most exposed of spaces. There are plenty of other bulbs to look at, like crocus and snowdrops.

And finally, it’s Pansy time and garden centres are bulging with bedding to see you through the greyer months.

Happy Gardening.

Chris Evans
www.dundrynurseries.co.uk
www.thebutterflygarden.org