September

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September can have glorious weather, and it may also be wintery with gales, floods and early frosts. The last crops need gathering and it’s time to start preparing for winter

OUTDOORS

Decrease watering for all pot grown plants, but still check them daily

Ensure no weeds are getting away, so hoe fortnightly and add extra mulch on top of any looking thin

Cut the grass at least fortnightly, preferably weekly, collecting the clippings with any fallen leaves and putting them around trees and bushes, raise the height of cut again

Transplant to their final positions biennial flowering plants both pot grown and those from a nursery bed with a decent rootball

Plant daffodils and most other spring flowering bulbs though not tulips

Sow hardy annuals to over winter then give early blooms

Sow bald patches in turf with grass seed, ideally prick over with a fork first then sow and brush the seed in, and add clover seed too

Sow green manures on any bare soil before the weather gets too cold for them to germinate well. And use easy to clear green manures such as Limnanthes douglassi, Claytonia (Miners Lettuce) and Valerianella (Lamb’s Lettuce) which are my favourites

Don’t stop deadheading autumn flowering plants as with luck there could yet be up to a dozen or more weeks of blooms to go

Cut back herbaceous plants only once their stems wither

On still cold nights protect tender bedding plant displays from frost damage with sheets or newspaper and thereby get more weeks of bloom

When cutting back stems with seed heads on them bash these against a post or similar to liberate the seed for the birds and other critters

Make a compost heap with all the fading foliage and weeds before they wither away, once less succulent they lose some value

Check your tree stakes, ties and other supports as autumn often brings high winds

Tie bundles of prunings and dried stems inside evergreens and hedges to make insect hotels

This is probably the ‘least bad’ time to clean out a pool or pond as there is never a good time

Suspend a net over your pool or pond to catch blowing leaves and stop them fouling the water and you’ll need clean it less often

Empty contents out of existing bird boxes, and hang up some new ones too

Bring tender plants in pots indoors as soon as there is a frost warning

Citrus can stay out a bit longer than most tender plants if covered on frosty nights, and keep their roots from too much soaking by turning the plants on their sides during wet weather

Start an ‘autumn leaves for mould’ bin and keep adding to it, it’s the best soil and compost improver you can get

AND in the fruit cage and orchard

Let the grass grow under late apples for storing as it helps them keep better (takes up water and nitrogen) and cushions them if they fall

Pick apples and pears for keeping with their pedicel (little stalk) intact

Don’t let surplus apples go to waste- dry, juice and puree them

Stretch blankets, sheets or nets or straw under favourite apple trees to stop the windfalls bruising

Pick the later ripening and storing apples over the next weeks as they ripen- watch for ones starting to fall and then pick that whole tree

Pick pears a tad under-ripe , store in moist warmth and eat as soon as ripe which is usually as colour yellows

Put out squirrel scarers on nut trees (same as for birds moved more often)

Rake under nut trees to find the nuts they’ve already buried.

Make blackberry jam before ‘the devil spits on them’ –before the spiny hooked seeds harden and become less digestible

Knock down then burn, compost or deeply bury rotted and mummified fruits to protect next year’s crop

Put sticky bands around tree trunks to stop crawling pests going up and down during winter

Wrap coarse cloth or crumpled corrugated cardboard in bands around fruit tree branches to trap pests looking for snug homes in rough bark, evict these later in winter

Take cuttings of blackcurrants, redcurrants, grapes and gooseberries as their leaves fade and fall

Remove old fruited canes and tie in the new ones for all the berries

Prune blackcurrants if not done already, and be ruthless with them

Mow up leaves mixed with grass clippings and spread this under soft and tree fruit and shrubs as a mulch

Plant some new fruit trees, bushes and shrubs over the next few weeks

Check all stakes, supports and ties before the weather turns stormy

AND in the vegetable plot

Have sheets ready to cover pumpkin and squash plants on coldest nights

Cut pumpkins and squashes to store with a long piece of stem

Pull up outdoor tomato plants to hang in warm dry place by the roots to ripen the last of the crop

Dig up your main crop spuds on a drying sunny day as any increase from now on is likely cancelled by increasing pest damage

Pick sweet corn cobs that have gone over to dry to give birds in winter

Plant garlic and autumn shallots before the soil cools anymore

Watch for volunteer garlic plants on the old site, dig them up and replant for next year’s crop

On bare soil sow spare and surplus pea, bean, sweet pea and lupin seed; all are legumes and give free nitrogen when you hoe off their tops in late winter

Sow other green manures on every bit of bare soil

Harvest and use or store everything before it goes over

ORDER

If you haven’t yet got the catalogues and ordered more bare rooted fruit trees and bushes do so now so they will arrive in time for October planting

Look for hardy chrysanthemums going over and now sold off cheap - get these, cut them back hard, keep in a cool greenhouse or cold frame, pot on in spring for a fantastic show next autumn

UNDER COVER

After cleaning tools that you are putting away for winter wipe them down with an oily rag (And as I use old frying oil I can find my tools in the dark by the smell of chips)

Watch out for rodent invasion into sheds, greenhouses, and attics as nights cool, take suitable precautions

Put mouse traps where you store your seeds especially peas and beans

Marrows, quashes and pumpkins often rot just where they rest; make a 'mattress' for them of straw or shredded paper

Put a slug pub (plastic cup of beer) in your potato store- you may be surprised how many you catch!

Sort stored onions and other stored alliums into good and ‘use now’

On dry sunny days air stored garlic, shallots and onions so they will keep better

Go through your seeds reserving the few that may yet be sown but putting all the rest -if worth keeping- in a cool, dry rodent proof place

Make your long term apple storage ready; plenty of shredded newspaper, boxes or trays, and ideally a dead fridge or freezer to put them in

GREENHOUSE

Stop regularly watering most tender plants under cover, from now on give them just enough to stop wilting

Sow chervil, rocket, hardy and loose-leaf lettuce, lamb's lettuce, miner's lettuce, Pak-choi, spring onions, winter radishes and carrots in pots and trays

It is worth the gamble to sow carrots and French beans under cover

Take the tips off greenhouse tomato plants as no more growth is useful

Clean all glass of coldframes and greenhouses that will have plants in them during the darker days ahead

Bring under cover tender plants you want to save if you’ve not already

Pot up mint plants, with as big rootballs as possible for forcing under cover