28/08/2009

September

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September is the transition from late summer to early autumn. Harvesting is the main job in the vegetable and fruit garden this month, and dead heading, pruning and weeding the main job in the flower garden.

Garden tasks for September

• Sow broad beans and hardy peas for early crops next year
• Sow now include spring cabbages, Japanese onions, turnips for green tops, winter lettuces, spinach, endive, corn salad, land cress and baby salad leav
• Finish summer pruning of apple and pear trees
• Harvest apples, pears, plums and store apples, wrapping them individually in newspaper
• Harvest haricot beans
• Collect seeds & beans for sowing next year
• Pot up herbs to use in winter grow in a cool light place
• Take hardwood cuttings from fruit bushes
• Dig up strawberry runners and pot them up
• Plant new strawberry beds
• Plant out garlic in mild areas, or start cloves in pots to transplant later
• Protect autumn raspberries and blackberries with netting to protect them from birds
• Lift and store onions and maincrop potatoes
• Clear crops once they've finished and fork over
• Cut down the ferny shoots of asparagus to soil level