What to do in September
September is a great month to be down at the allotment – we’ve finally had some rain! You should be able to harvest your maincrop potatoes soon, as well as any squash, runner beans, courgettes and tomatoes.
What to sow this month
If you’ve not got space free yet, you can start winter salads and greens in modules now so that they’ll be well grown and ready to plant out later in autumn.
Sowings for outdoors or undercover:
- Asian greens –mizuna & mibuna for salads, chinese cabbages, komatsuna & mustard greens for cooking
- Spring cabbage (early September)
- Quick growing broccoli raab aka ‘rapini’
- Winter lettuce varieties, rocket, winter cress
- Chard, leaf beet and winter varieties of true spinach
- Salad/bunching onions (first half of the month)
- Overwintering peas, broad beans & field beans (from mid September)
In a greenhouse or tunnel add
- Kale (sweet & tender grown under cover)
- Bulb fennel (very start of the month)
- Salad turnips and winter radishes
- Coriander (surprisingly hardy, and less inclined to bolt over winter) and parsley
Other jobs for September
- Seed saving! Now is a great time to think about saving seeds from certain crops. Have a read of this page from Real Seeds on how best to save different seeds.
- Start clearing summer crops and you can either prepare beds for winter, or plant out green manure to get some extra nutrients in.
