Gardening Jobs for September
September is here, and there’s plenty to be done while you’re outside enjoying the last of the year’s warmth. Harvesting crops will keep you busy this month, and there’s plenty of work to do tidying and maintaining plants and equipment.
Timely Tips
This month, there are lots of jobs to do in the garden. Here are our top four:
Divide your herbaceous perennials. This will keep your plants healthy and vigorous year after year and multiply your stock.
Net ponds now before autumn leaf fall gets underway to reduce the amount of debris entering the water.
Clean out cold frames and greenhouses ahead of autumn sowing and growing.
Plant spring-flowering bulbs now, such as daffodils, crocus and hyacinths, for glorious colour next year.
In the Flower Garden
Here are your main jobs to do in the flower garden in September:
Continue to feed and deadhead hanging basket and container annuals — they will often keep going until the first frosts.
Keep deadheading annuals and perennials to extend their performance.
Deadhead your penstemons, dahlias, and roses to keep flowers coming.
Divide herbaceous perennials as the weather cools. Plant and water in the new divisions well.
Prune any late-summer flowering shrubs, such as the rock rose (Helianthemum).
Prune climbing roses and rambling roses once they've finished flowering (unless they are repeat-flowering varieties, in which case leave them until later in the year).
Keep camellias and rhododendrons well watered at this time of year to ensure that next year's buds develop well.
In the vegetable garden
Here are your September jobs in the vegetable garden:
Keep harvesting crops. If you have a glut of fruit and veg try freezing, drying, pickling, and storing so that you can benefit from them later on.
Pinch out the tips of outdoor cordon tomato plants to concentrate the plant's energy into ripening fruits, and not producing further growth.
Harvest sweetcorn. To test if it’s ready, pinch a kernel — it will release a milky sap when ripe. If the kernels are starchy, you've left it too late. If they're watery they need a little longer to ripen.
Pull or cut off the foliage of maincrop potatoes at ground level three weeks before lifting them. This will prevent blight spores infecting the tubers as you lift them, and help to firm the skins of the potatoes.
Spread newly dug potatoes out to dry for a few hours before storing them in a cool, dark place. Store them in paper or hessian sacks, as this will allow the crop to breathe while it’s in storage. Only store undamaged, disease-free tubers — one rotten potato can ruin your whole crop!
Help pumpkins ripen in time for Halloween by removing any leaves shading the fruits.
Raise pumpkins and squashes off the ground to prevent rotting. Place them on a piece of slate or wood.
Keep feeding and watering French and runner beans to keep them producing. Continue harvesting little and often to prevent them setting seed.
Cut bean and pea plants away at ground level when they have finished cropping. Leave the roots, as this will slowly release nitrogen back into the soil as they break down.
Start the autumn cleanup. Remove any old crops that have finished, and clear away weeds to leave your plot clean and tidy for the winter.
Pot up some mint and parsley for the kitchen windowsill for fresh herbs through the winter.
Cover your brassicas with netting to prevent birds making a meal out of them.