September gardening

It has been a very changeable Summer weather-wise, but crops, on the whole, have been early to ripen and reasonably heavy in my patch. Summer flowers have put on a wonderful show and if you keep dead-heading, will go on for a few weeks more. Day lilies in my garden have flowered very well despite hardly flowering at all last year

There are still the asters, chrysanthemums, Hederanthas (Schizostolis) and sedums to come into their own in September and October.

Here are some jobs you could do:

Harvest: Onions, main crop potatoes, sweetcorn, pumpkins and squashes. Apples and pears will mostly have been picked at the end of August this year. All apart from sweetcorn can be stored in a dark dry place. Sweetcorn cobs freeze well.

Autumn fruiting raspberries and beans will continue to need picking or they will stop producing more.

Collect seeds to share or keep for next year; store them in labelled paper bags or envelopes somewhere cool and dry. The garden Society runs a seed swap at their Spring Show and at the trading shed later.

Plant: daffodils, crocus, hyacinth and Muscari (wait until November for tulips); start to plant overwintering onions and shallots

Divide: herbaceous perennials that are overcrowded.

Take cuttings: of tender perennials like Fuchsia, Pelargonium, Salvias and penstemons and overwinter under cover.

Cut down: fruited canes of berries and tie in the new growth.

Lawns: scarify, aerate, top-dress and feed with a low nitrogen fertiliser …. or grow a wild flower meadow instead!

Dead-heading: One wants to tidy things up at this time of year, but hydrangeas need their dead flower heads to protect next year’s buds; many other seed heads are a valuable resource for wildlife and the foliage is home for many invertebrates over winter. Wildlife does not like tidy!

Most important: Find time to enjoy your garden and perhaps visit someone else’s for ideas.

Dates for your diary – open gardens for NGS

1^st and 29^th September: Dipley Mill, Hartley Wintney, RG27 8JP

1^st September: Old Thatch and Millennium Barn, Winchfield RG27 8DD

Hints and tips for July and August

All that planning and preparation is worth it in July and August. Now you can harvest raspberries, currants, gooseberries and freeze any surplus to cheer up winter menus. By the end of August, the apple and pear harvest can begin; these fruits can be stored on trays in newspaper.

The lack of rain and heat in June, has not been kind to beans, peas and early potatoes, but will be ready for harvest and the annual courgette glut is under way.

When garlic leaves turn yellow, lift the bulbs and dry in a single layer in a dry place.

Sow seeds for autumn and winter salads.

Erigeron

This is a popular plant with bees – Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’

Clip, snip and cut

Early summer flowering shrubs like Philadelphus: cut back flowered stems to a strong lower shoot and remove one fifth of the old woody stems.
Clip privet, box, yew, cypress and other ‘hedgy’ plants now the birds have finished nesting in them.
Cut long whippy shoots of Wisteria to 5 leaves from the main stem.
Prune out flowered stems of rambling roses; thin out the vigorous new growth and tie it in.
Summer-prune cordon or espalier apples and pears
Cut non-flowering side branches of grape vines to 5 leaves and fruit- bearing branches to 2 leaves beyond the fruit bunch.
Cut back hardy geraniums to the ground after the first flush of flowers to get fresh foliage and more flowers later on.
Dead-heading keeps perennials and bedding plants flowering for longer.
In August, trim lavender, leaving an inch (2.5cm) of new growth.

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