Lots to do, just some ideas for your September list.
- Start your compost heap — compost is garden gold. Compost seals in the moisture of the soil, protects soil surface during heavy rain, feeds all the creatures, micro organisms, bacteria, fungi which is the essence of and basics of a healthy growing garden.It is free resource, and you are returning to the soil what you have taken from it.You can make a liquid feed from your compost. Place some compost into a porous bag — soak for a couple of days, liquids now a feed for your Camellia, Rhododendrons and Magnolias, as they are busy producing flower buds for next spring.
- Empty vegetable beds, either plant spring cabbage or sow a green manure Phacelia Tanacetifolia, Clover,White mustard or buckwheat. Green manures fertilise the soil for the following crop mainly through the intake of nitrogen, which is then dug back into the soil (cabbage likes lots of nitrogen).Nitrogen on e of the 3 primary nutrients is essential for the production of amino acid,without amino acids, plants cannot make the special proteins that the plant cells need to grow.
- Sow seeds of perpetual spinach, baby leaf kale, lettuce such as Mizuna red Emperor as you can also use this in stir fries. Sow seeds into best quality compost, err on having it warm as this also helps with germination.
- What ever herbs that still look fresh, clip and freeze . Also if you have lots of tomatoes ,broad beans all these can be frozen for later use.Broad beans make a great soup with mint.
- Flowers are setting seeds, collect when ripe on dry days (damp will cause mould). Sweet pea, garden peas, broad beans all very easy( pods should be brown) for collection. Place into a paper bag, store in a dry dark consistently cool place in a plastic, metal or glass container. This can be a very interesting activity.
- You can start dividing some of your herbaceous perennials, such as Astrantia,Pulmoniara, Ophiopogan.You can also take cuttings of Verbena bonariensis. If you have too many pot them up and share with friends. Be gentle with cutting back and autumn clean up of the garden as it is still providing food and shelter for many creatures.To prepare for their hibernation, hedgehogs eat as much as they can during autumn, munching on beetles, caterpillars and earthworms to build up good fat reserves. They will then seek out a quiet spot to rest for the coming months, usually in piles of dead leaves, stacks of logs, compost heaps or under garden sheds.The exact time they retire to this spot will depend on how mild the weather is. Hibernation can take place any time from October to April, but in a warmer winter you may still see hedgehogs out and about in December.
- Keep dead heading your Dahalia’s, as this prolongs flowering, food again for visiting pollinators.
- Bulbs ,start getting them into the ground.Tulips are the last and generally are planted in Winter November, December and even January. If you can consider planting organic bulbs.
- The lawn, re-seed patches and also perfect for a new lawn. Scarifying or raking will really help with moss removal (moss is very useful for birds in spring for their nests not a total villain}. When I am collecting leaves or even planting and have made a mess on the grass, simply raking hard often is sufficient. Lawns are getting bad press now, but they act as an anchor for a garden, they absorb carbon dioxide, water soakage and give off oxygen. There is never a need to water it during droughts, leaving your grass cuttings feeds the soil, which brings us back task no 1. Biodiversity in your lawn is very welcome.
- Fruit trees, apples, pears, plumbs, all can be give a tidy up now. Plumbs are members of the prunus family so only prune gently and do it now before dormancy sets in. Pruning now is for shape. Hedges could also be cut now for winter structure.
namental grasses such as Stipa gigantia, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ Grasses such as Stipa tenuissima – Pony Tail grass, Stipa arundinacea better to pull your fingers through and remove spent fronds.Better to wait until the soil warms up before dividing clumps of grasses and there is better new growth.
At the moment growth is very much ahead of itself, I would advise not to be complacent, remember St Patricks day last year — snow.
Gardening opens up and awakeners an awareness to our environment, the life and beauty it holds for us.
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