Gardening Calendar - September

September is generally a cooler month than August with the days being noticeably shorter, making it a crucial month for garden maintenance.

It's time to get out and start planting spring-flowering bulbs in containers and borders ready for next year. Plant up your containers for autumn interest, using cyclamen, heathers, heucheras, add wallflowers, pansies and forget-me-nots for extended colour into spring.

Sow hardy annuals, such as Sweet Peas, Calendula, Scabiosa and Cornflowers, for flowering early next summer.  Plant out biennial plants you grew from seed earlier in summer, if you’ve not already got them in your borders. September is an ideal time to divide and replant congested clumps of herbaceous perennials, such as achilleas, once they finish flowering.

Harvest apples, pears, and plums now. Test apples by lifting gently, ripe fruit comes away easily. Pick pears slightly under-ripe and ripen indoors for a better finish. 

Dig up maincrop potatoes before the soil gets too wet. Yellowing foliage signals readiness. Choose dry days for lifting and store only perfect tubers in paper sacks in a cool, dark place. Sow hardy greens, such as kale and lambs’ lettuce for winter pickings. Start sowing hardy varieties of broad beans and peas for early crops next year and plant shallot and onion sets in a sunny spot.

Now is the time to complete summer pruning of both free-standing and trained apple trees, to encourage good fruiting in future years, as well as prune out all the fruited canes of summer raspberries, cutting down to the base, and tie in new canes to supports.

As well as clearing up any fallen leaves, rake thatch from lawns, scarify well-trodden areas by spiking with a garden fork, and re-seed any bare patches.

Plant prepared hyacinth bulbs in pots or hyacinth glasses, for beautiful fragrant indoor flowers at Christmas.

Don’t forget to wash and disinfect bird feeders and tables to maintain good hygiene.