September is a lovely month here in West Sussex. If we are lucky an Indian summer again and the warmth extending into the autumnal glow.

The summer flowering perennials and annuals are dying back to show their beautiful seed heads if we let them. Making way for the turn of the Japanese anemones, asters, rudbeckias, echinaceas and ornamental grasses.

Sow/Plant:

Sow broad beans, kale, chard

and potatoes for a Christmas crop!

Plant out leeks and brassicas.

Sow hardy annuals for next year.

Start thinking about sowing spring flowering

bulbs.

Pot up strawberry runners for next year.

Harvest:

Raspberries, blackberries, apples, pears, last of the courgettes, cucumbers, potatoes, beans, tomatoes and peppers.

Secateurs jobs:

Deadhead dahlias.

Prune rambling roses, fruited canes of summer raspberries and wisteria if not already.

Summer prune apples and pears.

Divide and replant perennials.

Cut back finished beans, leave the roots in to add nitrogen to the soil.

Support:

Keep tying in dahlias, verbena bonariensis,

raspberries and anything else flopping over.

Mulch and Feed:

Keep feeding tomatoes and pot displays.

Lawns:

Scarify and raise the cutting height of the mower.

Mow wildflower meadows.

Keep watering early morning or evening and enjoy the harvest!