Gardening Jobs for September

As the weather cools and the days become shorter there are still many jobs that you can be getting on with that will keep your garden looking good in the colder months, and will help to ensure a fantastic display next year.

• Plant spring flowering bulbs: from Camassia to Alliums, Fritillaria to Tulips and Daffodils, a little planning and planting at this time of year will reap colourful rewards come next spring.
• Divide herbaceous perennials where they have become congested. Doing this regularly will ensure that your perennials remain healthy and vigorous, as well as providing you with additional plants. Don’t forget to keep newly divided plants well-watered whilst they establish in the soil.
• Keep your annuals going for as long as you can by regularly deadheading and feeding them.
• Deadhead Dahlias, Penstemons and Roses to encourage more flowers.
• Collect seeds from your favourite flowers and store in labelled envelopes, ready to sow in spring
• Take cuttings from fuschias, salvias and pelargoniums
• Pot up tender perennials, such as fuschias and osteospermum from summer displays and bring into the greenhouse or indoors before temperatures drop
• Keep harvesting produce in the vegetable patch. Lift and dry onions once the foliage has flopped. They can be stored in nets or plaited and hung up until needed. Dig up the last of any potatoes before they become susceptible to slug damage and enjoy Autumn raspberries
• Remove leaves from squashes and pumpkins to enable the sun to reach and ripen the developing fruits.
• Remove the tips from tomato plants so that all of the plant’s energy can be directed toward the developing fruit rather than producing new fruit.
• When peas and beans have finished, cut the plants back at ground level, leaving the roots in situ. The roots will slowly release nitrogen back into the soil.
• Cut the fruited canes of summer raspberries, and tie in the new, green canes which will provide the fruit next year.
• Tidy and weed vegetable beds that become empty when produce is lifted.
• Rake thatch from lawns, scarify well-trodden areas by spiking with a garden fork, and re-seed bare patches
• Start to tidy up and clean greenhouses, pots and containers.
• net ponds if possible before leaf fall gets underway
• Look out for forecasts of early frosts and be ready to bring tender potted plants under cover