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September on Your Plot

Things to be doing during September:

Leave asparagus foliage until it goes brown to build up the plant for next year

Watch out for blight on potatoes and tomatoes.

Protect autumn raspberries from the birds with netting.

Cut down fruited canes of summer raspberries and blackberries and tie in new stems for next year.

Prune stone fruit trees - plums. cherries etc - and blackcurrant's

Watering, watering, …. Remember it’s the roots that need the water not the leaves.

Wait for onion leaves to fall over naturally then lift and leave to dry outside or in out of rain.

After clearing crops don’t leave bare soil. Cover with compost/manure or sow green manure.

Earth up celery to blanch stems.

If it stays dry - water cabbages, Brussels, cauliflowers etc and mulch to preserve the moisture.

A Which? trial indicated that onion sets are best planted just below the surface without the tips showing.

Just time to sow spinach, spring onions, winter lettuce and other salad crops

Protect late sown carrots against carrot fly - try fleece.

You could even try a late sowing of dwarf beans.