Subscribe today!
Joyce Russell

Under cover

Sometimes September can feel more like summer than August does. But the bite of autumn is just around the corner. Keep gathering the harvest and laying up stores. Keep an eye to the months ahead as well – plant and sow for a polytunnel or greenhouse that will keep you fed through the coldest times of the year.

Top jobs for SEPTEMBER


Joyce hard at work
Peppers - should be at their best in September

Sow and plant (S/P)
• Kohl rabi (S/P)
• Swiss chard (P)
• Spinach (S/P)
• Spring cabbage (S/P)
• Broccoli (P)
• Pak choi (P)
• Mizuna, mibuna, rocket (S)
• Land cress, lamb’s lettuce (S)
• Winter lettuce (S/P)
• Fennel (P)

Bring in the harvest
• Cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Aubergines
• Peppers
• Sweetcorn
• Basil
• French beans
• Grapes
• Melons
• Salad leaves
• Squash

Grapes

Grapes get sweeter with longer exposure to sun. Pick on a warm day, when fruit is fully coloured and has a light bloom to the skin. If bunches are tightly packed, you will need to rinse thoroughly to remove any bugs. Check vines regularly for signs of mould or mildew. Early action may save the crop.

Harvest home

Keep up with the harvesting and don’t despair at yet another basket of tomatoes. It is better to pick regularly, and keep plants cropping, than to leave over-ripe fruit to drop to the ground. Even in an Indian summer, the hot weeks are numbered.
We have been known to get frost at the end of the month, putting a check to growth, and the glut will start to tail off. The aim is to keep plants in the best possible condition; in the hope they will crop for a good many weeks yet. So pick, eat, freeze, preserve and give away, but don’t waste those beautiful baskets of fruit and veg.

Keep sowing and planting

Your work under cover this month will do a lot to determine what you eat for the months ahead. August sowings of spinach, fennel, lettuce, kohl rabi etc should be ready for planting out. Clear crops that have finished producing and be ruthless – it is better to replant, and have a full crop of winter lettuce in December, than to cherish a block of sweetcorn that has done its work and may never manage to ripen the last part-formed cobs.

There is still time to sow a whole range of vegetables and it is wise to make second sowings of lettuce and salad leaves for the winter. The exact timing for sowing these crops can change from year to year. In a hot autumn, plants grow faster and for longer, before cold weather halts growth, so they may reach maturity much sooner than you planned. A second sowing hedges your bets a little and gives you plenty of pickings over several months.

For much more advice, see this month's issue, available to buy online!