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September in your garden

The Essential guide to work in your September garden.

Start sowing hardy crops nowSeptember; harvest month. When Britain was an agricultural economy the whole life of the nation depended upon the harvest. We have Robert Stephen Hawker to thank for the harvest festival ceremony that survives today. He first began the celebration of the fruitfulness of the land in 1843 and ever since churches up and down the country have been decorated with fruit, vegetables, flowers and the odd tin of pineapple.

Plan crop rotation

Harvest...

Organic Gardening MagazineApples, globe artichoke, aubergines, French and runner beans, beetroot, blackberries, blackcurrants, blueberries, calabrese broccoli, Brussels sprouts, summer cabbage, early and maincrop carrots, autumn cauliflower, celeriac, celery, chard, chicory, fennel, kohl rabi, lettuce, mulberries, onions, pears, maincrop peas, peppers, plums, maincrop potatoes, radishes, raspberries, redcurrants, rhubarb, sorrel, spinach, spring onions, winter squash, pumpkins, strawberries, sweetcorn, tomatoes, turnips.

mulberry facts:

The origins of the nursery rhyme ‘Here we go round the mulberry bush’ started life as a prison-chant sung by inmates of Wakefield Prison as they exercised round a mulberry bush in the prison grounds, which is still there today.

Mulberries are the vital ingredient in an ancient mead-like drink called morat which has been revived in Lincolnshire by the Skidbrooke Cyder Company



• More on this in the magazine

Seasonal tastes…

Warden pies, made with Warden pears were a autumn speciality around Bedfordshire, as well as hot baked Wardens, which were sold in the streets at this time of year. Try your own version with a seasonal pear harvest.

• 6 large firm Worcester black pears
• 300-450ml (1⁄2pt-3⁄4pt) red wine
• 28g (1oz) brown sugar
• Pinch ground cinnamon, ginger and saffron
Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Peel the pears and place in an ovenproof dish. Meanwhile mix the red wine with the brown sugar and spices and pour into the dish, ensuring the pears are covered. Cook for two hours, or until pears are tender.

If using pears other than Worcesters then cook for 20-30mins. Serve hot.

• More on this in the magazine

Sow...

Chicory, radishes, pak choi and salad rocket, under cover, and spring cabbage, spinach, endive and kohl rabi outside. Sow new wildflower meadows and attractant plants for early flowering. Don’t forget to sow over-wintering green manures.

Tip for green manures:
Winter tares gives good weed control and is a nitrogen fixer. When dug in, the following spring, this green manure rots down rapidly to release a good supply of nitrogen, great if you want to plant cabbages or leafy crops. Sow tares in rows and dig them in in early summer.

• More on this in the magazine

Prune your fruit trees…

Apple and pear trees; and as soon as you’ve collected plums and damsons, prune the trees immediately.

• Remove old raspberry and blackberry canes and tie in new ones.
• Complete pruning on gooseberries by cutting off any mildewed
tops and burning.
• Finish pruning well-trained peaches and nectarines.
• Remove the dead wood on any well-trained cherries.
• Tie down or cut out strong vertical shoots.

Top tip:
If you need to reduce your overgrown plum tree, then do the work after cropping in early autumn to avoid silverleaf disease. Remove all damaged, diseased crossing and rubbing branches. Thin the canopy to help light penetrate and ensure no shoots are touching. Saw off any large branches to a point where an outward-facing shoot or branch arises.

• Much more in the magazine

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