Page 51 - Simply Veg 3.21

September
The main sowing season is over, but you can still sow lettuce, corn salad and radish. I told you the varieties to sow at this time of the year and their suppliers last month.
If you have spare ground, you could sow hardy annual flowers. I don’t sow mine till spring because I want my flowers for the August and September shows, but you could sow some now if you want flowers earlier. You could also sow green manure which are quick growing plants which are dug into the ground in winter to enrich the soil.
You may have some plants ready for planting from earlier sowings such as brassicas and salad crops. Plant them as soon as you can while the ground is still reasonably warm.
Garlic can also be planted this month. There are varieties for planting in spring but varieties for planting now are Laurec wight
( M, R, B, F), Caulk wight (same suppliers), Early purple wight (M, B, F) , Messidrome
(D, S) and Germidour (D, S, R). Please see the end of the July notes for the key to these suppliers. Winter onion sets can still be planted. I told you these varieties last month
could just treat them like annuals and dig them up after flowering if you wish.
You still need to feed flowers and
Collarette dahlia
I have three compost bays on my allotment.
When one is full, I leave it to rot down and start filling another one. When filling them up I sprinkle compost maker on the material every six inches or so. Every so often, I transfer the contents of the full bay into the empty one which aerates it and helps in
the rotting process. I always keep one bay empty for this purpose. I don’t put weeds
on the compost as I have enough material without them. Weeds go to the re-cycling centre. The method you use to make compost obviously depends on the facilities you have. You may not have three bays like me but try to organise it properly and you will be rewarded.
In the fruit garden blackberries and summer fruiting raspberries can still be pruned. Just cut down the canes that have fruited and tie the others to the wires. It is a good time to tidy up the strawberry bed by removing dead leaves and if you put straw on the bed in summer to protect the fruit, now is the time to remove it. In two months, it will be time to plant fruit trees and bushes. I am saying this now because you may want to order them from a specialist supplier. You have a wider choice of varieties by doing so rather than going to a garden centre. These plants arrive bare rooted and they can only be planted between November and March. Those in garden centres are in containers
This is a good month to plant spring bulbs, apart from tulips which are normally left till November. Daffodils and narcissi are a good choice but there are
several others to choose
from. There should be a
good choice in shops and
garden centres. They look
best planted in drifts but if
you are short of room they
can be planted in threes or
fives between other plants in
a border. If you grow annuals
in beds on the allotment, as
I do, or at home, they can
be planted in these beds because they will have finishes flowering before you need to plant the annuals. You can leave them in the ground to flower again next year or you
vegetables this
Properly made compost is a valuable asset providing nutriment for the soil
month. I wrote about feeding at length last month so please refer to these notes. Also keep dead heading flowers and why not cut some flowers to put in
vases in the house. Two other jobs we need to keep doing are checking to see
if any plants need re-tying, and disbudding dahlias and Chrysanths. from one clump. Before you re-plant them,
fork in some general fertiliser.
You should have a lot of green material for
composting. Properly made compost is a valuable asset providing nutriment for the soil.
Compost bays,one full and one almost ready to use
Ball dahlia Jomanda
Simply Vegetables 51