September

September

In the greenhouse

• Water crops in pots and grow bags every morning and at night too if necessary
• Damp down the greenhouse floor each morning on hot days
• Add liquid feed to at least one watering a week to keep plants growing strongly
• Look out for pests and take immediate action against anything you find
• Clean and tidy cold frames and greenhouses so that they are ready for use in the autumn

Tip: Harvest aubergine

Aubergines can be successfully grown in pots in the greenhouse. A couple of plants will produce enough fruits for most families. Grow from seed in the spring in the same way as tomatoes and peppers and then harvest the fruit in the autumn.

Fruit and vegetables

• Harvest onions and shallots when fully sun-ripened
• Continue to water crops regularly during hot weather
• Rest marrows on bricks in the sunshine to ripen them
• Net blackberries, autumn fruiting raspberries and leafy vegetable crops with bird-proof netting
• Finish pruning trained apple trees
• Cut down the tops of potato leaves and crop at the first signs of blight
• Pick autumn raspberries and blueberries
• Dig up remaining potatoes

Tip: Bring on the beetroot

Beetroot often tops the list of best-selling vegetable – surprised? Three ways of eating beetroot are:

• Sown closely together the crunchy leaves can be picked for salads when they are young and tender
• Leave others to form baby beetroot. Pull them while they are still small, boil in their skins and then peel and eat while they are warm, tender and sweet
• Alternatively let some of them get bigger, for peeling and grating raw over salads.

There is still time to sow beetroot for salad later in the year, covering them with cloches will keep them cropping even longer.