September, the time of the harvest moon. We’re four days into meteorological autumn. Less than three weeks from the equinox. We’ll likely lose two hours of daylight by the end of the month. The hope is for an Indian summer.
It’s time to harvest your more tender crops: the Florence fennels, tomatoes, beans, corn. Lift onions, leeks and maincrop potatoes. Cut and ripen winter squash, perhaps a pumpkin for Halloween – cured in the sun.
Start to think about clearing, building up compost. Remember, also, to turn the heap, water it if needed, perhaps cover to retain heat. Begin gathering and raking for leaf mould, sowing green manure in opened spaces. We’ll try to find room for field beans or phacelia.
Pick apples, pears, damsons, too if you are lucky enough to have them. Note, a new Nigel Slater recipe for damson gin can be found in his 21 August column.
September is your last chance to sow carrots, turnips, hardier salads. We’ll look to grow mustard greens, other oriental leaves. The year’s last spinach should also go in now. Keep an eye for the coming cold at night. There should still be time for sowing coriander in warmer spots.
Start saving summer seed if you haven’t already. We regrow peas, beans, sunflowers, amaranth, nasturtiums, coriander, painted mountain corn. Our orache thrives without our help. A small warning: saving seed may not stop you buying more. The endless allure of an attractive packet…
Garlic can be planted from now. Onion sets should go in this month or next – bulbs planted a hand-width apart and an inch deep with the tips just showing.
Italian chicories should be ready to eat in September. We’ll start with pick-and-come-again leaves and lift the plants later. Endive should soon be ready to harvest.
Allotment sites will slow down after this month, neighbours drift away. It’s time to gather for thank-you’s, perhaps a barbecue.
Allan Jenkins’s Plot 29 (4th Estate, £9.99) is out now. Order it for £8.49 from guardianbookshop.com
