This Month in your Garden - September

The use of Greenwich Meantime (GMT) began at 3pm on 25 September 1676.

Asters are the flowers of September, known as well as Michaelmas daisies after the feast of St. Michael on the 29th of the month, and they put on a fine, colourful display into autumn.

Harvest time is here again and if you have been growing vegetables through the year it is the month of plenty. It’s also time to sow grass seed if you prepared last month for a new lawn. There’s plenty of digging to be done to work manure into the borders and there’s more seed to collect and sow from perennials and hardy annuals.

Lawn Care Guide - September

Weed me, feed me

Mowing will be less frequent now as we head into autumn and, as the growth rate of the grass slows, raise the height of the cutting deck or mower.  This will afford the grass more protection from the end of the drier weather as well as through the winter.

Now is a good time to scarify and aerate the lawn to get rid of thatch and moss, using a walk-behind scarifier or attachments on your garden tractor. Once done you can treat the lawn to an application of a combined weed and feed such as Evergreen to help set it up for winter. You can follow this with a top dressing.

Lawn Care: Questions & Answers

Q. The lawn has become greener after the dry spells but it’s patchy in lots of places, some of it in rings. What can I do to get it lush?

The Vegetable Plot - September

The big glut month for vegetables

The Anglo Saxons called September ‘barley month’ because it was when they harvested and made their barley brew. If you have been busy in the vegetable garden throughout the year you’ll be harvesting the benefits of your planting by gathering in the runner beans, tomatoes, sweet corn, lettuces, cabbages, courgettes and cucumbers and as if that wasn’t enough there are carrots, potatoes and turnips, courgettes and marrows and maincrop beetroot.

The Big Glut Recipe - September

Roast lamb and autumn vegetables

Use some of your glut of vegetables and serve four with a taste from the garden accompanied by a fresh mint pesto. The list looks long but it’s really very easy.

Ingredients

• A 700g (1lb 8oz) boneless lamb from leg or fillet
• 700g (25oz) new potatoes
• 1 butternut squash
• 4 large ripe tomatoes
• 1 large courgette
• 2 artichokes
• 4 large garlic cloves
• 100ml (3.5fl oz) white wine
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Black pepper
• Rustic chunky bread
• 2 tbsp toasted flaked almonds
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• Bunch of fresh mint
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Black pepper