This Month in Your Garden - September

A late summer garden has a tranquillity found no other time of year. William F Longgood

September may be an autumn month but it often clings on to August weather albeit in a slightly cooler manner, which is ideal for the gardener. Those scorching days of summer were not inviting if there was work to be done and the rain and warmth have certainly brought up the weeds in abundance.

So now is the time to get stuck in and clear beds and borders, preparing for planting. With a fair bit of rain in recent weeks, our ground is quite workable for digging over where needed and if yours is the same it’s a good time to sow hardy annuals for next year; larkspur or Delphiniums, Calendula, Coreopsis and poppies will all put on a good show.

Once climbing roses have flowered you can start pruning them back and taking hardwood cuttings of roses will add to your stock, as will semi-ripe cuttings of evergreen shrubs. Grow your own doesn’t just apply to the veg garden. Lilies can be potted to grow in a cold greenhouse or unheated frame and spring bulbs can be planted now.

Hold back on planting out tulips until November when the cold temperatures wipe out viral and fungal diseases. Work done, enjoy the tranquillity of your garden.

• Take cuttings of tender perennials, fuchsias, Marguerites, pelargoniums
• Sow Sweet Peas in the greenhouse or cold frame
• Sow hardy annuals
• Work manure into borders
• Collect seed to sow from perennials and hardy annuals 
• Net ponds ready for leaf fall
• Plant spring bulbs
• Indoors start forcing hyacinths
• Give bulbs a feed of bone meal at planting