Things to do in the Garden in September
- clairecharrie
- Sep 25
- 5 min read
Rather than slowing down, September is a busy time in the garden with things changing quickly, with our gardens shifting from summer splendour to autumnal calm. It’s a time of harvest, cooking, planting, and preparation—balancing productivity with planning for the colder months ahead. This is the time to get ahead to save time and work next Spring and save yourself having to work in colder conditions.
Planting & Sowing
Spring Bulbs: Plant daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, and other spring bulbs to ensure they establish roots before winter.
Hardy Annuals: Sow seeds like calendula, wallflower, and poppy for early flowers next summer.
Perennials & Bedding: Start planting new perennials as well as trees/ shrubs/climbers whilst the soil is still warm and moist. Plant late-flowering perennials such as Sedum or Rudbeckia to extend colour and feed pollinators. You can also plant pansies, wallflowers, and forget-me-nots for autumn and spring interest.
Vegetables: Continue sowing winter vegetables like spinach and turnips, or plant overwintering onion and shallot sets and spring cabbages.
Sow green manure: Green manures are useful in many ways; they protect the soil from erosion over winter, reducing the potential of any leaching of mineral and nutrients, and also protect soil structure, as well as boosting nutrients when dug into the soil. They also provide a green carpet that helps provide shelter for beneficial insects through the winter, such as ground beetle, and if you leave a patch to flower they are loved by pollinators – Phacelia tanacetifolia for example, is one of the best nectar sources for the honeybee, bumble bee and hoverfly.
Harvesting & Preparation
Fruit: Harvest apples, pears, and late plums, and pick autumn raspberries. Once harvested, you can prune back your fruit trees and shrubs to maximise yields next year. As a general rule of thumb the sooner this is done after harvesting the better.
Pot up strawberry runners to make new plants for next summer and cut back the fruited canes of summer raspberries, tying in the new green canes for next year’s crop.
Vegetables: Lift and store maincrop potatoes before they are spoiled by pests and dig up any remaining crops.
Seeds: Collect seeds from plants like Honesty and Violas, store them in labelled envelopes, and use them to sow in the spring.
Storing your harvest: Pick gluts of fruit and veg to make jams, sauces, flavoured gins and chutneys in preparation for the coming winter. Store in good airtight bottles and jars and they’ll last for months.
Top tip: Pick figs as and when they ripen, bottling them in vodka if you can’t eat them all fresh. They can be sliced to serve as a delicious topping for vanilla ice cream, and you can drink the spirit as you would sloe gin.
Tidying & Maintenance
Perennials: Divide congested clumps of perennials and replant them to refresh them.
Tender Plants: Begin bringing tender plants, such as pelargoniums, indoors to protect them from the coming frosts.
Lawn: Feed and revive tired lawns to encourage strong growth before winter.
Mulching: Apply a layer of mulch to flower borders to protect bulbs and improve soil health.
Lavender: Trim lavender into a compact shape after it has finished flowering to maintain its form.
Other Tasks
Ponds: Net ponds before the main leaf fall begins to prevent leaves from clogging them.
Greenhouses: Clean out cold frames and greenhouses to make them ready for autumn and winter use. Bring in tender perennials for overwintering.
Houseplants: Gradually reduce watering for houseplants as light levels fall.
Bee News
September Bees
Ivy bee (Colletes hederae) - pictured above - season is definitely here! They are easy bees to spot due to the time of year they appear (autumn) and how distinct they are in appearance - similar in size and look to a honey bee (Apis millefera), but they are more furry and have a more pronounced stripe to their abdomen. Unsurprisingly, you are most likely to see them on flowering ivy (although they visit other flowers, especially if ivy is scarce) from late August through to October/November. Like other solitary bees, they don’t form a social nest like honey bees or wasps. They can nest in large groups close to each other - called nest aggregations, so sometimes it can seem like there is a typical nest of them. Keep an eye out for an example of this in Maidenhead thicket. Ivy bees are pretty harmless though, so quite interesting to watch. Solitary bees rarely sting and as always, the male bees lack stingers altogether.
Also spotted buzzing around on the ivy at this time of year are (social) wasps (Vespula sp) and sometimes European hornets (Vespa crabro) - pictured above. With less insects around as a food source in September, nectar from the ivy is a welcome buffet. They both have a similar life cycle to eusocial bees with their nest starting in spring, growing over summer and starting to die off in autumn after producing males and queens. Both wasps and hornets are an important part of a garden ecosystem, providing pest control and pollination. We’ve seen a lot of hornets this year which has been fascinating. We had a nest in the end gable of our holiday cottage in Devon and we’ve spent time watching females hunting in the long garden at Cliveden. Whilst fearsome in appearance, they definitely deserve a better reputation than they have!
However, a hornet you don’t want in your garden is an Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina). While there have been no sightings in Berkshire so far this year, it is still a good idea to be aware of what they look like as they can often be mistaken for many of our native insects. Visit the British Beekeepers Association (www.bbka.org.uk) for an accurate guide to identifying them. With no natural predators or pathogens to keep them in check, they pose a danger to honeybee and other insect populations in the UK. Thus all sightings should be reported.
Despite the arrival of this yellow-legged creature on our islands, it’s good to be mindful that there are numerous threats to both our bee populations and general biodiversity - pesticides, destruction of habitat, change in climate - all of these things require robust action too. The lengthening nights always make me start planning how I can help support bees in the new year and now is a good time to start thinking about what bulbs and plants you could have in your garden for spring next year.
Recipes of the Month
Butternut Squash Soup
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 large butternut squash
4 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
Olive oil
2 medium onions
1 - 2 tsp mixed dried herbs
200g red lentils
750ml - 1 litre vegetable stock
Salt / pepper
Method:
Slice unpeeled squash in to large chunks, remove seeds.
Place in a baking tray add oil, mixed herbs & seasoning.
Roast in oven at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes until softened.
In meantime, chop onion, add to a big pot and lightly fry with some olive oil until soft.
Add butternut mix including oils to the pot with the stock and red lentils and cook for a further 20-25 minutes or until lentils are cooked.
Blitz to a velvety smooth consistency, if soup is too thick just add more stock. Season to taste.
Enjoy!
Extremely Simple Ice Cream
Ingredients:
500ml of double cream
1 x tin of condensed milk
1 x teaspoon of vanilla bean extract
Method:
If you want to add flavourings you just swap out the vanilla extract. My favourite is using raspberry coulis and swirling it through so you end up with raspberry ripple ice cream.
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk to stiff peaks.
Transfer to a freezer proof container with a lid and freeze overnight if possible. Take out of the freezer 20 minutes before you want to use it so it can soften slightly.
Yum!
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