"There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments"

Janet Kilburn Phillips

It's been a good summer!

Hi Everyone.

I do hope your summer has been a good one. I expect, like a lot of us, there have been successes and some failures. There always are, no matter what the unpredictable, climate warming weather throws at us.

Sitting here at my desk listening to the first lot of decent rain we've had here in London for I don't know how long, I'm feeling a little melancholy. After a long, busy summer it's now time to take stock and think about feeding the soil that gives us life. It may feel like the food growing season is coming to an end, but there's still lots to do.

So what have we got in store for you this month.

What to sow and grow in September.

Jobs for September...Putting back what we've taken out.

Let's get spicy!

Can gardening benefit your gut health?

Growing undercover - From big to small.

And lastly, Lottie news.

🥦🍅🥒🌶🍠🌽🍓🫑🫐🍐🥕

What to sow and grow in in September.

We're now moving into another season with shorter days and cooler temperatures, but there is still lots we can sow. The only thing we need to keep in mind is getting the seedlings we sow now into the soil before the really cold weather sets in.

Over Wintering Onions can be sown now or if you have over Wintering sets they can be planted. This also applies to Shallots. Some hardy Spring Onions will see you through to Spring if you get them sown this month.

Other short season crops like hardy Lettuce, Salad Leaves, Rocket, Turnips and Pak Choi are good to do now, as well as Winter Radishes, Endive, Mustards and Oriental Leaves. (See below)

Any Kales can get started now, and although they won't do much over Winter, by Spring they will come into their own, this also goes for Chard, Perpetual Spinach. and True Spinach.

Herbs like Parsley, Coriander, Dill and Chervil all like the cooler temperatures, all of which are happy to grow in pots indoors or out.

I'm going to give Florence Fennel another go shortly as the ones I started earlier in the year all bolted and are now beginning to flower. This may be really nice for the pollinators, but it meant I didn't get one single bulb!

And lastly, if you have bought some Strawberry plants recently or perhaps you have grown some from the runners you had, then this is a perfect time to plant them in a new bed.

Jobs to do in September

For me, this time of year I seem to spend more time in the kitchen, freezing or cooking all the veg I've grown in the past few months, than being on my allotment. My freezer is bursting with vegetable soups and curries alongside bags of Blackberries, Rhubarb and of course loads of Beans and Courgettes.

It's very easy to feel that the growing season is coming to an end with all the harvesting, but it's not a time to sit on your laurels. There's lots of things we can be doing to keep your growing area ready for the next stage and looking well kept and ship shape.

Let's get spicy!

Personally I'm not into anything peppery, spicy or at the other end of the scale 'blow your head off hot'. I don't mind bitter or sour...you can call me old fashioned or a wimp, but you can keep your spicy vegetables.😫

Saying that, I know a lot of people who love to jazz up their food and salads with a bit of peppery heat. So I've got a few things here that you can grow now, that only take a few weeks to harvest.

Winter Radish: Black Spanish Round, Mooli and China Rose all grow very quickly.

Oriental Veg: Mustard Spinach/Komatsuna, Mizuna and Oriental mixed leaves.

Salad leaves: Mixed spicy leaves, Rocket and American Landcress.

Mustards: Red Frills and Red Giant

If you Google these varieties you'll have quite a wide choice to choose from.

Can gardening benefit your gut health?

You may have read about all the ways gardening supports good health, providing gentle exercise, vitamin D and stress-busting contact with nature. Well, it turns out that some of the most powerful health benefits of gardening may come from our contact with the soil itself.

One teaspoon of topsoil contains around 1 billion individual microscopic cells and around 10,000 different species. Microorganisms are what keep your soil full of nutrients and contains more living organisms than there are people in the world. One teaspoon of good garden soil can have over a 100 million bacteria and 800 feet of fungal threads!

Click HERE to read a recent RHS article on this very interesting subject.

Growing under cover.

Not everyone has the space or the money to have a poly tunnel to grow their veg, but having some undercover growing area can really help with extending the growing season. Whether it's to start the season off early or to keep it going for longer.

Now's a good time to think about preparing for some less clement weather in the coming months. Having a hoop house or cold frame can help us not only grow more veg, but it can shield our crops from cold, biting winds and light frosts.

You don't have to go all out like Huw Edwards in the video below, as there are lots of different ways on YouTube to help you get the same effect. Hoop houses or low tunnels as they are sometimes know can be very cheap and easy to make.

Lottie News!

A lot can happen in two months! And I have to say a lot did happen, in fact probably too much as I dropped the ball somewhat and missed out on getting a few of my favourite crops in too late. My Sweetcorn for starters...I only got one decent cob and three little diddy ones out of nine plants. Rather disappointing ☹️ So was my attempt at growing Melons again. I'll be lucky if I get small one out of three plants.

Sometimes life does get in the way, it happens to all of us at some point, but I had taken on too much this summer. Volunteering for the growing project at Vine Road every Saturday, organising the open day at the Westfields allotments, doing plant stalls at the Barnes pond market, and my monthly food growing sessions in Mortlake amongst lots of other bits and pieces I helped out with. I have to admit I'm quite exhausted and looking forward to slowing down and hibernating a bit over winter.

The harvesting for the food bank was another thing I was doing, but I was totally blown away by all the produce that was donated. My trolley got used several times, mainly to transport the monster Courgettes that had grown in the heatwaves.

I was really happy to find another Mr. Froggy hanging out in my poly tunnel a few weeks ago. At first I thought I'd seen a mouse run across the pathway into the jumble of fertiliser containers I have by the door because it had moved so quick. But then when I was watering late in the afternoon, Mr. Froggy jumped out from under the Allysum and gave me quite a start.

Some of the things that have done really well this season are the Purple Beans I'd grown for the first time...they romped away and I'm still picking them. The dried Yin Yang Beans that were very easy to grow in Potato bags didn't disappoint either. I still have lots on my kitchen window shelf where the last of the pods are drying.

The Yacon is now shoulder height and I can begin to see some of the tubers pushing their way up from the soil...Exciting! 🙌

The self seeded Peppers are now beginning to ripen and so are the Tomatoes, which are coming thick and fast. So it's back to the kitchen for me to make a start on a big pot of vegetable soup. It will be portioned up and squeezed into the few empty spaces left in the large freezer we have upstairs for all the produce we can't eat now.

If you have a food gardening question you'd like to ask just pop me an email and I'll see how I can help. I don't proclaim to be an expert, but I will do my best to answer any of your questions.

In the meantime, if you know of anyone who might like to become a FG4A member do feel free to forward them this email and get them to visit the website and sign up, it's free!

Or you can always catch up with what I've been up to on Facebook or instagram.

Keep Cool.

Christine x

Visit the Website

Send An Email

33 South Worple Way

London, SW14 8PB United Kingdom