Autumn's a turning point in your garden
Early September is a turning point in the vegetable patch. Summer crops may still offer a final harvest, but many courgettes, beans, cucumbers, early potatoes and salad leaves will have started to leave useful gaps. Instead of letting those spaces sit empty, turn them quickly into autumn and winter pickings.
TL;DR
- Clear finished summer crops and prepare soil with compost for autumn sowings.
- Sow quick-growing hardy leaves, radishes, and turnips in cleared spaces.
- Plant sturdier crops like spring cabbage and kale in larger gaps.
- Use mulch or green manure to cover and protect tired or weedy soil.
- Echinops (globe thistle) provides architectural interest in sunny borders.
- Plant daffodils and bluebells in early September for spring colour.
- Continue tending summer bedding for extended flowering.
- Delay cutting asparagus foliage until it turns brown.