On the allotment blog - September

September on the plot

I really enjoy September on the allotment, that slow transition from the hot summer days to those colder dewy mornings. September offers a month of hard work on the allotment with soil preparations and planning, but nothing can take away from the beautiful rewards of bountiful harvests throughout.

As we slowly approach autumn there are still lots of things we can be doing down on our allotment plots in preparation for next year, but just because the colder months are coming it doesn’t mean we have to stop growing.

My first job of September is to get my autumn seeds sown on the allotment and in my kitchen garden. I have sown these seeds directly into raised beds on my allotment in hope to provide myself with little helpings of fresh greens and crops over the colder months.

Everyone loves a freebie, well now is a great time to pot up your strawberry runners. I pop the strawberry runners into some pots filled with compost and snip the runners from the main plant. I give the plants a water and allow them to develop roots into the pots until spring. I then re-plant the strawberry plants into their final positions in springtime and wait to reap the sweet fruity rewards from them in summer. It’s super easy and it gives you free plants, what’s not to love?

Saving seeds is a really easy way to cut down costs on your allotment. Saving seeds on the allotment can be very easy so here are my tips on how to save calendula and bean seeds. I leave bean pods on the vines and allow them to dry naturally on the plant, when the pods have turned brown and are dry to touch they are ready to harvest. 

Calendula seeds- allow some of the calendula flowers to die back naturally on the plant, once the flower dies off you will be left with a green seed head (middle picture) if you leave these heads to dry and turn brown (picture on the right) these will then be ready to harvest and store. You can do this with lots of seeds on the allotment and in your garden just make sure that the varieties are not F1 as they will not grow back true to type. I love to spend the autumn and winter months organising my saved seeds and getting involved with seed swaps on social media.

Kirsty’s September allotment top tips

Harvest, harvest, harvest as the allotment slows down keep harvesting crops to maximise production during the last few weeks.

Start looking at overwintering garlic and onions set, I always find growing these over winter saves me a job to do in the spring when I am always super busy on the plot.

Thinking ahead, do you need to think about protection for your plants over the winter, you can use cloches and fleece to protect tender crops.

Plum trees- prune your plum trees before it gets too cold. Plum trees don’t like being pruned in cold weather and can be susceptible to disease. Once you have harvested your fruit make pruning your plum tree a top priority.

Happy gardening!

Kirsty Ward

My Little Allotment