Make space for the autumn garden
September begins with plenty still to harvest, but this week is also about turning cleared beds and containers into productive autumn growing spaces.
Photo: Amie Roussel via Unsplash
The first week of September doesn’t mean the end of the growing year.
Tomatoes, beans, courgettes and soft fruit may still be producing, while apples, pears and potatoes are beginning to take centre stage. At the same time, cooler conditions make it easier to establish hardy salads and winter vegetables.
The most useful approach this week is to work one space at a time. Clear a finished crop, improve the soil and decide whether to replant, sow green manure or cover the bed until it is needed.
What to sow indoors or under cover
Winter lettuce
Sow hardy varieties in modules for planting into a cold frame, unheated greenhouse or sheltered container.
Winter spinach
Sow a small tray under cover. The young plants can later fill gaps left by finished greenhouse crops.
Pea shoots
Sow closely in a shallow tray on a bright windowsill for a quick crop of tender shoots.
Microgreens
Radish, mustard and broccoli microgreens can provide something fresh without needing outdoor growing space.
Keep covered sowings somewhere bright and ventilated. Seedlings need less water as temperatures and light levels begin to fall.
What to sow or plant outside
- Winter spinach: sow in a sheltered bed or large container and protect the young plants from slugs.
- Corn salad: this hardy leaf grows slowly but can provide useful pickings during colder weather.
- Rocket: sow a small row for autumn leaves rather than using the whole packet.
- Mizuna and mustard leaves: sow thinly and harvest the young leaves before they become overcrowded.
- Spring onions: choose a hardy variety suitable for overwintering.
- Spring cabbage: plant out established young plants and cover them with fine netting.
- Strawberries: plant rooted runners or newly bought plants so they can establish before winter.
🌿 Give every empty bed a purpose
Empty soil is easily colonised by weeds and exposed to heavy autumn rain. Once a crop has finished, choose one of these three options.
1. Replant it
Use the space for spring cabbage, winter lettuce, spinach or another suitable hardy crop.
2. Sow green manure
Phacelia, field beans or another suitable green manure can cover the soil and add organic matter. Check how the crop fits into your rotation before sowing.
3. Cover the soil
Lay plain brown cardboard over the bed and hold it down with compost, well-rotted manure or other suitable material. Remove plastic tape and glossy labels first.
You don’t need to dig an entire bed. Clear weeds, loosen only badly compacted areas and let worms help incorporate surface mulch.
What may be ready to harvest
- Apples: test each variety separately because not every tree ripens at the same time.
- Pears: many varieties are picked while still firm and allowed to finish ripening indoors.
- Damsons and late plums: gather sound fruit before it falls or splits.
- Maincrop potatoes: lift only when ready and during a dry spell if possible.
- Tomatoes: collect ripe fruit and use anything split or damaged immediately.
- Runner and French beans: continue picking tender pods while the plants remain productive.
- Courgettes: check beneath large leaves for fruits that have been missed.
- Sweetcorn: harvest ripe cobs and cook them soon after picking.
- Autumn raspberries and blackberries: pick on dry days and refrigerate or freeze them promptly.
- Beetroot and carrots: lift as needed or preserve surplus roots.
Help the remaining tomatoes ripen
Outdoor tomato plants may still carry plenty of green fruit. The aim now is to help existing tomatoes ripen rather than encourage lots of new growth.
- Remove new flowers that are unlikely to produce ripe fruit.
- Continue removing side shoots from cordon varieties.
- Remove badly yellowed or diseased lower leaves.
- Keep healthy leaves that are feeding the fruit.
- Protect plants from cold nights where practical.
- Pick fruit promptly if the plant begins to fail.
Green tomatoes can ripen indoors beside a ripe banana or apple, which naturally releases ethylene. Check the fruit regularly and remove anything beginning to rot.
Jobs around the garden or allotment
- Raise pumpkins and squashes onto tiles or boards to keep them away from damp soil.
- Secure Brussels sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli and tall kale before autumn winds arrive.
- Check beneath brassica leaves for caterpillars and eggs.
- Place slug protection around newly planted winter salads and cabbage.
- Remove finished bean and pea plants, leaving healthy roots in the soil.
- Empty water from unused pots and trays so they don’t become stagnant.
- Clean one area of the greenhouse ready for autumn crops.
- Check stored onions and potatoes, removing anything soft or damaged.
- Label newly cleared beds with the crop that grew there to help with next year’s planning.
Make an apple ripeness chart
Pick apples only with adult help, then ask children to compare their colour, size, smell and firmness.
Cut the apples open and look at the seeds. Seeds often become darker as an apple matures, although the best test is whether the fruit comes away easily with a gentle lift and twist.
Children can draw each apple and record whether it was sweet, sharp, crunchy or soft. Always check fruit for damage before tasting it.
This week’s quick checklist
- Sow one container of winter spinach
- Plant out spring cabbage
- Replant or cover one empty bed
- Harvest ripe apples and pears
- Help outdoor tomatoes ripen
- Check stored onions and potatoes
- Protect new plants from slugs
- Secure tall winter brassicas
- Label beds as crops finish
- Make an apple chart with children