What to sow and grow in September
September is here - a month where the garden feels heavy with harvest and full of change. Days are shorter, the mornings cooler, and the light softer, but the raised beds, polytunnel, hedgerows, and trees are still brimming with fruit and colour.
It’s peak harvest time at Fat Tomato: apples are tumbling from the trees, tomatoes are coming by the basket, damsons and wild blackberries are staining our hands, and pears are ready to be picked. Pumpkins are turning from green to deep orange, and the kitchen is busy preserving, bottling, and freezing to capture every ounce of flavour before the darker months set in.
September is also a month for saving seeds, sowing hardy greens, and tidying the garden to prepare for autumn and winter.
HERE’S OUR LIST FOR September:
Winter Greens
Sowing hardy crops like spinach, kale, winter purslane, lamb’s lettuce, and corn salad.
These will keep beds productive through the colder months.
We like to sow in modules now and plant out under fleece or in the tunnel.
Garlic and Onions
Late September is a good time to prepare the ground for planting garlic and overwintering onions. We do a mix of our own seed and buy some new ones from Fruit Hill Farm.
Choose well-drained soil or raised beds to prevent rot over winter.
Green Manures
Mustard, clover, and phacelia will be sown in empty beds.
They protect soil structure, suppress weeds, and feed the ground when dug in during late Spring.
Seed Saving
September is prime seed-saving season - tomatoes, beans, peas, herbs, and flowers.
We let some crops go to seed deliberately for our seed collections. We pick the best-tasting plants to save seeds from.
The house is full of trays with labels on them. It’s the best place to dry them.
OTHER JOBS FOR SEPTEMBER
Apples & Pears - picking as they ripen; storing late varieties in a cool, dry place.
Tomatoes - keep harvesting regularly and turning them into our delicious condiments.
Wild Berries - we are out picking blackberries, elderberries, sloes, bullaces, haws and rosehips for our hedgerow jelly.
Turn pumpkins and squash to help them ripen evenly - we are removing leaves around them and placing them on slate so they ripen properly before we harvest in October, before the frost.
Lift potatoes and store in a cool, dark, dry place.
Clear finished crops and add compost or mulch to feed the beds.
Prune summer-fruiting raspberries once harvesting is finished.
The Honesty Farm Shop is bursting with autumn flavour - apples, heritage tomatoes, garlic, courgettes, and small-batch preserves, alongside our heritage seeds for next year’s garden.
Let us know what you’re harvesting - tag us on Instagram or drop us a line.