Grow Your Own - Pick, taste and cook

September is the time of plenty in the garden. Apples, plums, blackberries and raspberries are ‘in full swing’, as well as courgettes, beetroot, kale, chard and sweetcorn, so it’s a great time to get the children involved in picking, tasting and cooking.

The sun is still warm but there’s a definite feeling of change in the air as the mornings begin to feel that little bit fresher, the dew lies heavier and light mists often shroud the garden.

To do list

If you have space for a strawberry bed, you can plant it up this month, so that the strawberries can get established over the winter.

Sow spinach, winter lettuce, spring cabbage and pak choi now for a spring harvest and get ready with some netting and stakes to protect your sprouting greens from hungry pigeons.

Onion sets can be planted for overwintering.

If your beds are going to be a bit more sparse during the winter you can consider sowing ‘green manure’ plants such as crimson clover. These plants stop soil and nutrients being washed away and improve the texture of the soil.

Cut away old growth on currants and raspberries when they finish fruiting and tie in new growth to supports.

Keep watering pumpkins and squashes regularly to help them plump and also water root vegetables to prevent them splitting.

Harvest apples and pears and either store them individually wrapped in paper or chop them and freeze them if you are inundated.