What to do and grow in your veg. garden in September

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Tips for growing with the Moon in September

As you harvesting the last of the beans and peas, cut them off the stalk leaving the roots in the ground to allow the nitrogen in the nodules to be fixed into the soil.

When you’re harvesting potatoes rub off any excess dirt and allow to dry before storing. If you can lift them on a sunny day and let them dry in the sun to toughen up the skin so that they are less likely to be damaged during storage.

September is a good month for sowing green manure. These are plants protect the soil over the winter and help fix nutrients in it. The green manure stays in the ground all winter is very beneficial. You can just dig it into your into the soil in spring or compost it. You can sow the manure into an area that has been covered in compost, or onto bare soil, the green manure germinates quickly when the soil is warm.

Keep checking the underside of brassica leaves for the eggs of the cabbage white butterfly.

Draw soil up around broccoli stems to protect from early frost.

Good days for working on your compost heap are 1 – 2 (before 2pm), 23 and 25 – 26 September. Surface spread compost on 3, 7 (afternoon) 11 and 30 (afternoon) September.

The afternoon of 17 September is a good time to spray any plant decoction. Natural insecticides will work best if sprayed in the early morning on 1 – 4 and 28 – 30. Whilst natural fungicides will work best if sprayed in the evening on 1 – 2, 5, 7 and 26 – 29 September.

What to grow:

In September you should be sowing and hoeing the land at the following times:

Roots: Hoe/sow seed on 1 – 2, 9– 11, 18 – 20 (before 2 pm) and 28 – 30 (before noon). Sow onion sets, radishes and garlic.

Fruits: Hoe/sow seed on 6 (after 4 PM), 17 and 26 – 27 (before 6 PM). Broad beans can be sown in the open ground on 26 and 27th.

Leaves: Hoe/sow seed on 5 – 6 (before 4 PM), 13-15 (before 6 PM) and 22 (after 4 PM) – 25. Lettuce, parsley, rocket, chicory, corn salad, land cress, mustard spinach, Pak Choi, Mizuna, mustard greens and spinach can be sown in the open ground. Transplant your spring cabbage.

Flowers: Hoe/sow seed of ornamentals on 3-4, 12, 20 (after 2 pm) – 22 (before 4 pm) and 30.

Harvesting:

Remember if you’re harvesting to immediate use you can do so on any day other than the perigee the ascending node and descending node. Follow the information below if you are harvesting to storing.

Harvest your root vegetables on 2 (pm) – 7, 9 – 14 and 30 (before 1 pm) September when the Moon is descending, the best days to harvest are 2, 9 – 11 (am) and 30 (before 1pm) September. Harvest beetroot, carrots, garlic, onions, shallots, radish, spring onion, summer turnips and potatoes.

Harvest all other vegetables on 1 – 2(am) and 17 – 29 September when the Moon is ascending, the best harvesting days are 1 – 2, 17 – 20 and 26 – 29. Harvest broad beans, French beans, runner beans, cabbage, courgette, cucumber, cauliflower, pumpkin, marrow, radish, Swiss chard, lettuce, peas, tomatoes, squash, sweet corn and spinach. Also harvest soft and top fruit.

No work or harvesting should be done in the garden on 8 perigee, 16 ascending node and 1 October descending node. Interestingly there is a descending node at 1am on 4 September, but you’re still able to garden on 3 and 4 September.