Autumn gardening - September vegetables

In the autumn it's vital to pick crops so that they are always tender and fresh - never leave crops for more than a day or two before picking - especially beans, peas and courgettes. Beans and peas become bitter and mealy and courgettes turn into marrows!

Until mid September you can sow the following outside: lettuce and salad leaves, Chinese leaves, endive, winter spinach, spring cabbage. Remember that a cloche will help speed up germination in colder areas and you want the seeds above the soil before the first frost or they won't germinate at all.

If you haven't done so already, you need to cover autumn-fruiting raspberries, blackberries and other cane fruits with netting to keep the birds away. You may want to string up old CDs and other shiny things to deter birds, although the best solution is always a good net or cage, or at the very least, black cotton strung randomly around pea canes. Do remember to check the netting daily to ensure that no birds or animals are trapped.

September is the time to start storing your vegetable produce. You can either cut herb stems for drying by hanging them up in a cool airy place, or chop leaves up and keep them in ice cube trays in the freezer. Now is also the time to lift ripe onions, breaking the roots off, and laying them out to dry on top of the onion bed (assuming the weather will be fair for several days) before taking them into store. If you like your celery white, you need to wrap several layers of newspaper or cardboard around individual celery plants, then pull up the soil around the paper to make it stay in place, because excluding light produces blanched stems - remember that blanched celery has less vitamins though!

September veg photograph by MNKaren, used under a creative commons attribution licence