Pat’s Jobs for September 2024

1. Start ordering your bulbs now as all the bulb catalogues are arriving – though prices don’t stop going up! 

2. Start planting bulbs when they arrive but save your tulips until later as they are prone to virus and rotting, and to theft by squirrels. 

3. Divide large established clumps of perennials by cutting back first, then splitting either by hand or with two forks back to back. Delay if soil is heavy or too wet.

4. Replace tired summer bedding in pots and replant for winter and replenish with fresh compost.

5. Control powdery mildew, which has been particularly bad this year, by removing infected leaves and destroying them, and keep plants well watered. 

6. Keep deadheading Dahlia flowers and Sweet peas, and give them a feed to keep them flowering. 

7. Make sure to pinch out Runner and French beans when they reach the top of their supports and keep picking. Sadly the slugs got all my French beans this year.

8. Harvest maincrop potatoes if foliage has died down. Leave to dry before storing or mould will develop. 

9. Cut back Loganberries, if they have finished fruiting, by cutting back main stems.

10. Use prunings to make a log pile in a corner of your garden but keep away from favourite plants in case slugs and snails use it as a hideaway.

Happy gardening all!! 

Pat K