Autumn at last, the heavy dews and cooler weather in August has made it feel as if it has come early this year – not that I’m complaining, the feel of change is welcome this time of year especially as it brings with it so much to look forward to!
The season has brought with it a bumper crop of apples, perfect for pies and cider making and there is blackberrying to do and as the evenings pull in there will be cosy evenings indoors by the fire.
In the garden we will be raking up the leaves again as they start to fall, and thankfully we can put our lawn mowers away for the rest of the year!
The weeds will be growing less vigorously now as the season continues, so it may feel like there is less to do in the garden and while I definitely recommend a lot of relaxing in the garden, there is still a heap of things to do – and luckily at this time of year there is one of my favourite jobs which is always fun: collecting seeds. By collecting seeds and sowing them you can increase the stock of your garden easily and cheaply.
The easiest way I’ve found of collecting seeds is to carefully cut off the seed pods and shake them out in a trug. From there you can pour them into an envelope to sow later or sow them straight away. I like to sow things straight away, in clumps.
A lot of plants are excellent at self-seeding so you can leave them to it if you like, also, some plants I like to leave because their seed pods look fabulous – like honesty, with its papery ovals on delicate stems. But good plants to start collecting seeds from are Calendula, poppies, Lychnis, Foxgloves – these you can all shake out in a trug.
For Leucanthemums, pick off dying brown buds and rub the tops and the seeds will float away on the air. Plants generate different amounts of seeds – be careful with poppy seeds, if you sprinkle them all you might get overrun!
Why not share on my Facebook page how you collect your seeds?
Happy Gardening!
Jobs for September:
- Plant shrubs and trees, warm and less need to keep on top of watering
- Shape climbing roses
- Deadhead bedding and perennials still for autumn colour
- You can cut back brown, dying foliage
- Remove dead leaves from flowerbeds
- Stake tall Heleniums and asters
- Plant spring flowering bulbs (eg.daffodils)
- Move tender perennials inside and get prepared with horticultural fleece for the frosts to come
- Divide perennials
- Weed, weed, weed!