I’m taking a little break from the Six on Saturday posts this week to have a look at what you can sow in September. I’m focusing mostly on veg I can grow in the greenhouse over winter but I do have a few outdoor crops for the raised bed too. I don’t like having bare soil because the winter in Ireland tends to be wet and cold and can leach a lot of the soil making my growing life harder the following spring. If you are stuck for space you can grow in containers, literally anything that you can repurpose into a container and fill up your windowsills from now until Spring.
Top Tip
If you aren’t going to grow over the autumn-winter season then do think about either covering your raised beds or sowing some green manure seeds that you can dig in to feed the soil the following year.
It is getting a little late so if you are reading this post mid to late September then do look at the faster-growing crops as the light and heat steadily decline as the month goes on. I will be documenting my efforts as always so maybe I can save you some time and you can learn something from my experiments. Please note that all links are to Seedaholic. I’m not an affiliate I just really like the customer service and the seed selection from them. All links are in the titles.
What to Sow in September
Oriental Salads
The cooler temperatures of September and October allow for these to bloom without running to seed like they would in the hotter months of the summer. I also sow these every two weeks from now until October. When I stop will depend on the weather. I pop some outdoors and some in the greenhouse as space is made with the end of the summer crops e.g. cucumbers, tomatoes, courgettes. Though this year everything is late and I’m getting much better harvests now than I did during the summer.
Spinach
This year I’m sowing F1 Rubino because I love that red vein and the sweetness of this variety. Again this is a veg that does much better in the winter and is perfect for those cranberry, brie and baby leaf spinach sandwiches that scream of autumn/winter. These do germinate pretty quickly and I’ve always found that spinach germinates better for me in autumn than in Spring.
Chard
A slight controversial addition to the list but I do like to overwinter chard seedlings. I found last year that be keeping a few plants in the conservatory I could continue to harvest baby leaf versions while outdoors I had the mature bright leaves adding some cheer to the late autumn beds. I’m partial to the Bright Lights variety as I like the mixture you get from a single sowing.
Onions
We use onions so much that I constantly have seeds going into trays for either outdoor or greenhouse use. Spring onions are so easy to just pop between plants or use as dividers that I always have them. I had some spotty germination this year I’m assuming because of the heat but I usually sow these in sets of 10 seeds in 1 module and plant them as a bunch or direct sow these as individuals in a line for division lines between lettuce or cabbages. I linked to a variety set above but I’m partial to White Lisbon and to Lila and they are both quite reliable. I also use Ishikura bunching but usually only over the spring summer months.
Cauliflower
Cauliflower is something that I always like to have but they need to be harvested when ready or the curds will open and bolt/flower. I have successional sowings throughout the year and I also have the baby cauliflower snowball that I like to plant a little later in October to overwinter for an early spring harvest when there is little else out there.
Kohl Rabi
This is a fun and interesting veg and again is something that I succession sow. These are ready in about 8 weeks but in winter it’s more like 12. I already have some plants from a July sowing but these are always attacked by cabbage white butterflies and cause more problems than a later sowing. If you haven’t grown them before, they are a brassica so do need to be included into the crop rotation and they are a bit of a heavy feeder I find. They are worth the effort and I love having a veg that is hard to find or expensive to buy in shops. The purple leaves and the formation of the globe are lovely to watch so it is definitly one that I would find room for.
Cabbage
I can’t really imagine a garden without cabbages but these are going into the greenhouse back bed. I have a few different types Savoy Vertus and April. I’m a little late sowing the April variety but I’m hoping that in the greenhouse with a heatsump that I can keep them going. I also plan to have some hay and bubble wrap in the greenhouse so fingers crossed. The Savoy is a hardy crop and but usually sown in April or May so these I’m sowing to overwinter for a harvest in Spring. There are so many to choose from depending on the time of year it’s best to browse and sow to your own tastes.
Beetroot
I can never sow enough and I had a good harvest with overwintering beetroot last year. The upside is that even if you don’t get the root you can use the leaves in salads all through winter. If you pick the baby leaves they are the sweetest. I have both golden beetroot, Detroit globe and Bolthardy and they all perform well.
My Experimental Crop – Purple Sprouting Broccoli
It is exceptionally late to be sowing this crop. This is my test crop as I had the seed and I’ve never been able to grow it even sowing it at the right time of year. This time I’m treating it as one of my brassicas and I may even have this in the conservatory over the winter period. Sowing this late means that these would probably harvest in the summer which defeats the purpose but this is just an experiment and not really included in my crop rotation.
Over to You
Are you sowing at the moment? What did you choose? I usually take a break in the Nov/Dec/Jan months and focus on tending the overwintering crops and cleaning the greenhouse and prep work. So I try and only include things that I don’t need a lot of attention. Do you grow in Autumn/Winter? What are your thoughts? My experience this time of year is that cold frames are a must so I do recommend looking into adding one. There are some amazing DIY tutorials on Pinterest if you are itiching for a September garden project that will benefit you for years to come.
I hope you enjoyed this post and a different look at my cottage garden.
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