EP243- What To Sow In The September Vegetable Garden!!

Can you keep your vegetable garden thriving even as the weather cools? Absolutely! Join us as we uncover the secrets to successful seed sowing in September. From winter salads to hardy vegetables like loose leaf lettuces, we'll guide you on what you can still plant this month. Learn how to protect your soil with mulch or green manures and discover the benefits of polytunnel sowing to extend your growing season. With unpredictable weather on the horizon, we also share crucial tips for safeguarding your young seedlings with bio netting and fleece.

Thinking about adding a greenhouse to your garden? Don’t miss our expert advice on choosing the perfect one for your needs. We emphasize the importance of opting for a larger size, exploring different types like polytunnels, glasshouses, and polycarbonate houses. Discover why head height and straight-sided designs matter, and the significance of good ventilation and dual doors for ease of access and optimal airflow. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or a novice, this episode is packed with insights to help you make the most of your garden year-round.

Chapters

• 0:11 September Vegetable Garden Seed Sowing
• 13:37 Considerations for Choosing a Greenhouse

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

how's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 243 of master, my garden podcast. Now, this week's episode was one that I actually didn't think I was going to be doing. It's the seed sowing guide for september for vegetable garden, and the reason I kind of said August was the last one, but now I have a couple of people messaging me to know what can they sow in this month. So I I last year I did, I did, I did right up until September and, as I said, the list is quite small for September, so I felt maybe it wasn't worth doing. But still, some people find it useful to have that, that that guide, at this time of the year, and last year when I, when I covered this episode, I did it the last Friday of August, so it was sort of ahead of the month of September. Now, obviously, we're we're two weeks into September and you know it's very, very tight, especially at this stage, you know. So the earlier part of September is really when you do so. Having said that, last year, for any of you that were listening, I kind of sowed some things that you wouldn't traditionally sow at this stage of the year in the polytunnel, and now I kind of have, you know sort of the evidence or the proof to know that that actually does work. So we have possibly a couple of options that you know you wouldn't necessarily have thought of or we might necessarily be having to go at. So predominantly this list is going to be small, it's going to be kind of salads or winter salads, but there is a few other bits and pieces that we can be sown. Obviously, we've covered, you know, the perennial guide, which was, you know, covered in the last couple of weeks, and that's really the best type of sowing at this time of the year. Just, it's a really easy way to create your own plants, as we said. But there is still a little bit that we can be doing in the vegetable garden.

Speaker 1: 2:05

Now, when it comes to the vegetable garden, at this stage of the year, it's all about harvest. So, assuming that we've kept up our sowings the whole way along, you're going to have quite a lot of harvests at the moment and you're going to be harvesting, you know, potatoes. They're going to be coming out of the ground. You're going to have free space there, some of your, some of the crops that have been sort of holding up ground for a good period of time, like potatoes, like carrots, like onion they've, they're either out or have come out or are going to come out in the next couple of weeks, you know. So chances are you're going to have some patches of ground that that you can get more stuff into. So the key, as we've said many times before, is to ensure that the ground stays covered over the wintertime. So if it's a case that you know there's patches where you're not going to be sowing vegetables or crops into, good thing to do is to get them covered down with mulch at the very least. But if not, some cover crops you know, some green manures at this time of the year is a really, really good thing to do. So we'll go through that and we'll mention maybe one or two green manures that you can use as well if you do have the space and, as I say, this list is quite small at this stage of the year, and I will talk about some polytunnel sowing as well, or greenhouse sowing that will give you, you know, some crops that maybe you otherwise wouldn't be able to grow. So, on the list, it's quite small.

Speaker 1: 3:29

As I said, it's very much salad based, and so we're looking at things like lettuce and at this stage you're definitely switched to loose head at the very least, and ideally what you're looking at is winter hardy varieties, so things like winter density, some of the hardier arctic kings, all year round. You know some of those hardy type ones. Loose leaf again, because you won't get heads. You know lettuce won't be able to farm ahead at this time of the year, so it is the loose leaf stuff that we're looking for at this stage and you know you can. You can sow that now into module trays in your greenhouse or on your on your windowsill and then for planting out later. Now, typically planting out, you're going to cover them, so things like bio netting or fleece. You're going to get them covered so that they're not going to get exposed to the elements as we go forward.

Speaker 1: 4:20

Now, at this time of the year you can have kind of a mixed bag of weather. A prime example is this week, so Friday of last week we had temperatures 27, 28 degrees Celsius, which was phenomenal. It's probably one of the one of the warmest days we had this year. And then middle of this week we had a touch now not heavy, but a touch of ground frost and quite cold days. So a huge swing within a period of time and over the next couple of weeks, you know we will see that We'll see the shortening of the days. We'll see some mixed bag, probably warm, some warm days that we can get through September, and then possibly some cold days, cold nights, possibly some rain. Fingers crossed, we don't see too much of that, but you can get a mixed bag. So that's why I'm saying these young seedlings at this time of the year, give them a bit of protection, especially outside.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Now, any of these that you're that you're growing can be planted into a polytunnel and they'll be perfectly happy there and will mature there and will be able to be harvested there over the next few months. So lettuce is the first one on the list. The next one on the list is is one that I only saw a couple of times a year. I've done my kind of spring sowing. I'll do another one now as well and that's charred, and I will sow a lot of charred at this stage because it'll it'll grow away slowly over the winter, over the sort of autumn and winter, and I probably won't take too much in terms of a harvest off that until next spring, but next spring in the polytunnel that'll be a fine big plant and I'll be able to harvest quite strongly off that. I'll do a good few, like in the spring sowing. I'll only maybe do three or four sort of heads, and so not a big sowing because it can be harvested just by harvesting the outer leaves. Take a couple of leaves every day, more or less, and I'd have enough from a small number of plants. Do a small few more at this time of the year just for for our use here. Um, you know, might do maybe six plants, eight plants, that sort of thing, and then, as I say, harvest some small ones later on in the winter, but mostly I'm talking about springtime for that.

Speaker 1: 6:22

Next one is Claytona. That's a really good hardy salad leaf for the wintertime. Next one is Mizuna. That one is beautiful, very hardy as well, grows really well through the wintertime. I found actually last winter that it kind of went. It bolted quite quickly in the polytunnel. So even though you know it's winter hardy, I was surprised actually at it bolting so quickly, but I'd saw that again and possibly maybe do a later sowing of it. I'm not sure how that later sowing would do. Would it grow, would it survive? Possibly it would, but it might just get me over the fact that the initial sowing last year seemed to bolt very, very quickly.

Speaker 1: 7:06

Next one of this is mustard. I don't actually sow that myself, but it's a good one to sow this time of year again, a hardy sort of oriental leaf type, type salad that you can sow at this time of year. Next one is spinach, and I'm very much switched to winter varieties at this stage. So giant winter is the one that I'm sewing, is the one that you'll see, you know, in all the the seed collections, in all the garden centers, and a really good one for this time of year. That's one that can be direct sewn into the polytone as well or into the greenhouse and that will germinate. At this stage, you know you have quite good temperatures, typically during the days, some bright, sunny days as well. So it will germinate, it will grow quite quickly and you'll be able to be harvesting off it quite quickly as well.

Speaker 1: 7:48

Next one on the list is coriander, again, continuing on, we've been sowing that pretty much all year as sort of successional crop, and you can continue to do that for kind of one last sowing or one last month. Next one is rocket. That one, again, I don't sow too much of, because I have the, the perennial one in the polytunnel, so kind of cut it back hard once a year or twice a year and then it just keeps coming with fresh leaves all the time. Quite a bit spicier than your, than your normal rocket, than your annual rocket, but it's a. It's a really nice taste and the fact that you're you're only doing one sowing, I love that just uh, really simple, and you know you're not having to go on a regular basis and so and you're not running to seed the same as you would with with the annual annual ones.

Speaker 1: 8:35

Uh, sherville is another one, another herb type that's used, you know, for salad in salads and so on and that can be sold at this time of the year. And then the last one on the sort of salad-y list. The typical list is spring onion, and again you're switching to a winter variety at this stage, if you can, the some of the Japanese type ones. The Japanese bunching ones are very good at this time of the year. I last winter just sowed the, the normal white Lisbon, into the polytunnel at this stage of the year and it was perfectly fine, harvested off them all all through the winter and again, like some of the other ones, at this stage of the year I do quite big sowings in terms of, you know, I saw a lot more than than I typically would, because it generally doesn't run to seed at this stage of the year. So so a lot of it harvested as required and it'll grow, but it won't, it won't bolt at this time of the year and it just means that you can use up the space and then you know you're not, you're not looking to, you're not needing to sow this again. Just do one big sowing at this stage now.

Speaker 1: 9:41

Last year I mentioned that I was going to sow beetroot in the polytunnel at this stage in September. I still haven't done that for this year, but I did at that stage last year and I wasn't certain that I was going to have decent results. To be honest with you, it's very late. It's not on any seed sowing lists anywhere you look and, as I say, I wasn't sure or wasn't confident that I was going to get anything that was worth talking about on it, but I actually did. So I got germination kind of quite quickly at that stage last year. Not much happened by, you know, over the winter, as they you know they didn't fill out much. You can, of course, harvest the leaves for salads as you go through the winter. Of course harvest the leaves for salads as you go through the winter, but really early next, early next spring, they'll form proper beets and you'll have a very early crop from them.

Speaker 1: 10:34

Now, as I say, if you look at any seed sowing list anywhere you won't find beetroot on it. And for ireland at this stage of the year. But in the polytunnel it did work for me. So I'm going to do that again. No guarantees again that it will work this year, but definitely going to try it. Other things I'm going to try inside in the polytunnel as well. And milan purple top. I can't see any reason why, if beetroot, you know, formed or germinated and then formed beets in in the springtime, I can't see any reason why milan purple top wouldn't at this stage. So I'm going to give that one a go as well. And radishes I'm going to continue to sow those because they are still germinating and they are still. They are still forming. You know little radishes at that at this stage. So again, I can't see any reason why they won't work, um, given that they did last year. So, as I said a little bit. You know you will not find those recommended on any seed sowing list. So and time will tell again if I get success from it, but I certainly did last year, so that's that's really worth doing it.

Speaker 1: 11:34

Then I mentioned you know any ground that that you're opening up from. You know that your potatoes coming out of, or you know some of your brassicas you're harvesting. You're kind of harvesting there and you have ground that's freeing up. Get some good quality compost down on top of that. Or if you're not going to do that or you want to just try a green manure, then at this stage of the year things like white mustard, phacelia you can sow them. At this time of the year the frost will generally speaking a heavy frost will kill them off. If not, they can just grow over the winter and then you'll you'll mulch them down in the springtime, cover them over for a little bit with plastic and then you're kind of adding organic matter and you'd be good to sow into that then a couple of weeks later next spring. So make sure you're covering up the ground and definitely it's. It's worth doing that.

Speaker 1: 12:26

I don't use green manures. I typically have something in all of the ground typically A little bit tight this year, in that I missed a couple of sowings I mentioned to you. Football season here has been quite hectic and it still is. We're at semi-final stage here and, fingers crossed, we're going to stay going for another little while, and it just meant that I haven't. I haven't been able to concentrate on it as much as I normally would, so I probably don't have as much sowed or as much to plant as as I would have of had at this time time last year. But still I'm going, as I say, I'm going to do these couple of sowings in a ponnyton and that's where most of the crops are going to come out of over the next few months. So short, very, very short list, not not one to get overly excited about, but hopefully, as I say, a few of you are looking for it. So hopefully that will help you. And there is things that you can be doing. You know sewing at this stage, but it is quite limited. But when you've had this, when you have the space, when you have the ground ready, you might as well get something sown and it definitely, you know, is worthwhile at this stage of the year.

Speaker 1: 13:37

Then another question I was asked this week and it's one I'm going to cover probably in more detail. It's one I've covered before, but somebody messaged to say they're considering a greenhouse for basically to get over the next couple of months in order to have it for next spring, and what would be my considerations on that? I'm definitely going to cover it in more detail because it is one that warrants more detail, warrants quite a bit of discussion around it and it's one I've covered a little bit before. So I suppose, basic, basic considerations. Number one is nine times out of ten somebody buys a greenhouse and they factor in a few things. You know, obviously, budget is one orientation and position within their garden and, you know, based on a few factors like that, they come up with a size that they want or a size that they're going to get.

Speaker 1: 14:43

Now, very, very common is that people buy a greenhouse and very, very quickly run out of space. So the greenhouse gives you so many more options in terms of what you can grow and sow and things that you can do in there and, as I say, very quickly people run out of space in their greenhouse. So if I was given my kind of top tips initially, whatever size you think you need, if you have the space for it and you're not caught on where you can put it. You know, if you have room to go bigger, then definitely go bigger, because I've seen it so many times no matter what size you get, you will always fill it. So so go bigger than you think you're going to use, think you're going to need, and it'll give you more options. If nothing else, it will give you a lovely area to sit, but I guarantee you will fill it with plants, because that's what always happens. But if you get one that's too small, you fill it too quickly and eventually not eventually very quickly you will outgrow that. So if I was to give one consideration, that would be that Obviously. Then there's other considerations, like there's, you know, cost effectiveness, you know the for your spend, say, for example.

Speaker 1: 15:55

So your options are polytunnel greenhouse or glass house, should I say, or polycarbonate house. They're kind of the options now, and polycarbonate has improved dramatically over the next few years, and that's why I'll probably give this a full episode over the coming weeks, because I'd like to talk to somebody on the polycarbonate houses personally. The last time I covered this, which was a few years ago, I would have seen polycarbonate as I saw them coming onto the market, these newer houses, newer polycarbonate houses and saw them coming onto the market, these newer houses, newer polycarbonate houses, and I probably would have been not skeptical, but I didn't think there was enough sort of years of history there to say that they're a very, very good option. I think that has changed. A lot of people have them now three, four, five years in Ireland, those good quality, newer type polycarbonate ones and when I my original opinion on polycarbonate was based on ones that were available kind of 10-15 years ago and I really didn't like those, especially in Ireland where we get a lot of wind. But those newer ones certainly seem to be holding up quite well, the majority of them now like five, six years, still 100% and a lot of people talking about them as being really, really good.

Speaker 1: 17:11

So I'll cover cover in more depth, but initially just just on the at the, at the sort of basic level of it go bigger than you think you need. Then consider the head height. Some polytunnels can give you quite a big footprint in terms of the floor space, but workable space inside can be quite a lot smaller than that because it's a dome shape obviously, so it's curving in right from the base. So by the time you walk towards the edge you are going to be running out of space. Most people then typically will run their pathway right up the center of it and again, that's at the highest point of the of the head height. So you're taking out that much so you end up with space to either side which is can be quite hard to work in because because it's sloping in. So if you're going for polytunnel, it'll definitely give you, you'll get a bigger area for less, less spend.

Speaker 1: 18:16

Try, if possible, to go for a straight sided one, so that's one that will have a straight side up to about sort of meter and a half or maybe two meters, depending on on the, on the span of it meter and a half to two meters with a straight side and then the curve up on top, and that gives you a real usable head height. The polytunnel that I have is straight sided up to about two meters so you can you can walk straight down on the sides of it, so you've full usable space inside, whereas if you get one that's curving from the ground, you'll have, you know that space right in tight to it and you won't be just able to work in it. So that's second consideration. Third consideration is and another advantage of the straight sided one is that you'll be able to set up some way of harvesting the rainwater off it, which is a huge, huge plus and you know, when you're growing your own food particularly, to be able to harvest rainwater and use that within the tunnel is a great advantage. So that's another, another one I would consider, just in terms of the of the spec of it, whether you're going for glasshouse, polycarb or or polytunnel, then go as big as you can possibly, as is within your budget at this time.

Speaker 1: 19:33

Get a straight sided one if possible. Ensure that you have doors on either end, because that'll give you two things obviously, ease of access, but mostly it'll give you a good ventilation. On top of that you probably need, depending on the size you, you should have ventilation elsewhere. So whether that's from vented windows on the side or you know if, if it's a glass house, you might have louvers on one end or on the sides, or a openable door up or window up on top. So make sure that there's the ability to ventilate those houses very, very well and that'll be useful for you. You know, when it comes to next spring and summer and it's vital in terms of disease control on things like tomatoes. Airflow through the houses is so important. Oftentimes you can get, you know, houses that are just too enclosed no air movement, they get too hot, too stuffy and they build up disease in them. So ventilation ensure that that house can ventilate all the time from one end to the other, with no kind of pockets where the warm air is getting held, and that's a really good consideration as well.

Speaker 1: 20:44

Obviously, if you have children in the house, you're going to consider glass. If you're considering glass, just put it somewhere where you're not likely to be poking around hurling balls or footballs or whatever. There's no guarantees ever when you have kids around. So just be careful where you position it. Go for as good a quality as you possibly can, because most greenhouses, the more quality you can get at the start, the better it's going to be over the long term. You can get at the start, the better it's going to be over the long term.

Speaker 1: 21:25

So, for example, the polyton I have that that got recovered three, four years ago now, but prior to that, the, the polytene that was on it, was on it for 15 years without it got cleaned on a regular basis but, without being changed, almost rarely had it to do any repairs on it. So 15 years out of a polytune cover like that's, that's a really good, and I know that some people up my mom's house is a polytunnel that was that was heading for 20 years before it had to be recovered. So again, use quality, quality plastic or quality glass houses or quality polycarp houses and they will give you that longevity that you're gonna that you're gonna need. And when you're buying these you won't hear anything about a 20-year warranty or anything like that. You know you're going to be looking at things like four and five-year warranties, but I promise you, by going for a better quality, you're going to be able to get that kind of 15, 20 years out of out of polytene, out of a polytene tunnel, out of a polycarb. Looks like it could be going to give longevity as well.

Speaker 1: 22:35

At this stage, as I say, kind of the the modern type polycarb houses, they're the country five, six years at this stage and there seems to be no issues with them. There's nothing to say that they're not going to last for another, you know, five, ten years on top of that If they're minded, if they don't get exposed badly to storms. So, by quality, that's the sort of next consideration. So a couple of considerations there again. Just just to mention get as big a house as you possibly can get, bigger than you think you need because you will fill it. Ensure that whatever model of house you're going for, that you're getting ventilation through that, whether that's doors, windows, vented sides, mesh sides, mesh doors on the ends, whatever that is. Just make sure that you can ventilate the whole house come next year.

Speaker 1: 23:19

And then get as good a quality as you can possibly get within your budget at the moment, because the better the quality, the longer you're going to get out of it. And you know you'll see that with the you know the sort of the pop up greenhouses they might be. You know 199 euros for a kind of six by eight. Generally speaking, they're not going to be great quality. You're going to get a maximum of a year, two years out of them and then you're you're off looking for something again. Also you can have if they, if they break down within a season and you've plants in there, you can be at the loss of those. So definitely be getting something as good a quality as you possibly can. So they'd be the first, you know, the first couple of considerations. As I say, it's probably something that warrants a deeper episode because at this stage of the year, from now until christmas, is really when people start researching greenhouses to get them, you know, put up and ready to go ahead of next, next spring, when we get back to seed again. So it's one that I will cover in the coming weeks in in great detail, but hopefully that's a little bit that will help you to make your decision.

Speaker 1: 24:31

Now. Other things to just watch out for garlic and onions. So garlic, I'll be planting garlic. I will probably won't do it until early october, but I'll be using that from cloves, from the, the bulbs that I've harvested this year. So what you're looking for is the biggest bulbs that you can possibly get, because the bigger the bulb going in or, sorry, the bigger the clove going in will be the bigger bulb that will form, you know, at harvest time next year. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go through them, take out the big ones. Any of the real small ones can be used for cooking just straight away, but the biggest ones, the healthiest, strongest ones, will go into the ground.

Speaker 1: 25:10

I had huge success from onions and garlic sowed into the polytunnel last autumn. I'll definitely be doing that again. I'll definitely be doing that again. I'll actually be doing more of it that I did this year. The garlic was spotlessly clean, really big, really healthy. So very, very successful, much more successful than what went went on outside. And now there was nothing wrong with what went, what I planted outside, but definitely the polytunnel one was bigger, definitely cleaner. No, absolutely no disease on it. They took very little minding. So definitely going to double down on that on the onion front and on the garlic front this year.

Speaker 1: 25:45

So that's, you know, that's another job for the autumn time. No, no need to to. You know to sow or plant those immediately, but definitely you need to be sort of thinking about it over the coming weeks. And you know, as I say, it's definitely a short list. It's one that I did, episode that I didn't think I was going to be covering.

Speaker 1: 26:03

But, as I say, a few people still looking to, looking to get some bits on the evenings are closing in in terms of daylight hours. They're closing in quite quickly now and obviously this week we're seeing quite a drop in temperature. So they're the type of conditions that you know the reason why the sewing guide gets so small this month and disappears then completely next month, because the daylight is not there. It's a little bit, a little bit like the what happens at the opposite side of christmas when we start getting into the new year and the daylight temperatures, the daylight hours are just not long enough and the temperatures are a little bit low at that stage. So it really is starting to come into that period now. But there's still those few bits that we can be doing, and certainly one or two for me here.

Speaker 1: 26:52

I'm going to give another go this year again into the polytunnel, likes a beetroot and so on. And there's no harm in experimenting. Sometimes these things work, sometimes they don't. And there's no harm in experimenting. Sometimes these things work, sometimes they don't. But what's the harm in that? You, if you're successful, it's great, if you're not, it's no big deal. It's just a little bit of time and a little bit of seed and it's always always worth a try anyway.

Speaker 1: 27:11

So, yeah, it's a very, very straightforward list, very short list, but very worthwhile list. And don't be afraid to sell lots of the ones that you do so, because they won't bolt as easily and you'll be able to harvest them over a longer period of time. Then, over the coming weeks, there's a very good episode coming up on roses. We'll chat about that and I think it's next week's episode, a very good one and I'll cover that one on the polytunnels as well, also looking at permaculture, over the next couple of weeks. So there's, as I say, lots, of, lots of good episodes on the way over the coming weeks, but that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening and until the next time, happy gardening, thank you.