September growing guide
🔆 High 20.1° | 🌙 Low 11.1° | 🌧️ 7.1 rainy days
With plenty of sunshine, warmer soils and decent rainfall, this is the perfect time for plants to spring out of their winter dormancy.
Veggies
So many children love cucumbers and now is the perfect time to plant them. If you want to turn a fence into a vertical bed, climbing Lebanese are a great mid-sized choice, whereas Bush Champion are a great small bush variety. Use plenty of compost when planting and throw a handful of potash around each plant to build strong leaves and fruit.
Plant potatoes now and if you’re lucky, you’ll have early spuds in time for Christmas. But don’t just pick any old variety - choose only certified, disease-free varieties. My tried, tested and tasted favourites include Dutch Creams (perfect for mashing and roasting) or Kipfler, which are great for salads.
If you’re a fan of a strong, independent veggie that doesn’t need a lot of maintenance, beans are an ideal choice. They’re quick to grow, suffer from few pests and diseases and will give an abundant harvest. Purple King is a beautiful climber, setting deep purple fruit that turn vibrant green when cooked. Scatter a bush variety like Borlotti Red Rooster through your patch for an eye-catching yield of spotted red and white fruits.
Sweet basil, chives, dill, parsley and borage provide long-lasting harvests for the kitchen. They also produce plenty of flowers, which attract bees and beneficial insects to pollinate your crops. These snacks look great nestled into garden beds and around borders, so don’t just keep them locked up in just the veggie patch.
Wondering what to plant? It’s time to shine for…
Asparagus, globe artichoke, beans, beetroot, chilli, cucumber, capsicum, carrot, eggplant, celery, coriander, leeks, pumpkin, potato, garlic, sweet corn, tomato, zucchini
Fruit
If you have a big sunny spot free, why not try growing melons? Watermelons and rockmelons are vine rambling plants that grow along the ground for up to six metres. They’re hungry feeders, so prepare your soil with plenty of organic matter and compost. The effort will be worth it in 3-4 months when you’re sinking your teeth into a nice, juicy slice on a hot summer day.
Blueberries love life living in a container and now’s the time to pot them up. They’ll need a soil pH of around 5 so buy a potting mix designed for acid-loving plants from your local nursery and get to work finding a sunny, well-drained, sheltered spot for them.
Plant passionfruit, paw paw, avocados, banana, citrus and olives now. If your tastes are a little more exotic, try putting in a guava… they’re tough plants and the fruit is sensational!
Tie up any long canes of raspberry as they grow, and net crops of these, blueberries and strawberries as the fruit develops to stop them from becoming bird food.
Natives
Many native plants can start to look a bit straggly as they age. The best way to keep natives looking fresh and tidy is to regularly trim them back after flowering. However, this can be challenging when many natives have beautiful flowers almost all year!
Get your secateurs out and give natives a prune when they have the least flowers (don’t cut into hard, leafless wood). You might lose a few blooms, but the plant will put on new fresh growth, look much neater and ultimately give you a better flower display.
After pruning, feed with a native-specific plant fertiliser, which encourages lots of healthy new foliage and flowers.
Consider planting bottlebrush and correa for a splash of colour.
Flowers
It may be a coincidence, but a lot of the early spring flowers are edible. These include nasturtium, borage, zucchini, calendula, dandelions and banana blossoms. Flowers are high in both vitamins (especially vitamin C) and minerals- and taste great.
Remember, though, to identify the flower exactly and eat only the edible flowers and edible parts of those flowers.
Roses, lavenders and a large array of annuals, including snapdragons and petunias, are available as seedlings.
Trim late winter flowering plants such as camellia, flowering quince, Michelia and magnolia when they have finished blooming. Trim off crossing or diseased branches and lightly shape plants.
Improving your soil
Prepare your garden for spring planting by digging in plenty of organic matter, including top-notch compost and well-rotted manure. Blood and bone is high in nitrogen, so it’s a big boost for leafy plants. If you want more flowers, add a handful of potash to the soil.
Make sure your worm farms are in cool, shaded positions as the weather warms up. Keep them damp but not wet and throw over a handful of dolomite to keep them sweet. You can’t buy a product as beneficial as worm castings for the garden, so use it for seed raising and potting mixes, or drop a pea-sized chuck next to your favourite plants as a helpful treat.
Ponds and water sources
Spring is a good time to give ponds a tidy up, so the water sparkles crystal clear throughout summer. Scoop out dead leaves and any decaying plant matter that has built up over winter. This will turn the water toxic if left in the pond during the warmer months. Make sure to divide up waterlily clumps that have become too large. Replant into baskets with new aquatic compost. To have a balanced ecosystem, ponds need a mix of oxygenating, floating and marginal plants - but take care not to over plant.
Pest watch
Watch out for caterpillars, which are attracted to the soft young growth on spring veggies and herbs and can rapidly devour lots of foliage. They weren’t joking about The Very Hungry Caterpillar!
Noticed your citrus looking a bit lack lustre? Check for Citrus Gall Wasp, which cause unsightly lumps on affected trees. Get it gone! If you find one, prune that section of the branch or leaf stem well below the gall. Keep all your cuttings aside, as composting or putting them into green waste is a no-no. The best method is to cut through the gall to expose the larvae to air – which they hate – before bagging it up for the rubbish bin. Prefer a less invasive approach? Soak the galls in water for a week or two, or burn them - if your Council allows.