Sow & Grow September

September is the perfect time to begin next years cutting patch. There's a multitude of things you can sow and grow this month that will mean you get a head start next year.

Autumn sown seeds have the advantage on even the earliest sown annuals in the new year, with the bonus of being able to get them done now and forget about them for a little while - I'm always too exhausted after Christmas, and too caught up in winter hobbies, to think about seed sowing in January! (although that will have to change now)

What to sow

An annual plant is one that grows, flowers, sets seed and dies all in the same year. A hardy annual can withstand the cold temperatures of winter and is frost-hardy (to varying degrees, depending on the plant). Ordinarily in the UK these would be sown early in the year (February ish) in order to plant out in March/April, and begin flowering late May-June time, but some clever sausage realised that if you sowed the seeds in autumn, the plant began to grow, slowed down but survived over winter, then shot up and flowered in late spring, much earlier than that years sowings.

Not to be confused with a biennial plant which has to be sown in late summer/early autumn of the year before you want it to flower, in order for it to complete it's life cycle.

You can, in fact it's advised as good practice, sow some hardy annuals in autumn and save the other half of the packet to sow next February - this not only gives you an insurance policy against a horrendously cold winter, or a freak weather event like 'The beast from the East', but will extend the flowering season of such lovely flowers as:

Ammi Majus
Borage
Calendula Indian Prince
Cerinthe
Chrysanthemum
Corncockle
Cornflower
Dill
Eschscholzia (Californian Poppy)
Godetia
Gypsophila
Larkspur
Nigella
Phacelia
Salvia Viridis
Scabious

Have a think about what flowers you would like to grow, what space you have (both to germinate, and to plant out/overwinter), and when you would like them to bloom. Do some research and choose your seeds accordingly.

Of course, if you have lots of room or can't decide which to choose (like me!) you'd do well to cast an eye over the Higgledy Garden hardy annual bundle. Currently on sale with a third off the individual packet price, plus free postage! You can see it here

What to grow

Biennial seedlings should now be coming on nicely, and there may be some annual plants in your growing space that have finished which you could pull up to make space for your biennials to go in. I've given up on my Sweet Peas this year as they are absolutely covered in greenfly so impossible to bring inside or use in a bouquet to sell. I might leave them another week or so to see if any will set seed for me to try again next year, but more than likely I will pull them up in order to use the space.

Perennial plants (or this years biennials) may have self seeded in your garden, if so you can carefully transplant the seedlings into pots, or to another part of your garden, where they will happily grow on. I have lots of Aquilegia seedlings, and a couple of self seeded Lupins that must have dropped before I collected the seed pods.

(There's a great video here on my Facebook page of Lupin seed pods exploding when they get hot!!)

Leave me a comment if you have any questions, or you can sign up for my newsletter if you want more.

With love,