Notes from my September garden
The snowdrops & daffodils are a welcome sight heralding the beginning of spring a few weeks before the calendar confirms it is so. We have had a beautiful show of daffodils this year - there seems to be so many of them, all with beautiful long towering stems. Possibly from all the rain we had this winter? There are so many nuances in each season that it can be hard to pin down why something has particularly thrived, so I’m not sure why but we will just enjoy them while they are here!
With the rising temperatures one could easily be fooled into sowing and planting out heat loving plants - like courgettes, basil & zinnias. As tempting as it is, you need to just hold off. Warm days can and will be interspersed with freezing cold nights and icy spring winds. You may think that you are getting a jump start on your summer harvest but plants sown at the correct time will easily romp off far ahead of plants that are struggling because they have been planted out before they are ready. I work to the traditional planting out day in NZ, labour weekend in late October, taking into account that this is never a sure date & we can easily still have a few weeks of frosts ahead. Find out your average last frost date for your area and work to that. Keeping a garden record is a fantastic way to get to know your localised growing conditions.
What I’m sowing at the moment:
Flowers: Sweetpeas, larkspur, calendula, monarda, nigella, orlaya, rudbeckia, scabiosa, stock, verbena, achillea, iceland poppies, shirley poppies, pansy, hollyhock, dara - carrot, valerian.
Veges: Tomato, aubergine (both on a heat pad until germinated) spring onion, lettuce, coriander, purple sprouting broccoli, mini cabbage, parsley, onion, beetroot, peas, chard, kale, radicchio, cavolo nero.
Fill seed trays or pots with a good quality seed raising mix. Push down firmly to make sure that each cell is fully filled with soil and that there is no air pockets. Depending on how many plants I am wanting, I sow up to 6 - 8 seeds into each cell, trying to space them slightly apart. Follow the seed packet recommendations for how much soil to cover them with. Give them a very gentle water to completely moisten the soil. I have a watering can that has a very delicate spray on it that I use. Or use the mist setting on your adjustable hose nozzle if you have one. I put them in a light, warm corner of our lounge, checking on them every day to make sure that the soil is kept moist.
Once they have germinated and have a healthy set of cotyledon leaves, the first set of leaves that the plant grows, it is time to prick them out (usually one to two weeks after germination). Using the same method as before I fill seed trays with good quality potting soil. Then using my forefinger I push down to my second knuckle into the middle of each cell. Taking a very light hold of the tip of a leaf (the stems bruise very easily so only ever touch the leaves of a seedling) I use a wooden chopstick or wooden skewer to gently push down under the roots of a seedling and lift them out. I place them down into the hole of the new cell and bury them right up to the set of leaves. This will encourage strong stocky plants and is a good way to rescue your seedlings if they have become a bit tall and leggy from searching for the light. Gently tamp the soil around the plant to fill in the hole and gently water. It is often advised to wait until they get their first set of true leaves before pricking out however I find that if you leave them to grow until this stage then their roots have often grown quite big and are easily damaged while trying to untangle them. If you move them when they are tiny they barely even notice that they have been moved and don’t slow down at all from the shock of the transplant and just continue growing for the sky. This is especially beneficial if you are wanting to grow any plants that usually resent being transplanted, like poppies or nigella.
Once they have been pricked out I move them out to the greenhouse where rows & rows of tiny seedlings line my potting bench and just look so wonderful and vibrant. It is absolutely one of my favourite sights to see in Spring. Because most of the things that I am sowing at the moment are hardy annuals or perennials I find that they are quite happy in the greenhouse and I just keep an eye on the nighttime temperature forecast and can cover them in frost cloth if a cold night is coming. The tender plants like the tomatoes and aubergine are brought into the house each night to keep them happy and cosy.
Dividing & planting Dahlias:
Near the end of September (about 1 month before your last frost date) it is time to bring the dahlia tubers out from storage & begin to divide them. Some people divide in Autumn before storing them however I find that they hold their moisture better over the winter and often begin to seperate themselves making the job of dividing easier. Some varieties produce a lot more tubers than others but they all look very similar so it is essential to come up with a good labelling system. Or as I did this year, was to label the ones that I definitely wanted to know for garden design purposes and the rest I just jumbled together. All my colours go really well together so I know that they will work wherever they are placed in the garden.
Because some can create so many new tubers & there is only so much room in the garden available then I often don’t divide the tuber clump up as much as I could. Some can produce 7+ viable tubers in one season so I may divide it into 3 or 4 or even just in 2 which means bigger stronger plants, so completely up to you. However I do think that you should divide your dahlias every few seasons even if you live in an area where you don’t need to lift them for winter, as they can get so clustered that they begin to rot and also it can become so intimidating to be faced with a ginormous clump of tubers when you do come to divide them.
I gather up some bigger pots that the tubers will fit in and add some potting soil. Plant the dahlia tuber with the eyes & last years stalk remnants facing upwards. Cover with more potting soil so that the tuber is just below the surface. Give the pot a good thump on the ground to make sure that the potting mix settles all around the tubers and there is no air gaps left under them. Then top up with more potting soil if needed. Lightly water, then keep somewhere bright and warm until all danger of frost has passed (very important!). Once potted up they can still be prone to rot so I just give them a light water if the soil is completely dry. We have quite a short growing season for dahlias so potting them up means that I can get flowers about 4-6 weeks earlier than if I planted the tubers straight into the ground once the frosts have finished.
Iceland Poppies:
The Iceland Poppies that I planted in April are beginning to come into full bloom. Last summer I accidentally fried my tiny seedlings in my hot greenhouse so I brought seedlings and they have all turned out to be the brightest burning shades of yellow, red and pink. Not at all the colours I was hoping for but still beautiful to have at this time of year. I brought a pack of Matilda Pastel shades seeds which have just germinated so I am excited to see them. Poppies can be very slow to get going and are a little bit finicky so buying seedlings can often be an easier option than growing from seed.
