Still summer time - despite the weather! The main harvest month - and you may spend far too much time in the kitchen making jam and pickles, and freezing "gluts" of vegetables or fruit. Time to put aside the very best in a special corner of the freezer - for Xmas dinner.
As you gather your crops, think ahead to using spaces for interesting additions to your winter and spring diet, especially green stuff; some to consider - endive, chicory, hardier lettuces, and oriental greens.
General Tasks
» Sow over-wintering green manures.
Potato/Tomato family (Solanums)
» Watch for signs of blight, and spray with Bordeaux Mixture if necessary.
» Harvesting - Lift and store Second Early Potatoes; Tomatoes.
Bean/Pea family (Legumes)
» Harvesting - Broad Beans (spring sowing), Peas, Runner and French Beans.
Brassica family
» Thin brassica seedlings.
» Sow more winter Radish.
» Harvesting - Green Broccoli, Cabbage (Summer), Cauliflower (Summer), Radish, Rocket, early Turnips.
Root vegetables
» Try a late sowing in the first fortnight of main-crop carrots; should avoid the carrot fly.
» Harvesting - Carrots.
Onion family (Alliums)
» Lift and dry Onions.
» Lift and dry Garlic.
» Harvesting - Garlic, Onions, Spring Onions.
Other vegetable families
» Protect marrows and squashes with a tile or glass underneath fruit.
» Harvesting - Beetroot, Courgettes, Cucumber, Lettuce, Marrow, Spinach, Chard.
Herbs
» Harvesting - make a good picking to dry or freeze for winter use.
Fruit
» Prune out old canes of summer-fruiting raspberries.
» Plant new strawberry plants.
» Dig up strawberry plants which have fruited three times.
» For strawberries you are keeping, chop off leaves and unwanted runners. Peg healthy runners for propagation. Give plants a feed (mulch of compost).
» Harvesting - Brambles, Raspberries, and late pickings from your bushes.