September is a time of clearing beds, cutting back shrubs and putting on your Garland garden furniture covers. It’s also a great opportunity to divide your favourite plants and harvest seeds for next spring.
Collecting seeds
The benefit of harvesting your own seeds is that you will know exactly what to expect when you plant them next year. Flowers like sweet peas and wisterias store their seeds in the pods that appear after flowering ends. Other plants store seeds in cones, capsules or, in the case of sunflowers, within the flower head. The trick with all of them is to harvest when the seed containers look as though they have changed colour and are about to burst.
Lay the seed containers out to dry in a single layer in a greenhouse, conservatory or anywhere warm and dry. After a few days, you should be able to remove the dry seeds and store in labelled envelopes ready for storage over the winter.
Lift and divide
If you have perennial shrubs and flowers that have outgrown their designated space, it’s relatively easy to divide them, giving you extra plants for elsewhere in the garden. Loosen the soil around the base of the plant and lift gently with a fork, teasing the roots so that the full root system is freed up. Divide the plant carefully, remove any damaged sections and replant the now-halved original in its current position. Plant the other half directly into a prepared spot elsewhere, or into a pot ready for planting later.
These tasks take little effort, but reap great rewards.
