September is the main month of harvest in both fruit and vegetable gardens, meaning there’s plenty to keep gardeners busy, meaning there may be less time for resting on your favourite lifestyle garden furniture during September!
Apples
Deter wasps by hanging wasp traps in the trees. Pick any ripe fruit, which should yield easily when pulled if ready. Remove any rotten fruits, and finish the summer pruning of trees to encourage future fruit growth. You can store any uneaten fruits, as long as they are undamaged.
Pears
Pick any ripe fruit as soon as it is ready, removing any rotten ones as you go to limit the spread of disease. Fruits in good condition can be stored if not eaten fresh.
Plums
Remove any rotten fruit, and harvest the rest when ripe. If you have an excess, you can freeze them by washing, stoning and halving them, then laying out to freeze. Once frozen, they can be packed into food bags for the deep freeze.
Peaches
Any shoots that have borne fruit may be pruned. New shoots can then can be tied to those formed this year, and this newer growth should bear fruit next spring. If you have any wall-trained trees, cover these to prevent peach leaf curl fungus from affecting your plants.
Raspberries
Cut down any fruited raspberry canes to ground level, then add stakes or support wires to tie any new canes to.
Strawberries
Tidy up the plants by removing any straw, which could play host to pests or diseases during the colder months. Pot up any runners to produce new plants for next summer.