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Sept. 15th sow salads for winter, no dig, small garden, harvests, watering

Written by

Charles Dowding

Last Updated

September 15, 2018

If you have not already sown salads for cropping undercover through winter and into spring, NOW is the moment.

So they have time to establish before winter, make decent roots then crop in cool weather.

If you have only a cold frame or greenhouse staging, grow some in boxes. I line mushroom boxes with newspaper, fill & pack firm with multipurpose compost, then either sow now or plant October from module sowings now.

Seedlings for winter salads, on 25th September 2017

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Salad boxes October 2017 just planted

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Same boxes unheated greenhouse February 2018

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13th September 2018, soon these lovely crops will finish

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This season at Homeacres #nodig

The weather is dry again and we have been watering salads, celeriac, new plantings, kale and even Brussels sprouts. I hope it rains soon but the sunshine and warmth are lovely.

We had one night of 3.5C/38F and just avoided a ground frost: mid-September often sees one cold night! Then no more until mid-October. Days currently average 18-20C/64-68F and nights are around 10C/50F.

Homeacres west side early September

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view 12th September, in foreground are Chinese cabbage covered by mesh

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View to house on 3rd September

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Interplant success

In late summer I have plants needing to go in, and no empty space.

On 25th August I planted two-week old seedlings of spinach, mustards and salad rocket between lettuce that we have continued to crop. See how happy they look. Interplant = companion plant.

See the growth of Medania spinach, this is the variety you want. I tied some Merlo Nero from Seeds of Italy = waste of time, they flowered already, really poor.

25th August, I just popped in these Medania spinach between lettuce

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14th September, the spinach is almost ready to pick and we have been cropping the lettuce

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25th August, salad rocket between Little Gem lettuce

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14th September, see how the salad rocket has grown, mustards beyond

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Open day & courses

The huge interest in my garden and no dig resulted in a thousand or so people in the garden on 2nd September on a gorgeous late summer day. I loved meeting so many of you and Steph did us proud with an amazing array of cakes.

Courses here are popular as ever. I put on an extra on September 29th, it still has 6 places. Also, I am giving a course near Banbury on 19th September.

We had the pleasure of hosting a photography course here, run by the excellent Jason Ingram and organised by Steph, whose new recipe book appears soon..

Open day 2nd September

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Open day. we had a book stall and cakes too

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Course in garden photography at Homeacres, with Jason Ingram

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No dig success

Thee trial beds continue to amaze me, especially how poor the dig bed is inters of water not soaking in, and root harvests. Just look at the difference in carrots. They were sown between lettuce in soil that was dug last December. The no dig bed has never been dug or loosened in any way.

Trial beds 13th September, dig bed left and no dig right

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With carrots from dig bed left, no dig right

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Closer view of dig left, no dig right

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Harvest time

I love this season of abundance. On 10th September we picked and gathered Homeacres harvests together and Josh laid them out nicely.

Currently the most abundant crop is French beans from June sowings of dwarf plants, quite amazing.

Homeacres veg 10th September, even some soybeans bottom right

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Harvests 10th September from the small garden

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Small garden abundance

This project to crop an area of 25m2/270ft2 has been fascinating. Harvests are varied, plentiful and regular: currently beans, tomatoes, peppers, beetroot, coriander, lettuce, kale and leeks. See more in the video.

Small garden 11th September, has cropped 45kg/100lb veg since May

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Multisown leeks var. Philomene, planted June after clearing sorrel, ready from now

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Kale Cavolo Nero which we are picking, behind is Taunton Deane perennial

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Winter squash

No rush to harvest these.

Nor to prop fruits on stones or blocks of wood.

Just wait until leaves have died off, the mildew helps this.

One plant of Crown Prince squash in the dry weather of late July, has run over the arid grass area in front

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Same view early September after August rains, the new runners rooted into the grass area, 2 new fruits

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Dry beans

These are coming good to pick as pods dry, especially the runner beans which can go a little mouldy if pods get wet after they have dried. Whereas Borlottis stand well, we often pick them all in one go, in October.