What to do during September in your garden and greenhouse.

Your monthly gardening checklists

Fruit and veg

• Sow hardy greens, such as kale, land cress, pak choi, mizuna, lamb's lettuce and mustard, for winter pickings
• Prune out all the fruited canes of summer raspberries, cutting down to the base, and tie in new canes to supports
• Pot up herbs, such as chives and parsley, and place on a sunny windowsill to use during winter
• Start sowing hardy varieties of broad beans and peas for early crops next year
• Plant shallot and onion sets in a sunny spot, 10cm apart, with the tip just showing above the soil
• Cut away any leaves covering the fruits of pumpkins, squash and marrows to help the skins ripen in the sun
• Plant saffron crocus bulbs (Crocus sativus), so you can harvest your own saffron this autumn
• Pick apples and pears before the wind blows them down, and store undamaged fruits if you can't eat them fresh
• Store chillies by threading the stalks onto strong cotton or wire and hanging up to dry somewhere warm and dry
• Cut off trusses of unripe outdoor tomatoes before the weather turns cold, then ripen them indoors
• Lift maincrop potatoes, dry off and store in hessian or paper sacks, in a cool, dark, well-ventilated place
• Complete summer pruning of both free-standing and trained apple trees, to encourage good fruiting in future years

House plants

• Feed house plants once a week with liquid fertiliser, continuing through to autumn
• Repot moth orchids after flowering if they look like they're about to burst out of their pot
• Water house plants less frequently and move them off particularly cold windowsills at night. Find out how to water your house plants
• Plant hippeastrum (amaryllis) bulbs in pots for spectacular flowers over the festive season
• Bring any house plants that you moved outside over summer back indoors, before temperatures start to drop
• Repot any house plants that have become top heavy or pot bound into larger containers
• Maximise the amount of light your house plants receive by moving to brighter spots, or choose indoor plants for low light
• Some house plants, like snake plants, are particularly prone to collecting dust on their leaves. So be sure to give these a wipe regularly
• Take leaf cuttings from house plants, including African violets and begonias
• Take leaf cuttings from succulents, such as echeverias, crassula and sedums
• Check your house plants for pests like aphids, scale insects, thrips and mealybugs
• Take large-leaved house plants into the garden and hose them down to clean off accumulated dust

For more house plant advice and inspiration visit our Growing and caring for house plants page. Find out how to rescue house plants in this podcast episode.