GARDENING

September is the time to pick ripe apples and store the best in individual plastic bags or cardboard trays. Harvest pears, plums and gages as they ripen and prune out fruited blackberry stems, but if yours are like mine, then they are only just coming into fruit, so you may have to wait until October. Dig up strawberry runners and pot them up ready for planting out next year.

Vegetables to sow now include spring cabbages, winter lettuces, spinach, baby salad leaves and spring onions.Also sow broad beans and hardy peas for early crop next year.

Save seeds from favorite self-pollinating, non-hybrid flowers such as marigolds by allowing the flower heads to mature. Lay the seeds on newspaper, turn them often to dry and then store the dry seeds in glass jars or paper bags in a cool, dry, dark place.

Dig and bring in dahlias and gladiolus, dry, clean and store them in a cool place.

Improve your garden soil by adding manure, compost and leaves to increase the organic matter content.