"O sweet September rain!"

O sweet September rain!
I hear it fall upon the garden beds,
Freshening the blossoms which begin to wane...
~Mortimer Collins, "Rain in September"

What to sow in the rain in September.

Plant Autumn Japanese onions sets for harvesting next June. We should have some arriving soon. Sow winter hardy varieties of spring onions to maintain a succession.

Due to the vagaries of our weather and marauding slugs and snails, I recommend starting your autumn sowings in modules or pots and then planting out when established.

For your stir-fries sow Chinese Cabbage, Kale, Pak Choi, Oriental greens, winter radish – mooli, China Rose or Black Spanish, perpetual spinach, swiss or rainbow chard. For winter salads, try Amaranth, Lambs Lettuce or Corn Salad, Land cress or American cress, Rocket, Winter purslane, Claytonia or Miner's lettuce and hardier winter lettuce varieties.  

I will be sowing a couple of short rows direct, of winter purslane and landcress by month end. Winter purslane is a very hardy winter salad, producing small, mild tasting, succulent leaves. Landcress is an excellent substitute for watercress and is very hardy, usually surviving even the toughest winter.

Lastly thinking ahead to early spring, sow chicory, kohl rabi, spring cabbages and turnips to overwinter.

September is the ideal month to sow wild flower seeds including poppies, primulas, cornflowers and cranesbill since the conditions replicate those growing in the wild. Cowslips, wild primroses and oxlips need a cold spell before germinating. To give your wild flower seeds growing space if sowing onto grass, add yellow rattle which acts against the grass roots and allows the other plants to grow.

Image is  Rain © Zojakostina