Techniques & tips for success

Below is a checklist of jobs that can be done in the veg garden during autumn.

Spring cabbage plants should be transplanted to their final positions. Cover them with horticultural fleece or netting to stop the pigeons getting to them.

Overwintered onion sets are planted out in early autumn. Later still, just before winter sets in, garlic and shallots can be planted out.

Overwintered turnip, spinach, winter lettuce, Oriental vegetables and seed of overwintering onions, both salad and bulb types can be sown, and later in the season, hardy pea and broad bean cultivars can be sown in situ in sheltered districts and well-drained soils; otherwise sow them in pots or trays in a cold greenhouse or cold frame.

Cloches can do good work over the winter protecting these crops from cold wind, frosts and low temperatures.

There are still many crops to harvest - autumn cabbages, calabrese and cauliflower, celery and autumn salads of endive and chicory, for example. As well as any summer crops that are still cropping - especially if the weather remains warm.

Regularly pick fast maturing vegetables, such as French beans, runner beans, courgettes, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes, to prevent them becoming stringy, tough or bitter and to encourage further crops. Once summer crops - beans, tomatoes, courgettes for example - are finished, the plants should be consigned to the compost bin. Those that are suffering from diseases are best removed and disposed of by some other means.

Remaining outdoor tomatoes should be picked by the end of September and ripened indoors. The whole truss can be cut off to allow the fruits to ripen ‘on the vine’, perhaps under a cloche or on a windowsill. Any green fruits can be used in chutneys.

Most root vegetables are best left in the ground and gathered as you need them, but in case a cold spell prevents harvesting or even damages them, a proportion can be lifted and stored in a frost-free shed. Celeriac and turnips are especially frost sensitive. Carrots left in the ground benefit from an insulating covering under plastic sheeting. Parsnips produce sweeter roots if exposed to mild frosts. Witloof chicory can be lifted for forcing in a warm place. Leafy chicories can be induced to form heads by lifting and planting up in a greenhouse.

Celery can be earthed-up for the final time this month, leaving just a tuft of foliage sticking out of the trench or collar in order to blanch the stems. Self-blanching types are less hardy, and should be harvested before the first frosts.

The dying foliage and stems of maincrop potatoes are cut down now and those of pumpkins and squash removed. The pumpkin and squash fruits themselves are 'cured' in a warm place for a week or two before storing in a dry, frost-free place. Potatoes need to be dried for a day or two and then stored in a cool but frost-free, dark place.

Stake any Brussels sprouts stalks that look leggy and vulnerable to wind rock.

All spent stems and debris should be removed to avoid carry-over of pests and disease and to expose slugs and other pests to birds and weather.

Canes and stakes should be recovered, the soil knocked off and stored dry to avoid rots.

In early autumn there is still time to sow green manures that will establish in autumn, survive winter and be ready to dig into the soil to improve fertility in early spring; Italian ryegrass, grazing rye and vetches are suitable.

Autumn is a good time for digging over vacant areas of the vegetable plot, as the approaching cold weather may help to improve the soil structure by breaking down large clumps into crumbly particles. After digging, any vacant ground can be covered with black polythene to prevent re-colonisation by weeds.