Baytree Garden Centre’s column on harvest tasks – and the joys of homemade chutney

Baytree Garden Centre’s Mark Cox looks ahead to harvest – and to polishing off some delicious plum chutney...

Well, September is finally here and it can mean only one thing – it’s harvest time. All of the hard work you have put into sowing your vegetable seeds, hardening them off, planting them out, feeding them and weeding them has finally paid off and hopefully you’ll have a bumper crop of home grown vegetables to enjoy this autumn and winter.

With your main crop of potatoes, I would suggest that – when you lift them - you leave them on top of the soil for a few hours to start the drying process. Then store them in paper or hessian bags in a cool dark and well ventilated place within your home or garden shed.

Make sure that you don’t store any diseased or damaged potatoes, as one rotten potato can spoil an entire bag of potatoes. Whatever type of bag you choose to store them in though must be breathable, if not the potatoes will sweat and rot.

Should you have any French or Runner Beans in your garden, make sure that you keep cropping them little and often. Continue to feed and water them to prevent them from setting seed too early. Keep harvesting your pea pods if you have them. Once they have finished cropping cut them down to ground level. The pea plants roots will then slowly begin to release nitrogen back into the soil. It’s always best to work with Mother Nature rather than against her especially when she’s giving us a free helping hand here to re-invigorate the soil.

I guess I’m quite fortunate as my wife is great at pickling and preserving the harvest from the garden. The great thing about homemade pickles and chutneys is that it knocks the socks off anything that you can buy from the shops.

You can taste the love and care in every mouthful, currently the kitchen is filled with plums which the present Mrs Cox is turning into my favourite plum chutney. You have to have a go. It’s like alchemy. You start off with what feels like several hundred weight of fruit which spreads out to cover every available surface in the kitchen and following a few hours of cooking and steeping you end up with four or five jars of the best accompaniment to cheese ever created.

I know I’ve talked a lot about harvesting produce which, for many, is going to be the biggest task in the garden this month.

However, that said, now is a great time to start the garden clear up before autumn starts to take hold. If you have a greenhouse, give it a good clean ahead of any autumn planting. In a month or so there will be an abundance of dead leaves and other dead plant material in your garden so, if you haven’t yet, get yourself a compost bin to break down this organic material for putting back into the soil later on the year.

The sun is shining, the crackers have been purchased and all that awaits me now is a heart attack-inducing slice of Stilton with a healthy dollop of homemade plum chutney. Life’s good.