Come and join our garden activities for September as we celebrate the Autumn Equinox and turn sunflower seeds into delicious crackers and cookies.
Garden activities for September
Welcome to our garden classroom! This post is part of our Kids Gardening Activities. You can use our month-by-month garden guides for your school gardening club, community garden or at home with your family and I’ll show you what to plant, harvest, do, make and learn each month of the year. You will also find more ideas and inspiration in my book, The Garden Classroom.
Here’s my guide for what to do in the garden in September.
#1 What to plant in September
Make a ‘second spring’ planting of crops that will grow over winter: choose from lettuces, bok choi, corn salad, winter purslane, turnip, giant winter spinach, coriander, mizuna, radish and rocket.
#2 Make a bug hotel
Think about your garden as a whole ecosystem, and appreciate the insects and other small creatures who help us grow our fruits and vegetables by pollinating our plants and eating the creatures that are trying to eat our crops. Let’s help to maintain this vast and helpful population over the winter by building them a bug hotel to shelter in.
#3 Keep composting
Let’s try and establish a ‘closed’ garden system, where we use sustainable practices to keep the garden going without having to buy in any extras. This will include saving our own seeds to grow next year but just as importantly means generating our own compost. This month, gather all of your spent plants, old leaves and other veggie leftovers and set up a compost system, to give you planting soil and mulch to feed your garden with next year.
There are lots of ways to set up a compost system, depending on your site and needs, so pick the one that suits you, whether that’s recycling pallets to build a compost area, buying a plastic compost bin, or simply ‘chopping and dropping’ garden waste straight on to your beds in the autumn, so it breaks down into your soil ready for the spring.
#4 What to harvest in September
The garden is starting to slow down in its production of summer crops but you can still harvest beans, peas, salad, courgettes, aubergines, beetroot, carrots, cucumbers, celery, lettuces, peppers, summer squash, sweetcorn and more.
Green tomato chutney making is a great idea for tomatoes that don’t finish ripening this month, and makes a great fund-raiser to sell in pots at the school fair.
#5 Sunflower cookies
Sunflowers are nearing the end of their growing season. Gather their seeds to make delicious sunflower seed cookies and sunflower seed crackers.
#6 Celebrate the Autumn Equinox
Mark the changing season this month with these ideas for arts, crafts, food and rituals to celebrate the Autumn Equinox with your children.
#7 Elderberry study
Use elderberries as a plant study this month. Show your children how to identify and forage for elderberries and cook up some delicious elderberry syrup with our printable elderberry guide.
#8 Sunflower seed sensory
And while you’re gathering your sunflower seeds to make the crackers and cookies, take some to enjoy in a sunflower sensory tub.
#9 Get The Garden Classroom guide
My book The Garden Classroom is bursting with ideas you can use to make the most of the math, science, literacy, art and play waiting for you outdoors. This is your go-to book to give your children a connection with nature, and is full of creative ways to use the garden to inspire learning. See more and get your copy here.
Leave a Reply