By September my greenhouse is starting to look a bit tired, well not so much the greenhouse, more the plants inside. I often think that the plants I抳e chosen to grow inside the confines of my wonderful glasshouse are almost forced into productivity, a little bit like battery hens, cooped into a small space to lay egg after egg. The difference is that my plants have plenty of space, the very best diet and very little in the way of pest control. And of course I don抰 chuck them into the pot as soon as they have an off day.

Every year I look at what抯 done well in the greenhouse and what didn抰 really work and each year I come to a different conclusion. Last year by accident I grew runner beans in the greenhouse, it was such a success that I did it deliberately this year. Strangely although I got a reasonable crop, it didn抰 compare to last year抯. My tomatoes this year have been better, but now they have succumbed to the dreaded tomato blight and that抯 the beginning of the end of them. New gardeners are often put off by crop failures and poor results, but it happens to all gardeners regardless of their experience. Just because something hasn抰 grown well this year, it isn抰 a reflection on things to come. It may be that the weather has had an adverse effect on things, you could have just been unlucky or it may have been a pest or problem that has affected everyone抯 crops. Don抰 give up. Try again, but try something new too. That抯 how we all learn and progress in gardening and it抯 a great way of keeping things interesting.

My new project for the autumn is to sow and grow some later salad crops to keep us in vitamin rich leaves into the winter. I always get carried away in early spring and then I get so involved in the flower shows that there抯 a huge gap in production. Now the shows are almost over and there抯 space to fill in the greenhouse so I抦 determined to get some more seed sown as soon as possible. Surprisingly there are plenty of Oriental greens, salad leaves and winter lettuce that can all still be sown now and harvested for weeks to come. It抯 a bit of an experiment for me, as I haven抰 grown much over winter before, but as there is plenty of room in the greenhouse now; I wanted to have a go.

So this weekend I抣l be sowing some Oriental vegetable seeds. I抳e got some large Earth Boxes that have been growing all manner of summer veg, now harvested and eaten or stored and now replenished with some fresh compost, this seems a great place to sow some new seed.
I抳e sorted out some packs of new seed varieties for 2010, most of which can be sown in September and October, and I抦 going to get them started.

I抳e got some mustard spinach (Komatsuna Torasan) from Johnsons Seeds, four different sorts of Pak Choi (from Mr Fothergill抯) to grow as baby leaves and also to try and mature into crisp and crunchy heads and some spring Onion Guardsman that should overwinter in the greenhouse. Add to that an autumn sowing of broad beans, some winter lettuce and my evergreen herbs (rosemary, thyme and sage) and that makes a fair variety of flavours, texture and colours to spice up winter salads and provide healthy fresh leaves for weeks to come. Plus I抦 still harvesting beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies, squash, courgettes, salad and herbs all sown over the summer.