Some Things to do in the Garden in September
	I was thinking the other day that I must check that I have plenty of compost in stock, for it is time to take geranium cuttings.  I usually buy my compost from the garden centre, but here are 2 recipes used by Isaac Emmerton in 1815: 3 barrowsful of goose dung, steeped in bullock’s blood 3 barrowsful of sugar - baker’s scum 2 barrowsful of fine yellow loam Or alternatively: 2 barrowsful of goose dung, steeped in bullock’s blood 2 barrowsful of sugar baker’s scum 2 barrowsful of night soil 2 barrowsful of fine yellow loam. I think I’ll be going back to the garden centre for a bag of clean, sterilised compost!  Some other things to do this month are:- Plant pot chrysanthemums in tubs and window boxes to replace summer bedding plants. Draw soil up to the stems of leeks to lengthen the edible blanched portion. Tip the compost from discarded pot plants round the stem bases of hardy fuchsias and hydrangeas to protect from frost. Plant heathers chosen from garden centres when in flower. Although callunas need lime-free soil, winter flowering carnea varieties will endure lime, and Erica vagans will cope with neutral ground. “Over-sow” a tired, patchy lawn with grass seed after raking to remove dead tissue and loosen the surface. Continue to shorten to about a foot of long slender new shoots of Wisteria. Take all tender evergreen plants in pots, (such as oleanders, palms, and agapanthus) under cover for the winter, in positions where they will get light as well as frost protection. David Jones