> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://after-hours-allotment.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The September Sowing Gamble — What I'm Actually Planting and What's Probably Too Late - URL: https://after-hours-allotment.ghost.io/what-to-sow-in-september-allotment/ - Published: 2026-09-04T15:15:25.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-08T15:37:12.000Z - Description: September is a slightly strange month on the allotment. Summer crops are still producing, but I'm also looking at the gaps they're leaving behind and deciding what can squeeze in for the rest of this year — and what might give me an early harvest next year. - Author: Sam Bailey September is a slightly strange month on the allotment. On one hand, I'm still looking at an absolutely ridiculous amount of food coming my way. Potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and squash are all still producing, and at the moment the main problem is less *“how do I grow more food?”* and more *“where on earth am I going to put it all?”* But September is also when I start looking at the gaps. Some crops are finishing. Some space is becoming available. And there's still an opportunity to get things growing that will give me something later this year or early next year. So I'm trying to make the most of it. Not by planting absolutely everything that a September sowing list tells me I *could* plant, but by picking a handful of things that I actually want to eat, that should add a decent amount of harvest, or that make good use of otherwise empty space. And, inevitably, I've also planted one thing that I suspect is probably too late. ## The September sowing list Here's what's actually going into the ground. ### Lollo Rossa salad First up is Lollo Rossa. It's a really nice red salad and, perhaps more importantly at this time of year, it's a useful way of filling a bit of space without needing to commit a huge amount of the allotment to it. There's something quite satisfying about putting a little salad crop into a gap that might otherwise just sit there doing nothing. It's not going to transform my harvest weight, but that's not really the point. It's another crop coming off the plot. Grow it yourself If you're looking for something similar to grow yourself, Pippin Seed Co's ****Gourmet Salad Trio** includes Lollo Rossa alongside Wild Rocket and Little Gem — three salad crops that work well for keeping fresh leaves coming from a small growing space. [Grow your own salad ](https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/4470070451/gourmet-salad-trio-wild-rocket-little?sr%5Fprefetch=1&pf%5Ffrom=shop%5Fhome&ref=shop%5Fhome%5Factive%5F5&frs=1&logging%5Fkey=0b1e68d783e01d0d02a520bae7857a70dbff4218%3A4470070451) ### Chinese cabbage — using plug plants I've gone for Chinese cabbage as plug plants rather than starting it from seed now. There's a reason for that. I'm a bit late to be starting from seed if I want to get something with a decent size to it, and the whole point of this September exercise is to get as much useful growing done as I can. The plug plants give me a head start. And I'm particularly interested in this one because Chinese cabbage should add a **useful amount of harvest weight** rather than just providing a handful of leaves. At the moment, with the 100kg challenge still sitting in the back of my mind, that's quite important. Every crop doesn't have to be a huge producer, but if I'm putting valuable space into something, I'd quite like it to give me something substantial back. ## A slightly random collection of brassicas I've also got a few brassicas going in — broccoli, cauliflower and romanesco. These aren't really about getting a massive harvest this year. They're more of a **“let's get them established and see what happens”** exercise. I'm expecting these to probably come good next year, which makes them slightly different from some of the other September crops. There's something quite nice about September being a bit of a crossover month like that. Some things are being grown for *now*. Some are being grown for *later*. And some are somewhere in between. ## Beetroot in a tub The beetroot is another one I'm quite pleased with. It's growing in a tub and it's coming on really nicely. There's not much more to say about this one at the moment — which is probably a good thing. Sometimes a crop doesn't need a dramatic story. It's growing. It looks healthy. And I'm looking forward to seeing what is happening underneath the soil. That's one of the things I like about beetroot. You can look at the leaves all you like, but you don't really know how you've done until you pull the thing up. Hopefully there's a decent root hiding down there. ## Mooli — the complete unknown Mooli is probably the one I'm most curious about. I've never grown it before. I'm trying it because, again, I'm interested in crops that can potentially produce a decent amount of food in the space available. The hope is for some nice heavy roots. Whether that's what I actually get is another matter. I've never grown it before, so this is very much a case of **plant it and find out**. That's becoming a bit of a theme with the allotment. ## And then there's the dwarf beans... This one is probably the least convincing decision I've made. I've got some beans left. So I planted them. That's basically the entire thought process. I have absolutely no confidence that they're going to amount to much at this point. September feels pretty late to be starting dwarf beans, and if I were making a carefully considered plan from scratch, I probably wouldn't put them on the list. But I had the beans. I had the space. So... why not? There's a reasonable chance I'll be writing a follow-up article explaining exactly why this was a terrible idea. But we'll see. ## Things I'm deliberately not growing One of the things I've realised over the years is that just because you *can* grow something doesn't mean you should. I've grown tatsoi before. It was rank. I'm sure somebody loves it. Somebody probably has a beautiful recipe for it and grows mountains of the stuff every year. But that somebody isn't me. I've also grown broad beans over winter before. They got blackfly. Nobody in my house particularly likes eating them. So I've decided I'm not going to spend valuable allotment space growing something simply because it's on a list of things you're *supposed* to grow. That's probably an increasingly important part of my allotment planning. **The best crop isn't necessarily the one that produces the most. It's the one that produces something you actually want to eat.** ## Trying to squeeze a bit more out of the year So that's basically my September plan. It's not particularly ambitious. I'm not trying to turn the allotment into a winter vegetable factory. I'm trying to fill gaps, get as much as I reasonably can in place for the rest of this year, and establish a few things that should give me something early next year. And I'm doing it while the summer crops are still going absolutely mad. There are potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and squash still coming. Which makes September feel slightly ridiculous. I'm harvesting one lot of crops while simultaneously trying to work out what I can squeeze into the space they're leaving behind. But that's probably what I like about the allotment. There's always something to do. And there's always something slightly experimental going on. The Chinese cabbage might give me a decent chunk of harvest. The beetroot is looking promising. The mooli is a complete unknown. The brassicas might be more of a 2027 story. And the dwarf beans? Well... **Let's just see if they grow.** What are you sowing or planting this September? And, more importantly, **is there anything you've stopped growing because you've realised nobody in your house actually eats it?**