Tuesday 30 September 2025

Late September: we're keeping going 🙂

You can still sow a few things at this time of year, especially with some protection. What does and doesn't tolerate cold, saving your own seeds, including dill, and enjoying autumn.

Makkelijke Moestuin raised beds in late September — *Autumn in the MM - late September*

Long live autumn 🎉

Lovely weather this week: plenty of sunshine, not too hot and hardly any rain. Next week doesn't look bad either.

Still, the warm weather does seem to be over. Here in Groningen, the nights are already quite cold and the leaves on the trees are beginning to change colour. It really is autumn.

But that has a charm of its own:

Small pumpkins growing in the morning mist — *Baby pumpkins in the morning mist*

There are already quite a few empty squares in the raised beds by our office, yet we can still eat from the garden every day. Masses of tomatoes, especially those delicious yellow ones, plenty of lettuce and even a few cucumbers.

This is number 17 from the snack cucumber we sowed in mid-July:

Yellow snack tomatoes and a snack cucumber harvested in late September — *Still plenty of yellow snack tomatoes and even a few cucumbers*

And it looks as though the climbing courgettes will keep going for a while too:

A new climbing courgette still growing in late September — *New courgettes are still growing*

The plants themselves are declining quickly now, and most of their leaves are already affected by powdery mildew. Some small fruits also drop off before they can ripen.

The dino kale is still doing well, although we're not its only fans:

A caterpillar feeding on a dino kale leaf — *Caterpillar on the dino kale*

We use the leaves in stir-fries, and they're delicious with onion, mushrooms, rice and an egg. Dino kale soup is another favourite. The Dutch knowledge base has the recipe, along with several other ideas.

And what about the raspberries? We keep harvesting them, and the freezer is already getting rather full 😀

Fresh raspberries still ripening in late September — *Bring on those raspberries :-)*

You can clearly see that autumn is here. Leaves are changing colour and falling, and some plants will soon give up completely.

We're already clearing quite a lot: faded sunflowers, bolted lettuce and other plants, and anything that's either half eaten or simply no longer growing.

That last part mainly depends on the weather, which is impossible to predict at this time of year.

Clearing finished plants from Makkelijke Moestuin raised beds — *Clearing a few plants here and there*

The raised beds don't need to be empty yet. The knowledge base explains which vegetables can stay in place for a long time and which are better harvested now.

Groentes tegen kou

Which vegetables should you harvest before the frost comes, and which are cold-resistant? Here's what you can find in your fall garden.

Can you still sow anything?

Officially, you can sow almost nothing in October: the Makkelijke Moestuin app only lists a few varieties.

But the weather hasn't followed rules and tables for years, so we still sow a few other varieties too.

We do cheat a little by using an MM-Muts. It improves the chances of harvesting during winter.

An MM-Muts protecting a bamboo Makkelijke Moestuin raised table — *MM-Muts over a bamboo raised table*

See what you can still sow at this time of year and which vegetables I'm willing to take a chance on.

The last garlic and winter onions

This is also a good time to plant garlic and red and/or yellow winter onions. They tolerate cold well and don't need covering, unless there's a prolonged hard frost, which we haven't had for years.

They're still in the shop, but almost sold out, so get them while you can 🙂

Garlic and winter onions ready to plant — *Planting garlic and winter onions: now is the right time*

Go to the shop

Saving your own seeds

Besides sowing and eating from the vegetable garden, it's great fun to save your own seeds for next year. With many varieties, it's very easy, including dill:

Dry dill flower heads full of seeds — *Spent dill flowers full of seeds*

There's a reason I'm showing you that dill: we've just heard that our order from the seed supplier won't be fulfilled.

That's unfortunate because we're almost out of stock. Apparently, the seed harvest failed completely, and we won't receive new packets until the end of 2026.

So if you still have dill growing in your garden, saving some of its seeds would be a smart idea.

Collecting ripe dill seeds from dry flower heads — *Saving dill seeds*

While you're at it, you might as well save a few other seeds too, such as African marigold, pot marigold and liquorice mint. Those plants are well past their best now.

Ripe seeds collected from an African marigold — *Seeds from our African marigold*

Flower seeds are the easiest to save, but you can do it with many of our vegetables too.

Read how to save seeds from your own garden.

Harvesting seeds

Harvesting seeds from your own plants to sow in your vegetable garden next year is easier than you might think. Here is how to do it.

More about October

The October pages will be back on the site from Tuesday, with tips for this time of year, what you can still sow and whether it's still worth starting.

Here's the page for anyone who still needs to start,
and this page has information for anyone already growing.

That's all for today

I hope the weather stays reasonably good over the coming weeks and you can still spend plenty of time outdoors. Beautiful sunny autumn days: I'll gladly take those.

A sunflower still blooming in late September — *A sunflower that's far from finished*

Enjoy your garden as much as possible. In one of the next emails, around the end of October, I'll show you how to prepare your Makkelijke Moestuin for winter.

See you then!

Jelle's signature beside a sunflower still blooming in October — *Sunflowers can still bloom in October*

PS: Still happily gardening in autumn?

Post your photos on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #makkelijkemoestuin. Or share your story and photos in our community. I look forward to seeing them!