Be inspired by… Potager pizzazz, jungle drama, plants in flower now, dahlia shapes, a blackboard paint project, ‘dead, diseased or damaged?’ quiz and diary dates

Plants, books, events & buys for the month ahead

The potager garden in September can be a glorious place – filled with shapely brassicas and multicoloured salad leaves, squashes, stands of stately sweetcorn, and espaliered fruit trees laden with ripe apples and pears. Flowers add their own distinctive shapes and colours to the picture. Here, the pink flowers of a semi-cactus dahlia are echoed by zinnias in a matching hue, with white dahlias and Nicotiana sylvestris at the back. Providing a dramatic contrast are rows of black kale and bronze amaranthus. The latter has a gothic look, and it’s edible. The seeds are a wholegrain similar to quinoa, while its dark leaves can be cooked like spinach or added raw to salads.