I MUCH prefer September in the garden to August.

Somehow August is always a battleground, a constant struggle to keep things flowering and looking fresh, when all the plants really want to do is go to seed, or fall over, or both! In September all these things are perfectly acceptable, so I can relax and enjoy the autumn flowers, without worrying about the rest.

More good news this month - to celebrate the end of summer and in preparation for displaying huge quantities of Christmas decorations, some of the bigger garden centres are offering big discounts on outdoor furniture, garden ornaments and pots.

Canny gardeners can stock up for next year at discount prices, and it does make the sight of Christmas decorations in October easier to bear.

I have splashed out on some fancy metal obelisks, originally priced at more than £70, now reduced to £12 each, which will be perfect for next year's sweet peas and runner beans.

In the vegetable plot at home I have had to compromise my organic principles in order to get autumn-sown onions, carrots, fennel and white turnips to germinate.

Slugs were systematically grazing the newly emerging seedlings every night - despite my torchlight slug-collecting operation.

There was no possibility of a crop without drastic action.

So I have built a short wire frame around each newly re-sown patch of seedlings and sprinkled some of the dreaded blue slug-pellets inside.

A sheet of glass placed on top of the frame keeps the pellets dry and prevents birds and hedgehogs from eating the dying slugs and snails.

After a few weeks I reckon the seedlings will be big enough to cope, and I will be able to take the frames away, clearing up any remaining pellets as I go.

I have also sown a couple of dozen seeds of late cropping dwarf-French beans, but these are in pots in the greenhouse.

I won't plant them out until they are big enough to withstand some munching by slugs, no need for pellets with these.

In the flowerbeds, the elephant's head amaranthus that I grew from seed sown in spring have begun to flower.

After several months of looking distinctly weedy, they have produced fat spikes of tiny, dark purple flowers.

These fine flower spikes are a real bonus, since I have really been growing the plants for their seedheads which will provide good eating for the birds later in the year.

Signed copies of Sue's recently published book A Year in a Lake District Garden are still available direct from the author, priced £4.99 post-free.

Send a cheque or postal order, payable to Mrs S.

Parker, 34, Fitz Road, Cockermouth, Cumbria CA13 0AN