September is second in time spent on garden chores only to the frenzied planting month of May. There are fruits, vegetables and herbs to be harvested and hours spent canning, preparing for freezing, or dehydrating. Those are the things you have to do this month; you can’t put it off and to forgo those tasks entirely makes the whole exercise in planting the garden meaningless. That is, unless your goal was to add a lot of fruits and vegetables to your compost bin!
There are other garden tasks for September and most are more pleasant than slaving over hot canning jars. Collecting seed from annuals like zinnias, marigolds, cosmos, calendula, dill and the many other plants makes for an enjoyable afternoon.
If you’ve been diligent about weeding, this is no time to slack off. If you haven’t been so conscientious, now is the time to do a good weeding clean-up so you get the weed seeds out of the garden for next year.
This is the best time to make landscaping plans for next year. Most plants are full-sized now and you can see where new plants will fit in or where you want to make changes. No matter how long you’ve been gardening, in January when the seed and plant catalogs come, you will underestimate how much space your existing plants take up.
If you think your landscape is dull or boring, get an armload of landscape books from the library and spend a few hours paging through them just looking at the pictures. Something is sure to spark your interest and fit with your yard. If what catches your attention is a pond or water feature, this is a good time to decide on where it should be placed in your landscape. You can spend winter days learning how to build a pond with information from books or the internet.
Near the end of September, make sure to watch the weather forecast every night if you want to cover your plants to extend their season. I always err on the side of caution and cover my plants if the forecast is for anything below 40 degrees.
There is one gardening “don’t” for this time of year. Don’t prune anything! Pruning stimulates new growth and that lush new growth won’t be sufficiently hardy by the time winter comes to withstand the cold weather.
Just a reminder to keep evergreen plants well watered all the way up until the ground freezes. Water transpires from the needles all winter long and they need a good supply of water so they don’t dry out and die.
Leave a Reply