September Maintenance

September Maintenance Guide

GARDENING WITH CONFIDENCE™

THIS MONTH IN THE GARDEN

Mid-Atlantic Region

INTRO

September delights. With the dog days of summer behind us, September opens with cooler air creating a fresh scent and a sense of excitement. The source of this excitement may be for no other reason than it being bearable enough to be out of doors once again.

Here’s some September Inspiration, in case you need it.

BULBS

Hopefully, your bulb selection were made while the selection was good. Buy what you fancy while they are available. Avoid mushy, soft, moldy bulbs; buy from a reputable supplier. And it is good to know that bigger IS better.

October or November is a better time for planting, but purchase in September while the selection is best.

Plant fall-blooming bulbs, such as autumn crocus.

ANNUALS

Sowing seeds of California, Iceland, and Shirley poppies, sweet alyssum, and larkspur this fall for spring color and fun.

If your Zinnia’s have powdery mildew, no need to worry about them since they will be coming out soon, Next year, look for mildew-resistant strains.

PERENNIALS

Towards the end of the month, as the weather cools, the best time to plant and divide perennials begins.

TREES AND SHRUBS

Our native Dogwood is a fantastic four-season tree making it a choice for all those zoned to have one. As the leaves turn from green to red, excitement ensures. The Kousa dogwood also a nice variety for our zone 7b gardens.

If you lost any azaleas due to the drought, the fall is a good time to replace them.

Fall is an excellent time to plant or transplant Peonies. In the absence of rain, keep transplants watered well.

ROSES

Roses make a big comeback in September and October. Be sure to stop fertilizing your roses 6 weeks before the last expected frost. In Raleigh, we have a 90% chance of a frost by Halloween. Therefore, stop fertilizing by mid-September. If you have rose varieties with nice hips, this is also a good time to stop deadheading to allow the hips to remain. To tidy up your rose garden, remove the pedals by hand. Letting the hips to grow to signal the rose to go into dormancy.

HERBS

Continue to harvest basil and use for cooking. Continue to pinch back flowers.

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Now is a good time (if you haven’t already done so) to remove the fruiting canes from blackberry and raspberry bushes. If you plant to add blackberry, blueberry, or raspberry bushes this season, now is a good time to order them, but wait until November before planting.

Don’t fertilize your fruiting trees during September, they are setting buds and the fertilizer may reduce bud formation.

Fall vegetable crops can still be planted, such as kale, leaf lettuce, mustard greens, spinach, broccoli as well as turnips, beets, and carrots.

WATERWISE
September and October tend to be dry months, unless we have a hurricane. Plan to water any new plantings, including bulbs.

SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES

When preparing for fall clean up, consider locating a place on your property to build a compost pile.

GARDEN PESTS

Watch where you reach. Black widow spiders are plentiful this time of year.

WILDLIFE

Don’t be to tidy in cleaning up the garden and deadheading. The wildlife will enjoy the seed.
Encourage pollinating insects in your garden, such as bees and butterflies, by providing them a tasty treat. This fall, plan to plant nectar-rich plants. Nectar, the sugar-rich liquid, many flowering plants produce, sustains bees and butterflies.

For the Bees: Add clover, cotoneaster, golden rod, heliotrope, Eupatorium cannabium, as well as Lunaria annua, love-in-mist, asters, and Echium vulgare.

For the Butterflies: Alyssum, Ajuga reptans, Iberis amara, catmint, echinops, verbena rigida, Rededa ororate, and Joe-Pye weed.
Did you know:

80% of the world’s food crops need a pollinator at some stage in their life cycle; many require multiple visits.
Stick with the species. Many double flowers are usually sterile with no value to insects. The petals of the second flower replaced the anthers and nectarines leaving the plant unable to be fertilized.
Many pollinating insects ingest protein-rich pollen before they can breed and some use pollen to feed their young.
Plant in en masse making the plants easier to find through grouped color and scent.

CONTAINERS

Begin cleaning up the potted plants you plan to winter over inside.

MULCH

Pines begin dropping their needles, now though the end of the year. They make an excellent, free, mulch for your azaleas, gardenias, dogwoods, Rhododendrons, Camellias, as well as, fruiting trees.

Helen Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.