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Gardening Calendar
September is a season in the garden when many gardeners are worn out from
dealing with all the insects, diseases, weeds and watering. And this year we had
more than our fair share of disease problems. We also get the first taste that
fall is on the horizon, with a few cooler nights. While you may not want to work
in the garden this month, there is still plenty to do. How well your garden
grows in the fall can often foretell how well it comes out in the spring.
Annuals and Perennials
Annual and perennial flowers are still giving you lots of color, if they got
minimal care. We were lucky that we had scattered showers off and on - at
times I thought we were living in the tropics with afternoon showers. Wish that
had continued! Monitor the rainfall in your area and water as needed. If
perennial plants are beginning to decline - such
as lilies, peonies and bleeding heart go ahead and begin garden clean-up.
Perennials have a season of growth, and once they begin to die back, their
season is over. They have manufactured all the food they are going to, so get
the ugliness out of the garden. If the plants were insect and disease free, add
the material to your compost pile. If you had problems, simply dispose of it.
Late summer, early fall should not be a season without perennial color. The
Japanese anemones are thriving now and are an easy carefree plant to grow in the
garden. Choose white or pink and give them partial shade to full sun and you
will have them every season. In the shade the perennial begonia, Begonia
grandis is blooming with beautiful pink flowers. Coupled with the red
underside of the foliage it makes for a beautiful display. Joe Pye weed
(Eupatorium) is a vigorous perennial that often gets quite large in the garden.
Try 'Little Joe'
for a more contained and stunning perennial in full sun to partial shade. This
carefree plant has beautiful pink flowers which butterflies flock to. I have
also been quite impressed with the new orange and yellow Echinacea's - they
are still blooming, and have been all season long. If you are looking for easy
care perennials try the common pink one or the newer ones like
'Harvest Moon', 'Sunrise',
or 'Sundown'.
I hope that many of you have tried the newer summer annuals that have been on
the market, and have branched out from using marigolds and geraniums. The summer
snapdragons - Angelonia, have been stunning,
and are continuing with non stop color on spiked flower spikes. Melampodium has
lush mounds of yellow flowers now, and is almost as drought tolerant as
lantanas. Pentas are loaded with flowers and hummingbirds and butterflies love
them. And don't overlook foliage color - with
hundreds of coleus varieties to choose from as well as Alternanthera, iresine
and the sweet potato vine, they are lighting up the garden. If your summer
annuals have started to play out, don't be
too quick to plant pansies, but you can start planting violas - which
are more heat tolerant. You can also plant flowering kale and cabbage - getting
it established early will give you even larger plants. Also consider some of the
other winter greens such as Swiss chard 'Bright
Lights', Bulls blood beets and parsley and
cilantro.
Lawns
This is the last month to fertilize warm season grasses. Try to get the last
application of fertilizer out by mid month. If you wait too late, you can spur
on growth too late in the season. The mower should also be raised to a higher
setting now, and watering should continue. If you have lots of weeds in the
lawn, you have waited a bit late to start controlling them, but you can knock
them down a bit. Sedgehammer is an effective herbicide for nutgrass and killing
it before it goes dormant would be a good idea. Crabgrass can be killed with
MSMA, but this annual summer weed is dying back in many lawns, and has already
produced its seed crop for next year.
Vegetable Gardens
It is the die-hard gardeners that are still growing vegetables. Many
gardeners have thrown in the trowel, but there is still time to even plant fall
vegetables. From lettuce, radishes and onions to a late planting of beans, kale
and spinach, seed away. The key is to mulch the soil well to conserve moisture,
and of course, watch for insects and diseases. They have had all season to
multiply and are out there in force. The larger they are, the tougher they are
to kill, so be vigilant. Pumpkins and gourds are coming along nicely. If you
planted too early and your pumpkins are ripening, harvest them and store in a
cool, dry place to keep them for fall decorations.
Shrubs & Trees This is the month that spring flowering shrubs and trees are setting or have
just finished setting flower buds for next year. Take a look at your dogwoods,
and you will see the flower buds there. Camellias and azaleas are also setting
buds. No more fertilization should be done this year, but do keep the plants
mulched and watered. This is not a great season to prune shrubs. Pruning spring
blooming shrubs now would reduce or eliminate flowers next spring, and late
season pruning on non-flowering evergreens would be slow to recover. We are
still getting flowers on crape myrtles, buddleia and althea, so enjoy and wait
until February to prune those, if needed. Here in central Arkansas most of our
crape myrtles bounced back from the late freeze and bloomed fine - albeit
a bit late in some areas. |
