September Gardening To-Do List

Mostly borrowed from HGTV

Plant Fall Annuals

Watch for pansies at your favorite plant shopping spot and pick up enough to fill pots and planting beds. Fall-planted pansies stage a flower show all autumn long in most regions. In warmer zones, pansies deliver fresh-faced color through winter. Ideal temperatures for flower development are nights in the 40s F and days in the 60s F. In the landscape, avoid planting pansies where they’ll be exposed to road salt or standing water. A well-drained location is the secret to overwintering pansies, especially in regions where snow cover melts in spring. Pansies with medium-size flowers generally survive winter better than large-flowered varieties, a fact that’s most important in Zones 4 and 5.

Replenish Mulch

Give your landscape a refresh by replenishing mulch that has broken down. If you’re planting pansies, ornamental cabbage or other autumn color, definitely mulch around plants. Also mulch around newly planted perennials, trees or shrubs. Fall mulching helps soil retain moisture and reduces weeds. Applied in a 2- to 3-inch-thick layer, mulch also helps slow soil freezing as colder weather arrives. This allows plant roots to keep growing longer, which is important for helping new plantings get established before winter.

Savor Seasonal Color

In desert regions, fall explodes with floral fireworks. Traditional autumn bloomers add to the scene, including xeriscape-worthy New England aster, New Mexican sunflower (Helianthus maximiliana), giant hyssop and rabbitbrush chamisa (Chrysothamnus nauseosus). Annuals sown by seed in June also sparkle in the fall flower show: cosmos, celosia, ageratum, petunia and marigold. If your desert garden lacks fall color, look to some of these tried-and-true favorites to add living hues.

Use Compost

This time of year, even the coldest, shadiest compost pile has some finished product to offer. Empty your compost bin, filling a wheelbarrow or garden cart as you go. Add that finished compost to the garden, focusing on perennial, edible crops, like raspberries, rhubarb, asparagus or fruit trees. In the veggie garden, layer on compost from 3″ to 6″ thick — however much you have. Don’t spread all of your compost around in the fall, though. Keep some back to add to clematis, roses and new plantings in spring.

Harvest Tomatoes

When late blight hits tomatoes, diseased leaves fall away, creating leafless plants that can be loaded with ripening tomatoes. As temperatures drop below 50°F, tomatoes stop turning red. So before temperatures are consistently in the 40s, gather all tomatoes and bring them indoors for ripening. Place them in a single layer on a platter or tray. Check fruits every few days for ripening and/or spoilage. In a 70-degree environment, green tomatoes typically ripen in two weeks. Cooler air causes slower ripening — for instance, 28 days at 55° F.

Divide Perennials

Dig and divide spring and summer flowering perennials up until six weeks before frost. A few perennials that fit this category include bearded iris (shown), lily-of-the-valley, heart-leaf brunnera, Oriental poppy, campanula, veronica and peonies. Divide large clumps into smaller pieces and tuck back into the garden. Toss the woody, bare center of overgrown perennials and offer extra divisions to friends or neighbors. A community or school garden often accepts donations of weed-free perennials, although you may need to help with planting. Water newly planted perennials weekly until autumn rains arrive.

Clean the Vegetable Garden

Take advantage of nice fall afternoons to start cleaning the vegetable garden. Start by gathering all ripe and unripened produce that you intend to either ripen indoors or use at an immature stage. Cut down crops that are finished, leaving root systems in place to nourish microorganisms in the soil. Pick up all plant debris: stem, leaf and fruit bits. Don’t compost diseased plants — discard them. Refresh mulch over empty beds, maybe even adding fresh compost topped with a layer of chopped leaves.

Plant Cover Crops

In fallow (empty) parts of the vegetable garden, it’s best to cover the soil for winter. Use straw mulch, chopped leaves or compost — or any combination of these materials. Or plant cover crops to help nourish and enrich soil. Good choices include crimson clover (shown), peas, oats, annual rye grass and hairy vetch. Till crops under in spring before they flower and set seed. Otherwise, you risk having permanent patches of cover crops in the garden.

Fertilize the Lawn

Fall’s cooler air and rains awaken cool-season lawns from dormancy caused by summer heat. As lawns experience a spurt of growth, it’s a good time to fertilize. An easy trick to remember to fertilize in the fall is to time it with Labor Day. Look for lawn food labeled for fall use. If you plan to aerate your lawn, do so prior to fertilizing. For warm-season grass in the warmest parts of the South, feed with a complete product, such as 16-4-8. Follow label instructions regarding application timing and watering in. There’s one deal-breaker on applying fall lawn fertilizer: prolonged summer drought. If your region is plagued with drought, don’t feed the lawn until autumn rains have kick-started grass growth.

Change Pots for Fall

Refresh container gardens with dazzling fall color. Good plant choices include garden mums, ornamental grasses and flowering kale or cabbage. Consider adding a winter squash or pumpkin to the mix, or try pansies and violas. Fall plantings in Zone 5 and colder typically don’t grow quickly due to cold air and soil. That means you’ll have the most glorious containers if you buy the biggest plants you can find to create a full, lush pot.

Plant Peonies

Early fall is the ideal time to tuck peony tubers into soil. These spring bloomers thrive in full sun to part shade and well-drained soil rich in organic matter. Prepare the planting area by working plenty of organic matter into the soil. Plant peony tubers so the eyes or growing points are no more than 2 inches below the soil surface. Don’t plant them too deeply or they won’t produce flowers. Time planting for four to six weeks before the ground freezes. After planting, water well and add a 2- to 3-inch-thick mulch of chopped leaves or straw.

Dig Potatoes

Wait to harvest potatoes until plant tops have turned brown. You can wait as long as two weeks after tops die back to dig up potatoes, but do so before autumn rains arrive. It’s easier to lift tubers from dry soil. Wet soil clings to tubers and cold, wet soil can jump-start rotting. When digging potatoes, handle tubers gently and don’t rub off the soil. Cure potatoes first, which helps to toughen skins so they store well. To cure, place potatoes in a dark, cool place (55° F is ideal) for two weeks. After curing, rub soil off tubers before storing. Wearing gloves makes quick work of removing soil from cured potatoes.

Grow Garlic

Plant garlic cloves at least two weeks before your region’s first average fall frost date. If you miss that window, don’t worry. You can still tuck garlic into soil up until a few weeks before the ground freezes. Plant cloves 2 inches deep and 4 inches apart, using the largest cloves from each bulb. Larger cloves produce larger garlic bulbs. Water well after planting and cover the soil with mulch. If the ground freezes where you garden, mulch with 6 inches of straw or 4 inches of chopped leaves. For areas where the ground doesn’t freeze over winter, use a 2-inch-thick mulch layer.

Preserve the Harvest

Fall is prime canning time, with many crops still growing strong. The list includes roma tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower, peppers, cucumbers, raspberries and grapes, among others. Continue canning and prepping batches of salsa (red and green), grape juice, berry jam and tomato sauce. Can smarter by preparing batches of products that are more recipe-ready, such as tomatoes with onions and peppers, or carrots and onions in chicken broth. Pickle things you’ve never tried before, like carrots, peppers or green tomatoes.

Stock Your Freezer

Before nights in the 40s arrive, harvest what’s left of your basil to make pesto. It freezes well and provides summer-fresh flavor in the heart of winter. Experiment with other pestos to preserve the greens of autumn: spinach, arugula, carrot or radish tops, sage, parsley — and many more. Freeze pesto in an ice cube tray, and pop the cubes into a zipper bag for easy access. Many other vegetables also freeze well, including green beans, corn, peppers and onions.

Prep Soil for Fall

Get cool-season crops off to a solid start by refreshing soil in raised beds. Add organic matter such as homegrown compost, composted manure, bark fines or whatever local material is available to you. You can add bagged soil products, along with slow-release fertilizer you mix into soil. Top the bed with mulch — chopped leaves, straw, pine straw or whatever you typically use. Fall greens savor rich, well-drained soil, and this type of soil prep delivers healthy crops.

Rake Leaves

Try not to let leaves pile up on the lawn. If left to sit in a thick layer, they have the potential to damage or even kill the grass. Leaves rake easiest when they’re dry. If possible, consider mulching leaves using a lawnmower. You can let small pieces lie and work their way down to the soil to help nourish the turf. Or you can mow with a grass catcher and transfer the chopped leaves to planting beds as mulch.

Maintain Tools

Clean and sharpen digging and cutting tools before putting them up for winter. Use a wire brush and/or medium grit sandpaper to remove rust on shovel blades and scrub the surface with a bucket of dishwashing detergent. Wrap up the chore by rubbing light machine or synthetic oil into the blade. For pruners and loppers, clean blades with rubbing alcohol, sharpen and oil moving parts.

Wait for Frost

Root crops get sweeter after frost, which converts plant starches to sugars. This happens with carrots, beets, turnips and parsnips. Let these root crops stay in the ground past frost to savor a sweeter harvest. If you blanket the planting area with a thick straw mulch (6 to 12 inches deep), you can slow soil freezing, enabling you to continue to harvest these crops into winter.

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