September Garden To-Dos

With warm soil temperatures and impending rain (we hope), September is a great time to take care of some important garden “to-dos”.

Permanent Landscape Plantings

Plant trees, shrubs, vines and perennials. For trees, if fall color is important, wait until you see trees coloring up around town before hitting the nursery. To ensure you’re getting a plant that exhibits good Fall color, it’s a good idea to select a plant at the nursery that’s showing the color(s) you want.

Native Plants

Fall is the ideal time to incorporate some California natives into your landscape. Our local California Native Plant Society (CNPS) chapter is a great resource and offers this Local Native Plant List.

https://www.sacvalleycnps.org/images/Local_Native_Plant_List.pdf

Fall Cleanup

Gathering and disposing of fallen fruit, flowers and trimmings can help to discourage pests and diseases from overwintering in your yard.

Buying Spring-Blooming Bulbs

Spring-blooming bulbs are planted in the Fall, and they’re arriving at local nurseries. Shop early for best selection and so you have time to pre-chill tulips, hyacinths, and crocuses for six to ten weeks before planting. Shop for the largest, firmest bulbs, corms and rhizomes. Our bulbs typically arrive in early September. They’re on their way now, and we’ll post to social media when they arrive.

Weeding

With our long growing season, weeding is an ongoing task, but it’s especially important to trim or remove weeds before they have a chance to disseminate seeds. The UC IPM website has a handy Weed Photo Gallery that can help you identify and manage weeds in your yard.

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/weeds_intro.html

Feeding This Month

Feed roses (except heirloom varieties) to encourage a fall flush of blooms.

Feed plants that are about to bloom.

Feed azaleas with an acid fertilizer.

Feed orchid cactus with a balanced fertilizer.

Feed cymbidium orchids with low N, high P liquid orchid food.

Pest Control

If you’re battling slugs and snails, ants, aphids, etc., it’s best to use environmentally friendly control measures. UC IPM Home, garden, turf and landscape pests website offers a comprehensive list of pests you may encounter, and how to identify and control them using Integrated Pest Managment (IPM), which always starts with the least toxic control measures.

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/menu.homegarden.html

Harvest Summer Veggies and Fruits

Unless you’re planning to use them immediately, harvest fruits and veggies early in the morning to give them the longest shelf life. If you can’t pick in the morning, wait till evening when the plants are cooler before picking. Halfyourplate.ca offers a printable guide to storing fruits and veggies. Want to extend your harvest for later use?