September Gardening Calendar Week 1

Ornamentals

• Continue planting evergreens now.
• Cuttings of annuals can be taken now to provide vigorous plants for overwintering.
• Herbs such as parsley, rosemary, chives, thyme and marjoram can be dug from the garden and placed in pots now for growing indoors this winter.

Lawns

• Cool-season lawns are best fertilized in fall. Make up to 3 applications between now and December. Do not exceed rates recommended by fertilizer manufacturer.
• If soils become dry, established lawns should be watered thoroughly to a depth of 4-6 inches.
• Begin fall seeding or sodding of cool-season grasses. Seedbeds should be raked, dethatched or core-aerified, fertilized and seeded. Keep newly planted lawn areas moist, but not wet.

Vegetables

• Egyptian (top-setting) onions can be divided and replanted now.
• Sowing seeds of radish, lettuce, spinach and other greens in a cold frame will prolong fall harvests.

Fruits

• Pick pears before they are fully mature. Store in a cool, dark basement to ripen.

Miscellaneous

• Autumn is a good time to add manure, compost or leaf mold to garden soils for increasing organic matter content.
• Monitor plants for spider mite activity. Reduce their numbers by hosing off with a forceful spray of water.