September Gardening Calendar Week 4

Ornamentals

• Continue planting evergreens now.
• Except tulips, spring bulbs may be planted as soon as they are available. Tulips should be kept in a cool, dark place and planted in late October.
• Perennials, especially spring bloomers, can be divided now. Enrich the soil with peat moss or compost before replanting.
• Divide peonies now. Replant in a sunny site and avoid planting deeply.
• Lift gladioli when their leaves yellow. Cure in an airy place until dry before husking.

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.
• Lawns may be topdressed with compost or milorganite now. This is best done after aerifying.
• It is not uncommon to see puffballs in lawn areas at this time.
• Newly seeded lawns should not be cut until they are at least 2 or 3 inches tall

Vegetables

• Keep broccoli picked regularly to encourage additional production of side shoots.
• Pinch off any young tomatoes that are too small to ripen. This will channel energy into ripening the remaining full-size fruits.
• Sow spinach now to overwinter under mulch for spring harvest.

Fruits

• Bury or discard any spoiled fallen fruits.
• Paw paws ripen in the woods now.
• Check all along peach tree trunks to just below soil line for gummy masses caused by borers. Probe holes with thin wire to puncture borers.

Miscellaneous

• Autumn is a good time to add manure, compost or leaf mold to garden soils for increasing organic matter content.
• Seasonal loss of inner needles on conifers is normal at this time. It may be especially noticeable on pines.

//