September Gardening Tips

Garden Maintenance

• Compost disease-free annuals and vegetable crops that have finished producing.
• Cultivate and add compost to the soil for fall and winter vegetables and annuals.
• Dig, divide, and replant overgrown perennials as they finish blooming.
• Weed and amend beds before replanting.
• If not purchased pre-chilled, put tulip, narcissus, and hyacinth bulbs in the refrigerator for 6 weeks prior to planting.
• Sow native bunch grass seed on bare slopes to prevent erosion.
• Mulch cane berries.
• Consider extending vegetable season with floating row cover, mulch, or plastic domes.  (Gallon milk containers with the bottom removed work well.)

Fertilize

• Grapes, use organic mulch or P only, not N
• Mature fruit trees
• Cool season turfgrass with N
• Young conifers, but not those over two years old
• Chrysanthemums

Spray: Check the California Backyard Orchard website for current information.

• Table grapes for powdery mildew

What to Plant in September

Flowers:

• Sow seeds for columbine, lupine, California poppy.
• Divide and replant perennials.
• Transplant cool-weather annuals such as violas, pansies, fairy primroses, calendulas, cyclamen, stock, and snapdragons.
• Divide and replant bulbs and rhizomes.

Vegetables:

• Transplant cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and kale.
• Direct seed beets, bok choy, spinach, lettuce, peas, radishes, carrots, chard, parsley, and cilantro.

Lawns:

• This is the ideal time to sow a new lawn or reseed bare spots.
• Think about reducing the size of your lawn to conserve resources.

Cover Crops:

• Seed for erosion control on slopes.
• Plant clover or fava beans to improve soil structure in your vegetable garden.