Sep 20, 2024
Enjoy the last flush of blooming roses along with the bounty of the fall harvest.
Tasks
- Adjust watering systems as weather cools.
- Remove and dispose of any fruit and nuts that cling to the tree.
- To discourage spider mites, spray hedges and shrubs with water to clean them and keep them free of dust.
- Water citrus, being careful not to overwater. Continuously wet soil risks root rot.
Pruning
- Do not apply any treatments to pruning cuts or other wounds because these materials are ineffective (and often detrimental).
- Deadhead and shape rosebushes to promote a final fall bloom.
Fertilizing
- Wait two weeks after planting new flowers and vegetables before feeding with organic or complete fertilizer.
- Add bulb fertilizer to planting hole before planting bulbs.
Planting
- This is the best time to plant shrubs and groundcovers.
- Groundcovers: Carpet bugle (Ajuga), Germander (Teucrium chamaedrys ‘Nanum').
- Perennials: Cyclamen, French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), cranesbill (Geranium).
- Before planting winter vegetables, turn a generous amount of compost into the vegetable bed.
- Fruits and vegetables: garlic, onion sets, lettuce, parsley.
- Trees, shrubs, vines: Acacia baileyana, strawberry tree (Arbutus ‘Marina'), hawthorn (Crataegus), sago palm (Cycas), desert willow (Chilopsis linearis).
Enjoy now
- Annuals and perennials: vinca (Catharanthus), chrysanthemum, dianthus, coneflower (Echinacea), globe amaranth (Gomphrena).
- Bulbs, corms, tubers: dahlia.
- Trees, shrubs, vines: pineapple guava (Feijoa), morning glory (Ipomoea), crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia).
- Fruits and vegetables: almonds, lettuce, melon, nectarines, persimmon.
- Fall color: goldenrain tree (Koelreuteria), sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua).
Things to ponder
- Do not replace vinca with pansies in the same bed, due to a soil borne fungal root rot that affects these plants.