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What are the lastest Landscaping Trends How to Plant Fruit and Nut Trees How to care for Holiday Plants How to care for Mother's Day Gifts What are common Shrub Diseases
Problems growing Tomatoes in hot weather Herbs and Late Spring Gardening Tips
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September Gardening Tips If you've done a good job of putting in native plants and fall blooming annuals you should be rewarded right now with an incredible butterfly and hummingbird show. Our best time to reap the rewards of a butterfly garden in these parts is in the fall. Next year, you must get a scarlet sage if you don't have one yet. They are butterfly machines. If attracting butterflies isn't your thing, and you like sweet and colorful fall vegetables instead, September is the time to plant broccoli, collards, kale, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. Be sure the soil is rich with rotted organic matter to hold moisture and you use plenty of mulch. Lightly fertilizing new transplants for the first few weeks will get them growing before cooler weather suddenly moves in and growth slows. In mid month sugar snap and English peas can be planted. At the end of the month, carrots and lettuce can be direct seeded. Keep the soil moist where you scatter carrot seeds because it may take them a month for them to germinate. If your carrots are always deformed and ugly, you have a nematode problem. Add one pound of granulated sugar per 10 square feet to the garden soil and slightly work in to control nematodes. If you have an area that is not planted during the winter, elbon rye grass will trap nematodes in the roots and kill them for you over the winter and spring. A garden planted with elbon rye as a cover crop will end up with no troublesome nematodes in the spring. All worm problems, including the fall armyworm, can be solved with Bt or Spinosad. You must scout the garden daily for worms this time of year. Armyworms can decimate a 100-foot long trellis full of cucumber vines in the 10 hours you are at work. If you would like some color in the cooler months ahead, late September is a good time to plant snapdragons, stock, calendula, sweet peas, dianthus, flowering cabbage and flowering kale. All types of bulbs can be planted at this time including hyacinth, daffodils, and spider lilies. Remember that the smaller varieties of daffodils will naturalize and bloom more dependably in the Southern US. Large types such as the "King Alfred" will do great the first year then put off mostly foliage every year after. September is the time to put out native grass seed if you are turning a worn out pasture into a natural meadow. Also, most wildflower seeds can be planted now including bluebonnets. Poppy seeds should be planted when the weather cools in December and the fire ants are dormant, or they will carry them away. A good source for wildflower seeds is www.wildseedfarms.com 800 848 0078. If you are looking for native grasses, contact Native American Seeds at www.seedsource.com 800 728 4043. It's still too early to prune trees and shrubs, especially fruit and nut trees. Don't prune your spring blooming shrubs, like azalea and spirea until after the spring bloom. Camellias have set bloom for the winter so no pruning should be necessary on your camellias now.
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New Roses, Compost and Grasshoppers Epazote, Gotu Kola and St. John's Wort Central Texas Fall Planting Guide Gardening for Birds and Butterflies |
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Somehow the weather is going to get cooler in a few weeks. When that happens you will can either be out in the garden looking at what's left, or you can have it in great shape. This is the most miserable time to garden in Texas. I spent last weekend doing a make over on some flowerbeds and weeding around my fall blooming perennials. It was tough, but I just imagined those beautiful fall days when the copper canyon daisy, forsythia sage, and Salvia leucantha are in bloom and the butterflies gather for their last treat before moving south or dying when frost arrives.
