September in the Garden
A pivotal time
As summer waves goodbye and autumn begins to make its presence known, September is a pivotal month for gardeners. It’s a time to transition, reflect, and prepare your garden for the cooler months ahead. Here’s your guide to making the most out of your garden this September!
Lots of crops are winding down, our bellies are full, squash rinds are hardening, and we are watching late-season blight kill off vines and leaves. The relief from the worst of the summer heat is welcome, and it is making our garden chores a lot easier. We are breathing easier, but our work is far from done!
1. Harvest and Preserve
Harvest Late Crops: September is prime time for harvesting late-season vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, squash, and pumpkins. Be sure to pick them before the first frost to ensure the best quality and flavor.
Preserve Your Harvest: Consider canning, freezing, pickling, or drying your bounty. Chop fresh herbs and add them to oil, then freeze in ice cube trays to use in recipes all winter long. Try sun-drying tomatoes, herbs, or fruits, or making jams or jellies. Pickle something new! Try pickling squashes, tomatoes, bell peppers, beets, carrots, cauliflower, cherries, radishes...the list goes on and on! Check out this excellent guide to home preserving, and you can enjoy the flavors of summer all year long.
2. Prepare for Autumn
Plant Fall Crops: This is an excellent time to sow cool-season crops such as kale, spinach, and radishes, and even cool-weather herbs like cilantro and dill. They’ll thrive in the cooler temperatures and provide fresh greens through fall and into winter.
Start Composting: Cut back spent plants to an inch under the soil line, and leave roots in the soil. They roots hold lots of nutrients and will break down in your soil and enrich it. As you're pulling out or cutting down spent plants, start a compost pile with the organic matter. It’s a fantastic way to reuse garden waste and enrich your soil for the coming planting season.
3. Plan for Next Year
Reflect and Plan: Take stock of what worked well this season and what didn’t. Start planning your garden layout for next year, considering crop rotation and new plants you want to try. Write things down so you don't forget! We always think we will remember everything about our gardens, but when the holiday rush comes, all that will leave your brain and you will be left with questions when you start to plan your garden in February!
Order Seed Garlic and Spring Bulbs for Fall Planting: September is a great time to order overwintering plants to bloom next spring. We plant garlic in November for a summer harvest! Spring bulbs (tulips, daffodils, hyacinths) all get planted in the fall for us to enjoy color as soon as the ground thaws. October is the best time to plant many perennials, like peonies and roses, and buying now can ensure you get the varieties you want.
TIP: Plant native species this fall to support wildlife like native specialist pollinators!
Here are some fall-planted perennials that are native to North America and look beautiful in gardens and meadows:
Coneflowers (echinacea)
Black-eyed Susan (rudbeckia)
Blazing Star (liatris)
Goldenrod (shown below)
Milkweed
Aster
Bee balm (bergamot or monarda)
What we are doing in the garden in September
Harvesting: Tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, potatoes, onions, winter squashes, beets, rhubarb, chard, radishes, zinnias, cosmos, basil, raspberries, strawberries
Tasks: cleaning and curing onions and garlic, curing potatoes, hanging amaranth, gomphrena, and celosia to dry, weeding, pulling out or cutting down spent plants, cover cropping empty beds, sowing fall crops, prepping beds for fall garlic, rose, and strawberry planting, taking notes on the season's successes and failures
Read more about September gardening tasks in your zone here!
