September is the month in the Northern hemisphere when glorious autumn colours develop, a reward for gardeners after months of hard work. Foliage and colour can be magnificent at this time of the year so relax and enjoy your garden. Local garden centres, on line are worth a visit now to pick up the Daisy (Asteraceae) family species and plenty available and they are mostly tough hardy long flowering perennials such as Rudbekias, Japanese anemonies purple and white, so many to look at. There are on sale very new exciting low growing Sedum (Crassulaceae family) species. With tall growing daisy sun flower Helianthus and Bright red Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’(Iridaceae-Iris family) with bright red again the latest star in my book the Kaffir Lilly (Iridaceae -Iris family), both long late summer flowering we all welcome the brilliant red colour just what is wanted at this time of the year.
It’s probably a good time to have a good look at all your plants and it may be useful to take some photos now as a reminder of what you actually have planted as the weather will change in October and many plants will be preparing for Autumn.
September is the month for light maintenance such as tidying up compost bin areas, cutting back plants which have gone over and for collecting seed.
Lawns may be greening up again so now is a good time to rake and top dress to revitalise lawn soil. A mixture of 3 parts garden soil 2 parts sharp horticultural sand and 1 part compost ideally but half an inch of garden top soil will suffice. Reseeding is also ideal at this time.
Ponds could have some netting put over before October as leaves start falling. Aquatic plants might need thinning out.
Trees, shrubs and climbers can be planted or divided and moved at this time while the soil is still warm. Climbers can be pruned when the flowers fade – a good time to examine closely for old, dead dying or diseased wood and refresh the planting site to your requirements for next summer.
Perennials should be planted now for the roots to be over-wintered, trim roots if new plants are pot bound and soak before planting. Divide perennials now.
Think about and order Spring bulbs the RHS UK website is reasonably priced but have a good look at more bulb selling websites and local garden centre special offers of ‘bags full offers’ of late winter -spring bulbs well worth digging in next month for dare I say it winter –new year 2017.
Do take this opportunity to plan your garden for the coming year and consider any changes you wish to make.A sheet of paper a pencil and a cuppa in some still warm sun will be a good start, so get that thinking cap on.
Any thoughts, do let me know on contact page especially on Singapore, Australia New Zealand and impending Autumn queries in UK.
Editor
Tony