September Gardening Tips: Enrich Soil, Protect Garden Beds, Divide Daylilies

By Guest Authors Charlie Nardozzi, Horticulturist and Leonard Perry, University of Vermont Extension Horticulturist

Preparing and protecting your garden soil for next year, getting houseplants ready for winter, and dividing daylilies are some of the gardening activities for September.

Build your soil and protect garden beds.

There are two main ways to enrich or build garden soil for next year: spread compost or plant cover crops. Before you spread compost, dig or lightly till in any plants that aren’t diseased in order to return their nutrients to the soil. Spread compost, even if it’s not well decomposed yet. It will protect the soil over the winter and break down by spring planting time. Or you can plant cover crops such as buckwheat or annual rye that will grow this fall and early spring until you till it under several weeks before planting.

Pull the last of the weeds.

Get weeds out of your garden or else they will make it doubly hard for you next spring. Since bare soil invites weeds, cover soil with a mulch, such as layers of wet newspaper covered with straw, compost, or manure. This will control late fall and early spring weed growth and provide organic matter.  Fall weeding is satisfying, as they’re basically done growing for the year and won’t return as they do in summer.

Keep beans and peas where they are.

Legumes, such as beans and peas, have the ability to take nitrogen from the air and use it for their own benefit. Rather than pulling up the spent plants and adding them to the compost pile, keep that nitrogen where it’s needed by chopping up the vines and tilling or digging them into the soil.

[su_highlight background=”#fef7a1″]Buy on Amazon: White Dutch Clover Seeds Cover Crop[/su_highlight]

Divide Daylilies.

If daylilies are getting too large and perhaps not blooming well, it may be time to divide them. Daylily clumps are so dense you’ll need to slice through them with a shovel or spade. Or you can just divide off half, or a chunk, leaving the rest.  Separate large clumps into smaller divisions, leaving at least three groups of leaves or “fans” per clump. Trim leaves to about 6 inches long and replant. Water well and they should bloom for you next summer.

Get plants ready to bring indoors for winter.

Ready houseplants for winter by checking them for insects, trimming off dead foliage and stems, and repotting if necessary. Gradually move them into shadier conditions to get them used to less sunlight before bringing them inside when nights dip into the 40s.

September is the best month to plant trees and shrubs.

There’s still plenty of time to plant trees and shrubs. Root growth will continue into late fall, and plants won’t have the heat of spring or summer to dry them out. Be sure to water well at planting time and every week until they go dormant with the onset of frost. If you don’t have a spot ready for your new additions this season, submerge the tree or plant’s roots in the vegetable garden for holding — pot and all.

Visit an apple orchard.

This month is, of course, the time to buy apples, either at a local farmer’s market or apple orchard.  Visiting an apple orchard is a fun family excursion, particularly if you want lots of apples and enjoy picking them yourself. It’s also an excellent way to save money. Other than fresh eating, you can make apple cider, juice, sauce, apple pies, and dried slices. Think of the wonderful treats this winter, pulling out a jar of canned apple sauce or an apple pie from the freezer.

To help in figuring how many apples you should pick:

• One pound of apples equates to about 2 large fruit, 3 medium size or 4 to 5 small size
• You need about 2 pounds of apples for a standard 9-inch pie
• A bushel of apples makes about 20 pies or 18 to 24 quarts of applesauce or slices

Other gardening activities for September include keeping evergreen shrubs well-watered if there isn’t at least an inch or more of rain a week and planting spring-flowering bulbs now.  Plant some in pots to keep cool (not freezing) for forcing blooms this winter.

This article originally appeared on Perry’s Perennials.