10 things to do in the garden during September
Branch out
Your local garden centre will have a wide range of trees and shrubs that can be planted now and settled in before winter kicks in. Acers, Malus and Sorbus trees are guaranteed to fill your garden with fabulous autumnal foliage colour and autumn berry interest. Shrubs like Caryopteris, Leucothoe, Perovskia and Skimmia also provide colour and interest throughout autumn while providing some structure to your borders.
Super grasses
Grasses and late flowering perennials will bring height and drama to your autumn planting schemes. Combine Miscanthus, Panicum and Imperata with Crocosmia, Echinacea and Rudbeckia to create a beautiful prairie style garden.
Layer up
Create a bulb lasagne container of spring flowering bulbs to guarantee colour from September to late spring. Layer your chosen container with horticultural potting grit or broken terracotta pieces to aid with drainage, add in a layer of peat free multi-purpose compost then plant even layers of daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, and muscari. Finally top off with compost. You can add some seasonal colour such as pansies or violas to finish. Belissimo!
Harvest festival
Potatoes planted in spring are ready to lift after the plants have flowered. The longer you leave them, the larger the potatoes should be. But don’t leave it too late because blight might strike. It’s time to pick summer fruiting raspberries too.
Know your onions
Overwintering onion sets are available now. Prepare an area in a sunny and well-drained position adding fish blood and bone fertiliser to the soil. Make a shallow drill and place the sets in pointy end up 15cm apart in rows 30cm apart. Cover the set with soil leaving the tip showing. Watch out for birds pulling the sets out of the ground. It can be helpful to cover the area with fleece to prevent this.
Lawn love
Now is a good time to give your lawn a spread of autumn fertiliser. This will help to strengthen the roots, kill off the moss and help your lawn look nice and lush.
Divide and conquer
Once perennials have finished flowering you can lift well-established clumps or any plants that are starting to go bare and divide them. It’s best to do this with perennials that flower in early summer.
Tidy up
As summer (if we can call if that!) rolls to an end, it’s a good idea to have a clean-up so the garden is all set for winter. It’s always nice to have an autumn bonfire too!
Topping off
Once your borders are looking neat and tidy, you can spread a thick layer of compost, or a new layer of mulch to help trap in the warmth and moisture.
Indian summer
If it turns out to be a warm September keep on watering. It’s sometimes easy to forget when we think summer is over!
Plant of the month
Rudbeckia ‘Little Goldstar’
Rudbeckias are a wonderful Perennial to give your garden a lift in late summer and autumn with their masses of bright and cheerful golden daisy flowers.
