Are You Ready for Fall? September Garden Tasks for Your Seasonal Checklist
Can you feel it? The change in the air means September is here. Daylight hours are getting shorter, and the falling temperatures mean there are changes in the garden as well. Here’s what we focus on in our September garden.
In our garden, September is all about harvesting. We’re picking pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, and herbs.
When we’re harvesting, we’re also making note of our favorite crops to buy or save seeds for next year.
If things didn’t quite go the way we hoped, September is the perfect time to take a look at our soil. You can send a soil sample to your local university extension. Based on the results, you can plan what amendments to make.
Cover crops make an excellent natural soil amendment. When they are tilled under, they help create better soil for next season.
Harvesting and preserving are important garden tasks in September.
Check your winter squash and pumpkins. It’s important to place something under them to protect them from rotting on moist soil. Use a layer of straw or cardboard to create a dry barrier.
Remove old plants so you can amend the soil or plant cover crops. If they’re done producing, it’s time to pull them out.
Time to call it. Struggling plants won’t have enough time to recover before the first frost. Pull out those plants and replace them with quick-growing kale, lettuce, or radishes.
And remember, add all the clippings you’re taking out of the garden to your compost. Once they break down, you’ll have free nutrients to add to your soil for next season.
September Garden Tasks for Cool Climates
Planning & Prepping
Make a plan for next year’s crop rotation
Save seeds
Plan adjustments for next year's garden
Review watering. September is a good time to plan that drip irrigation you've always wanted.
Send in soil samples for testing to your local extension office
Planting
Radishes - try winter radishes like China Rose and Japanese Minowase.
Lettuce - Heirloom Blend and All the Year Round
Spinach - Bloomsdale and Viroflay
Kale - Garden Mix has a variety of colors and textures that are sweeter after the first frost.
Broccoli - The optimal temperature for growing broccoli is between 65°F and 75°F.
Cover crops - Plant yellow mustard to help manage soil-borne pathogens, and White Dutch Clover for extra nitrogen.
Plant perennial herbs and wildflowers.
Garden Maintenance
Use your leaves to improve your garden soil.
Divide perennials that are finished blooming: Echinacea, peonies, iris, yarrow, and monarda. Or label them for dividing in early spring.
Trim back plants to encourage them to finish growing and ripening. Cutting back new growth will help the plant focus energy on the fruits that are already on the plant, instead of putting out new growth. (Many gardeners top off their tomato plants a few weeks before the first frost)
Keep weeding. Don’t let weeds go to seed to minimize what will sprout up next year.
Harvesting
Plants that haven’t gone to seed will continue producing. So keep harvesting until the plants are done. Some crops will be even better after a cold snap, so leave carrots, beets, and kale growing.
Zinnias will continue to flower until frost, so keep cutting them to share and enjoy indoors.
Harvest your herbs before they go to seed. Hang them to dry and then store them in airtight containers for longer-term storage.
Our Tomato sauce recipe is perfect for preserving all those delicious heirloom tomatoes.
September Garden Tasks for Warmer Climates
Garden tasks for those warmer growing zones, such as 9 and 10, are different in September.
The cooler temps mean you can focus on your vegetable garden again.
Planning & Prepping
Make notes in your gardening journal.
Buy and save seeds
Planting
There are many vegetables that can be planted in September:
Plant those savory herbs now for fresh flavor in your holiday meals:
Flowers will love the cooler temps:
Enter your zip code, and our Planting Planner will give you the dates for fall planting.
Garden Maintenance
Take out the plants that are done
Amend the soil with compost
Keep weeding
Harvesting
What is ready to harvest? Depending on your zone you can be in the midst of harvesting beans, squash, corn, eggplant, cucumbers, and melons.
If you're up to your ears in cucumbers, you can make crunchy pickles to eat year-round.
Take advantage of the changing season and get out in the garden. September gardening tasks are often more pleasant with the cooler temperatures. There's always something worth doing to improve or enjoy your garden.
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