Your September Garden Checklist!
September brings in the new season, with time to take a moment and reflect on everything that’s been wonderful this year so far! I love sitting outside in the cool mornings with a cup of tea (Fairtrade, of course).
We’ve all been busy at EcoVibe making plans for our gardens before the ground freezes over in the winter, therefore we thought we would put together this September Checklist for our gardening newbies.
- Do you want more flowers?
- Do you want to attract more pollinators?
- Are you trying to attract birds to your garden?
- Are you growing your own vegetables?
A basic schedule for garden maintenance in September
1. Begin to prepare your seedbed for your plants: pull any weeds, rake the ground, dethatch the area, fertilise and put your seeds in. It’s important to keep this area moist!
2. Make sure you aerate well trodden areas and remove any fallen vegetables that are infected with rot to reduce disease spread.
3. Make sure you trim your conifer hedges so that they can stay healthy and prune any climbing roses you may have.
4. Wash and disinfect your bird feeders and tables to keep your birds happy and healthy.
5. Remember to maintain your ponds! Make sure you remove duckweed, pondweed and algae. It’s also important to make sure you put nets across the ponds to make sure leaves don’t fall in and rot in the water.
Flower Care
1. Shop around for your spring flowering bulbs! You want to be looking for quite sturdy seeds – such as daffodils, marigolds, love-in-a-mist, cornflower, queen anne’s lace and everybody’s favourite – poppies.
2. Collect seeds from your grown flowers, ready to sow again in the Spring. Store them in an envelope (remember to label them though).
3. Plant your spring bulbs in pots and borders and remember to bring any houseplants inside before the temperatures drop.
Fruit & Vegetable Care
1. Make sure you raise pumpkins and squashes off the ground, remembering to cut away any leaves which are covering them.
2. Pick all your apples and pears before the wind blows them down – and store them properly so you don’t make food waste.
3. Make sure you complete your summer pruning of apple trees – this makes sure you get good fruit in years to come.
4. If you’re going to plant vegetables, make sure they are hardy. You should be planting things like kale and land cress for winter picking. Or you can sow harder varieties of beans and peas for early crops.
5. If you have a well-lit garden, you can plant onion and shallot sets where the sun hits (make sure they’re 10cm apart though) with just the tip showing above the soil.
Greenhouse Maintenance
1. If you have any shading paint on, make sure to wash it off by the end of the month. And remove any netting too!
2. If you find pests and diseases in the greenhouse, you need to treat ASAP. We recommend environmentally friendly methods.
3. Make sure you close vents on cooler nights from now on.
4. Check your heaters are working – this will be important in the colder months.
5. Plant your Christmas flowers – we recommend hyacinth bulbs or amaryllis bulbs in pots.