September Gardening Activities – Region 5
Rocky Mountain and California Mountain Gardens
States in this region include: Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and California (Mountain).
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Buy and plant bulbs now to enjoy in spring - including daffodils, tulips, hyacinth and crocus (and more). Select bulbs that are firm, never mushy, and plant them in moist, but well-drained soil. (Wet soils will cause bulbs to rot.)
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Keep harvesting those veggies - and spread the joy! Share your bounty with friends, neighbors or a local soup kitchen, or keep enjoying those wonderful flavors throughout the year by storing and preserving the extras.
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Use up any extra tomatoes the delicious way: Make an easy, fresh and nutritious batch of bruschetta!
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Plant and enjoy hardy chrysanthemums in the garden. "Hardy" means just that: They'll return each spring with new growth and flower in the fall.
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Water and fertilize your lawn to strengthen its roots for the months ahead. (Always carefully follow package directions.) After the heat stresses of the past two months and very limited rainfall in some areas, turfgrass needs a little boost to get it through the winter.
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Keep deadheading your roses to keep those new blooms coming, but stop deadheading at the end of the month so they'll start to slow down. As tempted as you might be, don't feed your rosebushes anymore this season. Why? Fertilizing them now will stimulate new growth that won't harden off before winter. (And it'll soon be time to prepare your roses for their upcoming winter's nap.)
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Create new interest to the fall perennial garden with ornamental grasses. Color, texture and sound are a few of the wonderful attributes that grasses bring to the landscape. The show won't end in fall either - grasses continue their attraction during the gray winter months by adding color and winter respite for small wildlife.
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Retire your tired-looking, heat-exhausted summer plants to the compost pile (without any guilt). They've served you and your garden well, but now it's time to bring back the pizzazz with fall-loving beauties like ornamental cabbage, kale and peppers! These cool-weather annuals (and more) do wonders in containers, as well as in landscape beds and borders - their uses are many!
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Do some late-season assessment of your garden and all container plantings. Keep a journal and make notations on what worked and what didn't this gardening season, so you'll be ready with a new plan for next year. And remember, a picture's worth a thousand words - grab the camera and capture the good (and the bad) in your garden!
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Pay close attention to the weather forecasts for predictions of early frosts, and be prepared to adjust your gardening practices accordingly. The typical first frost of the season is an average date - it could be surprisingly earlier or even later. Don't get caught with your plants down! Harvest your remaining produce and protect your tender plants before that first frost hits.
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Prepare your outdoor-summering houseplants for their return indoors. Do a careful inspection of all plants before they come back into your home, so you don't bring any unwanted multi-legged pests indoors!
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Come to The Garden Party and share your gardening adventures with other home gardeners around the country. Post pictures of your garden, write a blog, or ask expert green thumbs for more help, tips or suggestions on how to enhance your outdoor living experience.
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