September’s Gardening Jobs
Oooooh, the ‘ber’ months have arrived! I would argue that September to December are the best months of the year, although I know a few people who would disagree (including a lovely blonde florist friend of mine). Soon the pumpkins will be ready, the leaves will start to glow with their Autumn colours and it’ll be time for a cosy jumper, a coffee and a good book whilst sitting in the garden. But I shouldn’t get too ahead of myself, with the weather being so glorious this last week, we may well get a few more cold G&T evenings out of the summer just yet.
My first Autumnal preparations have begun, unintentionally I might add, after stumbling across some delightful flowers recently. I went for a casual wander round my local garden centre and stumbled upon a pansy selection called ‘Halloween Mix’ and couldn’t help myself. So I’ve begun spicing up my pots with some plants for the Autumn, now that some of the Summer plants have had their day. My planters are mostly filled with perennials and evergreens for year round interest but I do slip in a few additions each season to give them a little extra pizazz (yes, I did just use that word). I’ll be creating two new planters this season in my ‘Autumn Planter Series’ so be sure to be on the look out for those to help spark ideas for your own garden. In the meantime, check out the below for some tasks to be completing in the garden this month.
Tidy up Sweet Peas
As your Sweet Pea plants turn brown, make sure to save the seeds and then dispose of the plants. Pop the seeds in a paper envelope, label them and keep them somewhere dry so they’re ready to be sown in the new year.
Order Spring flowering bulbs
If you haven’t popped your order in yet, start looking into what selections you might want to make. It’s best to go for larger numbers of fewer varieties to give you a good display with plenty of impact.
Divide herbaceous perennials
Soon will be the time to start dividing up perennials such as geraniums, geums, dicentra etc. Dividing perennials such as these helps bring the best out of the plants as they’ll put on more growth next year and you get free plants which is great. If you can’t fit them in your garden, share them with friends or neighbours, or bring them along to my next Swapping event next month. (check out my social media pages for updates of when this will be)
Give meadows a final cut
If you’ve devoted an area of your lawn to be a ‘wild patch’ or meadow, look to giving it a final cut later in the month. Leave the cuttings a few days to let insects escape before clearing them up.
Prune Lavender and Rosemary
Once the flowers have gone over and aren’t of interest to the bees anymore, give your lavender and rosemary a prune to keep the plants compact and fresh. Be sure to avoid pruning too far down into the woody stems.
Lookout for Ivy Bees
Feeding almost exclusively on ivy, these solitary bees are the last mining bee of the year to fly. As they’re a mining bee, you may even be lucky enough to see them nesting in your lawn.