Finally, apple season has arrived and yours truly will begin the Tour de Festivals assisting the BC Fruit Testers with heritage apple displays. I get to start off my season with the eclectic and entertaining Alive in the Garden Event at Art’s and I learn tons of interesting stuff from the speakers and those with displays.
For your amusement you will get to see a kind of Iron Landscape Designer challenge which pits two designers in a head to head challenge. As we get near the actual event I am a bit regretful that I opened up my big mouth and volunteered to be one of the designers!
Without further ado, here’s a few tips for this September as well as a number of tips from last year (below):
By mid-month with the onset of the cooler temps and hopefully a bit of a water by Mother Nature those of us whose lawns were dormant (beige) through August and actually a bit of July too will start to see green up. Alas, this also means we have to step up the mowing.
For those who need to renovate their lawns, now is a great time, the same steps apply as in spring; aerate, top dress, overseed and the only difference is the type of fertilizer you’ll be using – a fall fertilizer which less readily available nitrogen as we don’t really want to encourage all that top growth only to be knocked down by first frost!
Fall is also my favourite time to install new garden beds!! Because it has been such a dry summer, if your are renovating or making a new garden bed save the planting and plant shifting for when the ground is not so bone dry. Hopefully towards the end of this month, beginning of October you’ll be able to safely move things around. If you do need to shift something sooner, make sure you soak the roots before and after moving.
For your perennials, flowering shrubs and annuals, continue to deadhead and clip back as necessary.
Celebrate and bring those dahlia blooms inside! Bouquets are just the thing. Forget subtle, add a little pizzazz to your kitchen table or windowsills.
Staking may be necessary for those tall fall flowers.
Seed saving! It’s a great time, there are tons of great books at your local library as well as internet articles. If you have a favorite veggie or flower, consider saving some seeds or taking a division of your perennials and having a plant and seed exchange with your friends. Less calories than cookie exchange, though not as tasty.
Bulbs! The best selection is available now at Art's. Draw up a bit of a plan if you can or a photo of the garden area that you can actually draw little x’s on to avoid accidentally mashing through your bulbs when moving a plant. I like to get my bulbs early and then plant mid October.
Prepare bowls and bulbs for forcing paying careful attention to the time needed. Stagger your blooms so you have something cheery throughout the winter.
Make sure your pond fish are well fed so they can build up their reserves for winter.
Continue to remove debris from ponds and water features to avoid the toxic build up of decaying plants at the bottom of the pond adversely affecting your fish.
Start to phase house plants back inside if they’ve had a summer vacation. A well lit garage is a great temporary quarantine. This way you avoid infecting all of your house plants if you’ve missed some aphids or white fly. After about 1-2 weeks and a careful inspection bring them into the house and decrease the watering.
It’s a great time to pot up houseplants if they need it.
Continue to harvest the bounty of your veggie and fruit garden if you have one, and pick up your local Fraser Valley Farm Fresh Guide from the nursery or check out the online Farm Fresh website for local farms near you!
Cheers,
