my September 2010 garden to do list for Calgary zone 3

September is usually one of our best garden months in Calgary - if you can get past the occasional night of frost (and for the record, we had frost the night of Aug 29 - not in my relatively sheltered yard but I noticed the next day a neighbour's pot of impatiens in an exposed spot had been frozen!)

For me, I'm done holidays and back at my full-time job so the garden pretty much has to take care of itself these days.  Fortunately I grow mostly low-maintenance perennials which don't need anything from me at this time of year.  All I do these days is water/fertilize the veggies and annuals in containers, pull up the odd weed before it goes to seed, and maybe a little tidying of the flower beds now and then if I get a chance.  My real efforts at this time of year are usually focused around some big project getting ready for next year - last year it was cleaning out the greenhouse and this year's it's preparing the new raised beds.

But in any case, here's what we should be doing this month in the Calgary garden:

Trees and shrubs

• Hopefully you stopped fertilizing woody plants a month ago.  We want them to start hardening off at this time of year, not expending their energy on fresh, green growth.
• Give your trees a good soak at the end of the month.  This means putting a soaker hose around the drip line (directly under the outermost branch tips) and turning it on for a day.  Sometimes I'm lazy over the summer when it comes to watering trees, but I always make sure they go into winter in a well-hydrated state.
• No pruning at this time of year except for cleaning up any dead or diseased wood.

Edibles

• Pull out fading plants as they finish, to get a head start on clean-up (I've already pulled up my peas and beans will go soon too).  Chop them up and compost them, of course!
• Plant garlic bulbs (actually I did this a few weeks ago but forgot to mention it - sorry).
• Get blankets ready to cover the tomatoes and other tender edibles if there's risk of frost.
• From the archives: what to do with green tomatoes and ripening tomatoes.

Flower Garden

• I selectively deadhead perennials if they don't have showy seed heads or if they turn to mush in winter.  Sometime soon I'll do a post about which are the best perennials to leave standing, but in the meantime if you're curious leave a comment or browse through my Archives in the winter months to see what looks good at that time of year (I think I posted lots last January)
• I've already started cutting down woodland perennials such as bleeding hearts and ferns that go dormant by this time of year. 
• Keep deadheading annuals for maximum bloom.  While this cool, wet weather isn't great for my tomatoes, it sure keeps the annual flowers looking fresh!  The cosmos are going great guns right now!
• Plant bulbs - here's what I planted last year.
• Divide and replant older perennials and take some to the Calgary Hort Society's plant share (you need to be a member but it's well worth it!)
• Keep weeding!  It never ends, although when the perennials are so big at this time of year there's not much space for weeds.

And a constant reminder to myself to turn the compost bin.  I never seem to get around to it - it's in the back corner of my yard and it's out of sight, out of mind.  But I just finished digging mine out and found a mouse nest.  Ew.  More regular turning and watering would have prevented this.

Comments

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