The first month of autumn is coming to an end, and there is less and less time left to complete important gardening work. What do you need to do in the last week of September?
Cleaning the kitchen-garden
If you have planted cauliflower and broccoli in the garden, it’s time to send untidy plants for storage in a greenhouse or basement, placing 30-40 pieces on 1 square meter (10.8 sq ft). To do this, it is necessary that the average daily temperature is kept within +7…+11 °C (44.6-51.8°F). Finish harvesting the root crops and prepare them for winter storage. In addition, it is important to maintain optimal storage humidity conditions.
If the autumn is warm and dry, you can wait for the carrot harvest. But if it starts to drive out the greens in the winter, it’s time to harvest: store in the garden(bury in pots or boxes) parsley, sorrel, rhubarb, chard, celery . Greens from such plants are cut, boxes with them are kept at a temperature of 0 to +2 °C (32-35.6°F).
Restore order on the vacant beds, rake up the remnants of the tops and plant debris, conduct an autumn digging of the soil, if necessary, apply fertilizers. Remember that in the fall, it is recommended to use potash and phosphorus fertilizers or special balanced autumn compositions.
Garden care
In the last week of September, it is necessary to finish planting berry and ornamental shrubs, saplings of fruit trees, so that they take root before winter and painlessly endure frosts.
It’s time to cut the currants, remove the broken, dried, damaged branches of the trees, treat and heal the hollows on the old trunks. The soil in the tree trunks and under the bushes is loosened and mulched.
Cut the raspberries: cut out the old shoots at the base, remove the diseased and weakened branches; for 1 meter (3.3 ft) of the row, there should be no more than 10-15 well-developed raspberry shoots.
Rake and remove the remains of crumbled fruit and leaves, inspect the trees and shrubs, and remove the remaining branches of rotten, dried fruit. These measures will save your garden from wintering under a layer of foliage of pests that next spring can attack the awakening plants with appetite.
Tasks of the florist
September still pleases the eye: roses, chrysanthemums and dahlias, marigolds and all kinds of asters bloom. At the end of the month, it is necessary to dig up the corms of gladioli, thoroughly dry them and put them away for storage.
The time for digging up dahlia tubers, as a rule, has to be selected depending not only on the climate zone, but also on the weather conditions of the current year; if the weather allows you to take your time, make sure that the bushes are hilled — this will protect the tubers from damage in the event of unexpected frosts.
If the autumn is dry, rains are rare, perennials need to be watered, and this applies to those plants that have completely dried up the ground part. Lack of moisture in the soil can reduce the winter hardiness of your plants, and then they will endure the cold much harder than usual.
In the flower beds, put things in order: cut off the stems of withered perennials, remove the dried leaves, loosen the soil and mulch it. All planting and transplanting is recommended to finish in the middle of the month, but if the autumn is expected to be warm, and the cold in your area is still far away, you can wait until the last week of September.
But it’s time to plant tulips and hyacinths (daffodils are advised to plant a little earlier). If you use self-made soil mixtures for seedlings, do not miss the time to prepare them, make the necessary supplies.
Lawn and pond care
At the end of September, as a rule, the lawn is mowed for the last time in the season. If your lawn is laid out on dense clay soil, so that rainwater does not stagnate on it, you should choose a dry, clear day and pierce the soil with a regular garden fork or aerator. This procedure will not only eliminate problems with waterlogging the grass, but also bring oxygen to its roots.
Both the lawn and the pond — as well as the rest of the plot-require a thorough autumn cleaning. The lawn is raked with the remains of grass, fallen leaves, and debris that has fallen on it. The most suitable tool for this is a fan rake. For a pond, a net is used for the same purpose. In general, it is very convenient to pull a special net over the water with the beginning of leaf fall — this will save you from the time-consuming collection of garbage from the water.
Leave the water in the pond or not-each owner of the reservoir decides for himself, but at the end of September, in any case, you should remove the water plants to a non-freezing depth or transfer them to the basement for winter storage. If you intend to drain the water for the winter, do not postpone this work.