Gardening Checklist for September-October

A few chores to consider for the next few weeks include:

• Winterize your lawn with a fertilizer containing a Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium ratio of 3-1-2 before mid-October.

• Don’t do any pruning unless absolutely necessary (i.e., storm damage). Save it for December or January.

• Bluebonnet and other wildflower seeds should be planted now.

• Check regularly for aphids and caterpillars on fall flowers and vegetables. I find that BT powder (for example, Dipel Dust) works great at controlling cabbage looper worms on my broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and anywhere else they show up.

• Purchase started plants of pansies, snapdragons, dianthus, flowering kale, and flowering cabbage for attractive winter and spring color in your garden.

• Fall is a great time to plant trees and shrubs. For example, if you are thinking about putting out a crepe myrtle, this is the time to get it. Many of them are blooming now so you will be sure to obtain the color you want. Putting trees and shrubs in the ground by early October will give them time to become well established before winter arrives.

• If you haven’t thinned out your iris beds recently, mid- October is the time to do it. Simply dig up the plants, separate the rhizomes by cutting or breaking them, cut about half of the leaf fan off, and replant. If you end up with excess rhizomes bring them to our meeting for give away, or door prizes.

• Caladiums are tropical plants so as the weather becomes cooler their leaves will begin to droop as they go dormant. If you want to save the tubers for next year, dig them up (tubers and leaves) when the foliage starts to look bad. Let the tubers and foliage dry in a well-ventilated place, then remove the dried foliage and store the tubers in a net sack (onion, grapefruit, etc.) in a location where the temperature doesn’t get below 50 degrees.

• Over-seeding of warm season lawns can be done now and into October to maintain a nice, green lawn all winter. Don’t forget that you will then have to mow your lawn all winter. There are a number of turf-type perennial rye grasses available. Do not use annual rye grass. And if you have a St. Augustine lawn you are better off not over-seeding it. St. Augustine is a very weak competitor and sometimes begins to thin out with constant over-seeding.

• Now is a good time to cut back your salvias and petunias that made it through the summer. Then give them a cup of lawn fertilizer per 100 square feet and water it in well. This should provide a boost of growth and more fall blooms.