September 2008 Garden Tips
- If you’re making the effort to divide your perennials, then take some extra time to pump up your soil at the same time. Perennial beds can be tricky because you have to prepare the soil around existing plants. Spread a layer of compost on top of all bare soil about one inch deep. Be careful not to pile the compost on top of plants. If you don’t have any compost, use leaves and lawn clippings.
- Bulbs will begin appearing in nurseries and garden centers. It is generally easier to wait until after the first rains to plant them, but buy them ahead of time so that you are prepared.
- If this is your first time planting bulbs, remember that planting a single variety in mass, can have a more desirable visual effect than interspersing several different kinds.
- Sow vegetables such as beets, carrots, cilantro, radishes, turnips, dill and spinach. Start lettuce, brassicas, endive, escarole and onions inside for later planting in the garden. Transplant lettuce, brassicas, fennel, radicchio and leeks. Plan your winter vegetable garden in Sonoma County we can harvest something all year ‘round!
- For tiny seeds that are difficult to sow, use an old-fashioned big-holed salt shaker and shake the little seeds right into the garden, where you want them to go. You’ll get a much better distribution than you would by hand.
- Continue to harvest tomatoes, melons, squash, cucumbers, beans, strawberries, apples, pears, peppers and eggplants
- Want to bring your outdoor herbs inside? Herbs that do pretty well indoors in a sunny or bright window include basil, chervil, chives, marjorum, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, and sage. As a general rule, bring your herbs in about 3 weeks before you turn on the heat. Try to keep the herbs in a room that’s around 55 and 70 degrees.
- September is a time that we can still live in our gardens in Sonoma County. Plan a harvest meal under the trellis or an afternoon barbecue. Find a place where turning foliage or ornamental grass flowers are back-lit by the sun and enjoy the spectacle!.
©Sonoma County Master Gardeners