Garden expert Simon from the Walking Talking Gardeners YouTube channel has shared 10 essential jobs that gardeners need to complete before the month of September ends. With just two days left in the month, there is a lot of ground to cover, though not all tasks will apply to every garden.
Tomato Care and Harvesting
Simon advises preventative maintenance on tomatoes, noting that nights are getting colder and damp, which is when late summer blight can start to appear. He recommends keeping a close eye on tomato plants, removing flowers or very small fruits that won't make the grade, and harvesting tomatoes as soon as they ripen to avoid them falling on the floor. He stresses that if late blight hits, an entire crop could be gone in a couple of days.
Planting Spring Bulbs and Dividing Perennials
Spring favourites such as alliums and daffodils need to be in the ground before the end of this week, while tulips can wait until January. Simon explains that bulbs on sale now are at their freshest, biggest, and best, and will deteriorate as weeks go by, losing moisture and condition. Planting now, while there is residual warmth in the soil, allows bulbs to establish strong roots.
Now is also the time to look at hostas, heucheras, and geraniums for opportunities to divide and propagate new plants. Simon advises lifting them now, disturbing the root system as little as possible, and taking off old leaves to prevent drying out. September is the last best opportunity because the soil is still warm, allowing roots to metabolise and regrow before winter.
Lawn Repair and Dead-Heading
After record-breaking heatwaves, many lawns are parched and patchy. Simon advises scarifying, weeding, and feeding now, as this is the last opportunity to apply all-in-one granular lawn feed, weed, and moss killer. Once the weather cools off in October and November, it's too late because the grass and weeds need to be actively growing for the chemicals to take effect.
Dead-heading is also important for plants like dahlias and roses. Simon explains that removing spent blooms triggers the plant to put out more flowers, preventing it from stopping flowering and bringing out a final wave of blooms for autumn.
Hanging Baskets, Feeding, and Cuttings
Many hanging baskets are looking tired, and Simon suggests completely replacing their contents with hardier, autumn-coloured plants like cyclamens, pansies, and heucheras. This allows for growth and establishment over six weeks for the winter period.
Feeding plants from the end of September is discouraged, as it encourages lush growth that could be damaged by frost or attract biting insects. If feeding is necessary, Simon recommends switching to low-nitrogen feed like Tomorite or Maxicrop seaweed-based fertiliser, though for most plants September is the last month for feeding.
September is also the last opportunity to take cuttings of valuable plants like geraniums, pelargoniums, coleus, fuchsia, and salvia, which are vulnerable to frost. Keeping cuttings in a warm environment like a greenhouse preserves them until next year.
Protecting Plants and Greenhouse Maintenance
Citrus plants like lemons and oranges, even hardy varieties, may not survive outside in a cold winter. Simon advises considering overwintering them in an unheated greenhouse, which will be fine, though they may be alright outside in milder parts of the UK. Further north, such as Scotland, cold nights and frost may already be present.
Finally, Simon recommends clearing out the greenhouse now, throwing out dead plants, scrubbing surfaces to eliminate pests and infections, and cleaning windows. He advises doing this job now rather than waiting until winter or spring, when there will be far too much work to do.
