Did September slip as quietly and quickly from your calendar as mine?
I was just making my to do list for August and the month was gone. Fortunately or unfortunately, most of those things can still be done in September.
Check with your municipal water agencies to reinstate your watering schedules. Your trees and shrubs, especially, need ample moisture to make it through winter after our hot dry summer.
Usually the last mowing and fertilizing application for lawns is done in September. This is also an ideal time to install new lawns.
For some strange reason even the weeds look attractive in my garden. Maybe because there aren’t so many of them or maybe because they’re ripening colors and full heads of seeds entice not only me but the lingering birds as well.
Many of us have already had a touch of frost in our gardens. It is a good bet we will have more. Watch for low nighttime temperatures and even if your tomatoes are not ripe, but have lost their bright green color, pick them before a predicted frost and they will ripen in the house. It is the same deal with summer squash and cucumbers. Winter squash and pumpkins are tougher but when the vines near the stem are withering and the rinds are so tough your fingernail won’t poke a hole, harvest them as well. They don’t like hard frosts so be weather wary.
If you are a gardener who hates bugs but wants to be famous, collecting and killing sample insects is just how to see your name in “lights.” Because of the abundant moisture this spring there are plenty of insects. Some of whom we have not seen for a while. Some of them are even trying to sneak in our houses.
The WSU Spokane County Master Gardeners has an insect committee that will gladly give you advice on preparation of your samples. They do not want to see or handle human pests such as lice or bed bugs. Take those concerns to the Spokane County Heath Department. If you encounter an insect you suspect is unusual the volunteers at the WSU Master Gardener extension office in Spokane will gladly work on identifying it for you.
Finally the weather is pleasant enough to think about other things than saving the lives of my plants. Visits to my favorite nurseries comprise the better parts of my days off. The young treasures I garner will be welcome additions to my mature garden. I will try not to get carried away but I know I can plant and transplant until the ground freezes.
A good use of those pine needles and leaves that are falling will be mulch around my new and old plants. And those garlic bulbs I planted, I will make a row of mulch over them too so I don’t forget where they are planted.
In the meantime, let’s be awed by the metamorphous of our gardens. Sometimes the perennials that take over the show remind me of Windsor Castle’s changing of the guard. Each member is an object of perfection. (I am still revering Queen Elizabeth and I wasn’t even born in Canada!)
It will be October and pumpkin season soon so enjoy the magnificent explosion of autumn.
Margaret Swenson is a WSU Spokane County Master Gardener. Contact a Master Gardener by calling 509-477-2181.
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