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These 7 garden jobs, to be finished in Septemer, will help you get ready for fall
Rainy, gusty days are becoming more frequent, at least here in the UK, and with the leaves slowly starting to turn orange, there’s no denying that autumn is on its way.
Whether you enjoy pottering around in your own garden, have an allotment or keep plants on your balcony, now’s the time to start getting ready for the colder months while also slowly setting your sights on spring.
To give you some orientation and a point from which to start, we’ve collected the seven things you need to do in September to make sure everything garden-related goes smoothly once the cold really hits.
Net your pond
A net over your pond doesn’t just protect fish from predators but helps keep the water’s balance.
Ideally, a net should be covering your pond by the time the leaves start to fall, to make sure they don’t end up in the water.
It doesn’t only look not all that nice, but when leaves sink to the bottom of the pond and start to decompose, they release compounds changing the water’s balance, potentially harming (or even killing) fish and encouraging algae growth.
Once the net has gone over your pond, all you need to do is remove the leaves regularly, or they may rip and damage the net when they get wet and heavy.
Prune shrubs and climbing roses
Pruning roses and shrubs helps them grow healthily – and bigger.
Now’s the time to cut back late-summer flowering shrubs, like rock roses (Helianthemum), and climbing roses.
Make sure your plants, especially the roses, have finished flowering – leave them if they’re repeat flowering – and you know how to correctly cut back your plants, before you end up accidentally killing them instead of ensuring a nice re-growth.
Keep harvesting
Carrots can stay in the soil until the first frost hits, but other crops should be harvested continuously.
If you’ve got fruit and veg, either on a large scale or in the form of just a few plants, keep harvesting your hard-earned crops; it would be a shame to let them go to waste.
Keeping on top of harvesting also means your plants may be more productive – cucumbers, peppers of all varieties and peas, for example, will keep growing crops for a long time after your first harvest.
In case you can’t eat everything right away, try pickling or blanching and freezing the vegetables and turn fruit into jellies and jams – they’re also perfect as small gifts for family and friends, either for Christmas or just as a nice gesture.
Clean out nesting boxes
Give nesting boxes a quick sweep to make sure next year’s tenants stay happy and healthy.
By September, all chicks should have flown out, so it’s time to get nesting boxes ready for the new tenants looking to move into a clean (and, most importantly, parasite-free) home next spring.
It doesn’t need to match a human’s definition of squeaky clean: giving the box a good sweep will do. If you’re unsure if that’s enough, don’t use disinfectants – they’ll do more harm than good – but rather warm water or, in hard cases, some lye made with (baking) soda.
And don’t forget to knock on the box before opening it up – the birds may have left, but small rodents, bumblebees or bats like to climb in while seeking refuge from cold nights.
Divide your herbaceous perennials
As you prune roses and shrubs, it’s also time to think about dividing perennials, like
Turn one into two: dividing anemones and other perennials encourages healthy growth – and adds more plants to your garden.
anemones, asters or peonies, to encourage a vigorous growth in the following year – with the bonus that you’re also multiplying your plants.
Once you’ve divided and replanted your plants, make sure they get enough water – allowing them to dry out will slow down the re-establishing process and can potentially kill the new additions to your garden.
Get started on the planting
Early planting is key if you want your spring garden to be as colorful as this one.
Spring may be a long time away, but September is when you should start thinking about, and planting, the flowers you want to see in your garden once winter is over.
Planting daffodils, crocus other spring flowering bulbs now ensures they’ll be ready next year; to have some color in time for Christmas, now’s also the time to plant hyacinth and amaryllis bulbs you want to force into blooming.
Other plants may also be planted now, especially biennials and perennials but also trees and shrubs, as the soil is still warm (and will stay warm for a bit longer), but September is generally less dry, with rainfall starting to increase.
This also extends to lawn: not only should it be mown down in September (in preparation for winter), it’s also the perfect timing to patch up bald spots and sow out new lawns.
Give hedgehogs a home
It doesn’t take much to turn a corner of your garden into a hedgehog’s winter residence.
As it’s starting to get colder, hedgehogs and other mammals get ready to hibernate during the winter months.
To make it easier for them, leave a corner of your garden ‘wild’, with leaves and branches heaped together – they attract not just hedgehogs, who’ll appreciate the chance to build a nice nest there, but also slugs and beetles (so the buffet is sorted).
If you like your garden looking tidy and well-kept all year, artificial homes can easily be built (a board leaning against a wall might already be enough) or bought in garden centers; they’ll do an equally good job, without creating a ‘messy’ corner.
The post These 7 garden jobs, to be finished in Septemer, will help you get ready for fall appeared first on Gay Star News.
Stefanie Gerdes
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