September’s gardening to do list

AvatarCaxton magazines staff
To Do Lists0 Comments 0

From repotting cymbidium orchids to feeding lawns, we cover all the essential gardening chores to do this spring. Here is September’s gardening to do list:

For the plant enthusiast

  • Choose your summer bulbs now. Look out for the exotic Tigridia pavonia, tiger lilies, yellow-flowering chlidanthus, flame lilies, our indigenous watsonias and tall, lilac liatris which make perfect cut flowers.

Tiger lily

  • Repot cymbidium orchids that have outgrown their pots. Click here for a step-by-step guide on repotting orchids.
  • If your spring bulbs haven’t died back and you need the space to plant something else, lift them out with some soil and replant them out of the way in a corner where they’ll continue to grow.
  • Feed lawns with 2:3:4, 3:1:5 or 6:3:4 fertiliser to promote root growth; tidy up uneven edges. Reduce watering where lawns were over seeded with cold season grasses; then cut them low to make it easier for the runners of your summer grass to come through.

For the kitchen gardener

  • Sow seeds of green peppers and aubergines in seed trays. Plant seeds of herbs like basil, coriander, borage and rocket in situ in a warm spot. Sow beans in situ once the soil has warmed up; in cold areas start them off in seed trays kept in a warm, sunny sheltered place.

  • Interplant herbs with flowering plants that attract pollinators to increase your yield; include strong smelling plants to repel predators. Parsley makes a delightful edging for a bed and looks great in pots with annuals. Curly parsley looks lovely but isn’t as strongly flavoured as the flat-leafed or Italian parsley.
  • Keep your citrus trees pest free. Check the reverse side of the leaves for woolly whitefly; blast them off with a high-pressure spray. When the foliage is dry, spray the leaves two or three times at five-day intervals with soapy water, insecticidal soap containing fatty acids or Ludwig’s Insect Spray Plus together with Oleum. To prevent Citrus psylla (minute nymphs), spray the under surface of citrus leaves now with Biogrow’s eco-friendly Pyrol or Bioneem.
  • Feed strawberries.

For the time-pressed gardener:

  • Replace problem lawns with lower maintenance grasses like LM (Berea) which also does well in semi-shade. Fill in gaps with grass plugs or runners. Alternatively replace your grass with a groundcover, a wooden deck, pavers interplanted with easy to maintain groundcovers or mulch the area with wood chips.