September in the Garden

 By Sandi Jones

It’s time to wake up from our “long winter’s nap” although I can’t say we had much of a winter here on the Central Coast. Our list of chores in the garden is long and I’m tired already just thinking about them. I can’t “smell the roses” yet but the jasmine and citrus are blooming and the air is heavy with their perfume.

Start your spray program for your roses (every 7 to 10 days). I use a systemic fungicide but only spray for pests when they are present (with pyrethrum) I try to wait to spray insecticide until the evening when the bees and other “good bugs” have gone home for the night. 

Fertilize roses with a slow release fertilizer made for roses, sprinkle Blood and Bone on the soil around the root zone, scratch the soil lightly to incorporate the two and mulch with compost.

Save the skin from your breakfast banana, chop the skin up and dig into the soil around your rose. Banana skins contain potassium which roses love.

Spring flowering bulbs are just beginning to bloom but don’t be tempted to cut off the bulb foliage after the bulb finishes blooming. Cut off the spent flower heads but not the foliage. The foliage continues to feed the bulb as the bulb forms the embryo of next years flower. Feed the foliage with Blood and Bone or a fertilizer made specifically for bulbs.

Plant a summer blooming perennial beside the dying bulb foliage. As the bulb foliage dies the perennial foliage grows into the spot. Annuals work just as well but have to be replanted every year.

Spray broad-leaf weeds in the lawn with a commercial herbicide and then wait until weeds have died before applying a good lawn fertilizer.

Potted plants need your attention too. I made a big mistake last year in not using water-retaining crystals so this year when I renovate my potted plants the bucket of crystals will be right by my side.

With each potted plant to be renovated if not transplanting into a bigger pot, take as much soil as you can off the surface without damaging the roots of the plant. Add fresh soil, slow release fertilizer and water retaining crystals. Over all that, if possible, mulch with organic material or even colour pebbles to hold in moisture.

Prune fuchsias and geraniums by half. Cuttings can be made from the tips of the shoots.

Divide spring flowering perennials after they finish flowering.

Deadhead spring blooming annuals to prolong their blooming period. Fertilizing with pelletised manure also gives the annuals a boost and helps continued flowering.

Prune frost damaged plants to tidy them up.

Mulch your gardens after fertilizing with nutrient rich mulch like Lucerne, or any leafy-based mulch rather than wood or bark. The leaf-based mulch adds nutrients to the soil as it breaks down but bark or wood chips take nutrients away from the soil as it decomposes (very slowly).

If you haven’t started your tomatoes and capsicums from seed yet there is still time. Both tomatoes and capsicums need an optimum soil temperature of 25c to germinate. The best bet is to plant them in punnets of seed starting mix and placed in a warm place. When the seedlings are forming their second set of leaves (the first are seed leaves, the second set are true leaves) the seedlings can be transplanted into individual pots to grow on. Tomatoes will quickly fill the pot with roots and when slightly root bound can be transplanted again into a larger container or into the ground.

As a cost saving measure I buy cheap punnets of tiny seedlings and transplant them into larger containers to grow on. By the time the plant roots fill the container it can transplanted into the ground. Those tiny seedlings could not handle being transplanted directly into the ground right from the punnet. Their roots could not take up enough moisture to survive. Planting out at that stage would be money wasted.

I have an ongoing struggle with Bush  (Brush?) Turkeys. They come down out of the bush and delight in trashing my garden. In an attempt to recreate part of my shady Canadian garden I have planted Hosta, which is a deciduous perennial. It goes dormant during the winter and leaves bare ground above it’s crowns, which is perfect for scratching up bugs. I have wire hoops over my plants but those trusty turkey feet can reach underneath the hoops. I don’t want to set mousetraps and I can only scream at them like a banshee when I see them in the act. I am now trying cayenne pepper on the ground. Think it will work? 

Plant of the month is Cleome. It is a fast growing annual, which will self-seed when happy. The common name is Spider Flower, which describes its long spidery stamens and seedpods below the pink flower top (although there are other colours available from white to purple). Cleome grows to 1.2m high in ideal conditions. This makes it a great plant for the back of a perennial border. The plant requires full sun and a well-drained soil. In a windy site staking might be required.

Cleome leaves have the familiar shape of another plant. A friend of mine had obtained a Strelitzia (Bird of Paradise) in a pot.  Some time later an unusual plant started to grow beside her Bird of Paradise and her grandson suggested it might be “Pot”. She really felt like a “with it” grandmother until I identified the plant as Cleome. She was disappointed but left the Cleome to bloom.

Until next month may all your bugs be good bugs.

Happy gardening!