What to do in your Garden in September
It depends on where you live, but here in the West, our 5B growing season can end as early as late September, or can last through October or even November, depending on the weather! We always hope for a long summer without frosts until November, but mother nature does her thing as she likes. Here are some of the things we do in September in our garden:
Harvest and Clean Up
Pick crops: Harvest your tomatoes, peppers, and warm-season veggies. Harvesting helps them more quickly produce and ripen the remaining fruits on the vine, so you can keep the harvests coming in faster as long as you can before winter arrives.
Above: Picking Shishitos will keep them coming long into fall if the temperatures are good.
Preserve the Harvest: Make pickled peppers, spicy pickles, hot sauces, salsas, tomato sauces, dry peppers, there are so many ways to preserve your garden harvests for year round use. Nothing beats opening up a jar of salsa in the heart of winter to enjoy! Limited on time? You can also freeze whole peppers or make refrigerator pickles, no-peel salsa or no-peel tomato sauce.
Clear dead plants: Pull out finished annuals and weeds and compost them (unless they are diseased, are invasive weeds or have weed seeds, in which case you want to throw them away or put into the city's commercial compost if available.)
Save seeds: Collect and dry seeds from your best heirloom plants for next year. Herbs like Dill and Cilantro are very easy to collect the seeds to use to re-sow now or next spring.
Planting and Propagation
Sow cool-season veggies: Plant Spinach, kale, Lettuce, Radishes, Cabbage, Bunching Green Onions, Cilantro, or Dill. View our list of Vegetables You Can Plant in September
Plant fall flowers: Add pansies, violas, snapdragons, and mums for autumn color. Cilantro and Dill are useful in the kitchen and also double as flowers when going to seed, they are quite beautiful in pots and in garden beds.
Buy spring bulbs: Shop early for daffodils, tulips, and crocuses to plant. No need to wait to plant them, get them into the ground where you have room.
Take cuttings: Propagate favorite tender perennials or herbs in water before frost hits. Peppers can be propagated this way so you can keep some plants growing under lights indoors to keep the garden season going even when it's snowing outside.
Maintenance and Care
Divide perennials: Dig up and split overcrowded native plants, daylilies, irises, and hostas. Share them with friends or move to new parts of the garden. The more flowers the better!
Mulch beds: Add a fresh layer of organic compost, clean (untreated) grass clippings or chopped leaves to protect soil life and conserve moisture. Don't throw away those leaves from your trees! Pile them onto your garden beds to feed the soil all winter long for free, while providing food and habitat for pollinators and birds.
Check tropicals:
Move potted outdoor plants and delicate plants like peppers, basil or herbs indoors or onto a covered porch when cold weather comes. You can extend the season by several weeks protecting them from cold temperatures below 50˚ F. We use a small garden bed hoop house to move potted peppers into during cold spells to keep the harvests coming through November.
You can also clone or prune and repot your pepper plants and grow them indoors under lights through the winter and for years to come. Peppers are perennial when protected by frost, so you can keep the same plant growing for many years if the conditions are right. We like to do this with the super hot peppers since they take a long time to produce and we have short season's here in the West. Some pepper varieties live longer than other varieties, learn how long peppers live »
Move potted outdoor plants and delicate plants like peppers, basil or herbs indoors or onto a covered porch when cold weather comes. You can extend the season by several weeks protecting them from cold temperatures below 50˚ F. We use a small garden bed hoop house to move potted peppers into during cold spells to keep the harvests coming through November.
You can also clone or prune and repot your pepper plants and grow them indoors under lights through the winter and for years to come. Peppers are perennial when protected by frost, so you can keep the same plant growing for many years if the conditions are right. We like to do this with the super hot peppers since they take a long time to produce and we have short season's here in the West. Some pepper varieties live longer than other varieties, learn how long peppers live »
Happy harvests and gardening!
