2023

View the September Gardening Tips below provided by David Hillock, Senior Extension Specialist.

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• Landscape
  • Watch for fall specials at garden centers and nurseries since fall is a great time for planting many ornamentals.
  • Choose spring flowering bulbs as soon as available.
  • Plant cool-season annuals like pansies, ornamental cabbage or kale, snapdragons and dusty miller when temperatures begin to cool.
  • Watch for and control any late infestations of tree webworms.
  • Twig girdler insects should be controlled if large numbers of small branches of elms, pecans, or persimmons are uniformly girdled from the tree and fall to the ground.
  • Begin to reduce the amount of light on outside tropical houseplants by placing them under shade trees before bringing them indoors for the winter.
• Vegetables
  • You have all of September to plant cool-season vegetables like spinach, leaf lettuce, mustard and radishes, and until the middle of September to plant rutabagas, Swiss chard, garlic and turnips.
• Lawn
  • Last nitrogen fertilizer application of the year on warm-season grasses should be applied no later than September 15. (HLA-6420)
  • Winter broadleaf weeds like dandelion will begin to emerge in late September, which is also the best time to control them with a 2, 4-D type herbicide.
  • If pre-emergent control of winter-annual weeds (henbit, chickweed, annual bluegrass, etc.) is desired in lawns, the application should be completed by the second week of September. (HLA-6421) Note: Do not treat areas that will be seeded in the fall.
  • Continue bermudagrass spray program with glyphosate products for areas being converted over to tall fescue this fall. (HLA-6421)
  • Plan to seed bluegrass, fescue or ryegrass as needed in shady areas in mid- to late-September. Fall is the best time to establish cool-season lawns (HLA-6419).
  • White grub damage can become visible this month. Apply appropriate soil insecticide if white grubs are a problem (EPP-7306). Water product into soil.