September Garden Jobs – the 5 top tasks I’m doing now

I enjoy my September garden jobs as they’re a wonderful mixture. Such as planning what Spring flowering bulbs I need, and putting some in. Plugging the gaps in my borders or on the patio with later flowering plants and starting to divide up congested perennials.

I also need to slightly rethink by semi-shaded, woodland style border. One of the trees next to it has come down, so it’s not so shaded any more. This gives me an opportunity to slightly switch-up the planting. But that will require a lot of thought in September, October and November, and a whole different blog!

So let’s forget that woodland border for now and concentrate on the first five of my September garden jobs.

1. Lifting Gladioli

First up is sorting my gladioli corms. If you live in the south of the country (as I do) and don’t have tender varieties such as Gladiolus ‘Miss Green’ you can leave your gladioli in the ground over Winter. You just put a good thick layer of mulch on top to protect them.

However, mine are in a container – actually they’re in a recycling box. That’s because I bought them on a complete whim in the Spring. I’d not grown them before and was drawn by some which were hot orange (Nagarit) and deep purple (redinha). This is such a classic colour combination.

Well, of course I had absolutely nowhere to put them! However, we seem to have accumulated a huge number of recycling boxes near the bins. So in desperation I planted them in one of these. I put the whole thing at the bottom of the garden, in a sunny spot, against one of our battered old sheds.

The gladiolis duly flowered, looking lovely. But it’s not a permanent solution. My garden is already scruffy enough without me having a recycling box on permanent display!

So although we’re in the temperate south, I’m not leaving the gladioli out in the box. One of my September garden jobs will be to, once all flowering has stopped, lift the corms, dry them off and store them in a frost free spot in my potting shed. I will then plant them out next Spring, in some really gritty compost (they like lots of drainage).

Planters With a Difference

I’m going to plant them in pond planters to start with (the ones with lots of holes in the sides). I can hear you all groaning, ‘poor old gladioli, what first recycle boxes, now pond planters!’ But stop your cynicisim! I’ve seen Monty Don do this. I won’t put them in a pond of course. But when my containers with tulips in become free, I’ll pop the developing gladioli, pond planter and all, into the vacated tulip container. The roots apparently go through the holes in the pond planters easily. An easy way to find a smart home for the gladiolis without buying a new container!

2. Dividing Congested Perennials

I grow a huge number of perennials in my garden – in beds and in containers. I love them. However, some have become congested and need sorting out. So I will start doing this later in September once the flowering stops. In particular, my Achillea Moonshine, which is in a large pot, needs dividing yet again! You can divide them either in Spring or Autumn.

I’ve been deadheading it regularly, as a result it’s still producing gorgeous acid yellow blooms. I don’t want to deprive the insects of such a valuable source of pollen. But once I can see these flowers are fading I’ll bite the bullet and divide up this plant. You can see how to divide perennials such as achillea in this blog

My Phlox Paniculata Mount Fuji also needs a small bit of dividing. It’s an absolutely huge clump, but it’s a wonderful late flowerer so I’ll do that later on, it may be one of my September garden jobs or possibly I’ll tackle it in October.

However my Astrantia Major Rubra needs dividing now. It’s handsome but is definitely becoming a bit conjested. It’s also encroaching on one of my new peonies which I planted earlier this year. So the Astrantia needs dividing up a little and sorting.

3. Planting Spring Flowering Bulbs

Last year I planted a lot of bulbs. Most of these were tulips as I was creating a new raised tulip bed. These were planted in November. (I always wait until we’ve had some really cold weather which wipes out the diseases which can blight tulip bulbs.)

I don’t buy tulips in September as I don’t want bulbs sitting around in my shed tempting the mice! However, now is the time to buy and start planting out other Spring flowering bulbs such as crocuses, daffodils, Snakeskead fritillaries and bluebells.

Bluebells

In particular, my September garden jobs include building on plans which I began last year. You may recall that I began creating a sort of bluebell glade in a shady corner. You can read more about it here in my blog about bulbs to plant in Autumn. It worked really well and almost all of the150 British native bluebells hyacinthoides non-scripta I planted flourished.  But although 150 sounds like a lot, it really isn’t. It’s the bulb equivalent of a drop in the ocean. Even in a small area like mine you need more. So I’m planting another 150 this year.

I don’t want the Spanish type (Hyacinthoides hispanica) or a hybrid (Hyacinthoides x massartiana) which garden centres often sell as though they look lovely, they are out-competing our British native variety.

As I was planting so many bulbs last year I invested in a bulb planting gadget. It’s like an elongated metal hole cutter on the end of a long handle. To be honest it’s the sort of thing I’d normally be a bit sneary about, ‘who the heck needs one of those’ I’d say. But clearly I do. After one season using it I’m a total convert. It definitely made the task easier, but the bigger benefit was that it truly helps you create a really decent depth of hole. I’m convinced it’s this consistent depth of planting which gave me such a lot of bluebell success last year. I think the bluebells were too deep for the squirrels and the planting gave the bulbs the best start.

Crocuses

I’ll also get more snakeshead fritillaries for under my Beech tree and crocuses to go under my Ash tree.

Last year I planted under this Ash some Crocus Prins Claus, a white and purple variety which flowers in February and Barr’s Purple which performs in February and March. They duly came up and looked great, but on reflection my planting was a bit unrealistic looking. I did the scattering technique but I must have scattered neatly! It looked too uniform, and too far from the base of the tree. So I’m going to plant some more and this time make sure it’s haphazard (if that isn’t a contradiction in terms). I’ll plant the same varieties as last year as I don’t want it to be a mish mash.

Daffodils

As someone who originates from Wales you would of course expect me to have daffodils in the garden, and I do. We inherited them with the garden almost 30 years ago and they have come back year after year undiminished. So I haven’t needed to plant any more.

However, the kind people at Suttons have sent me some Daffodils called Rainbow Butterflies. They grow about 14″ tall and produce wide, open blooms with sort of split cups that create a whorl of petals. The look is very different from the traditional trumpet shape.  I won’t put these in the garden as they won’t suit my really natural-looking planting. But I think they will look fantastic in a pot.

I have exactly such a pot about to be vacated. It has a very unhappy Calla lily in it. It’s probably dying back now, and so ready for lifting and storing over Winter. But to be honest it could simply be dying as it hasn’t looked very happy for a couple of months now. I think I planted it too deeply. Anyway, I’m going to lift the Calla and store it in a cool frost free spot until the Spring and see how it gets on when I replant it next year. Meanwhile the lovely daffodils can have the perfect pot.

4. Take Cuttings

September is a prime time to take cuttings from salvias, fuchsias and pelargoniums. Indeed, I start taking them in August. You can see how to take savlia cuttings here

I take Salvia cuttings not only to increase my stock of my favourites, but as an insurance policy as they can be on the tender side. You suddenly find that a favourite formally thriving Salvia dead as a doornail after a brutal Winter.

I take pelargonium cuttings to save money. Unlike most annual bedding plants, bedding geraniums (which are in fact pelargoniums) are easily propagated by cuttings. You simply take the cuttings now and keep them on a warmish windowledge indoors. Then plant them out next Spring once the frosts have finished.

I’m going to do that today as I have red ones in my hot corner and a lovely pink one in my planted up barrow both of which I’d like more of. Just before the frosts I’ll bring the original parent plants indoors too, to shelter from the cold Winter weather. So next year I should have oodles of them.

The downside with all these cuttings is that they take up precious space – and if, like me, you don’t have a greenhouse that space is indoors! Now Mr F-W puts up with sharing his life with quite a lot of plants, but I don’t want to push my luck. That’s why sowing hardy annuals, another September garden job, is so handy! You can put them straight where you want them to grow. There are no annoying seed trays around the place, creating marital strife!

5. Sow Hardy Annuals

So, I’m definitely going to have a go at planting some hardy annuals straight into the ground. I’ve some Arctic Poppies, again a kind gift from Suttons which I will try in my hot corner bed.

I have to admit, I’m no expert at this. Indeed last year I planted Calendula Nova (English marigolds) and they all failed! However, having read up on the subject I think my problem was that I didn’t ensure the soil was fine enough.

Apparently most seeds contain only limited energy reserves to fuel their development. Once they start to germinate, the seedlings need to break through the soil surface to reach the light quickly. That way the green shoots and leaves can start to photosynthesise to provide more energy asap. If you stick them in a spot full of little stones or lumps of earth, you’re giving those poor old seeds too much energy-wasting work to do, diverting around things. It makes so much sense when you think about it.

So I’m going to create the most beautiful fine soil spot for my Arctic Poppies and see how I get on.

If you too fancy sowing some hardy annuals now, you are spoilt for choice. Calendulas, Cornflowers, Cerinthes, Ammi, Scabiosa etc. If you have the space, you can quickly create quite an impactful bed for early next Summer by planting hardy annuals now.

Well that’s 5 of my top September garden jobs. What are you going to be doing this month? Do share…

Happy Gardening. xx