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North Mississippi Gardening Tips
September, 2003

September Notes

Are we about ready for some cool weather or what? We are not there yet, but fall is fast approaching with all the accompanying garden activities and pleasures for this season in north Mississippi. Energetic gardeners look at this month as the end of one growing season and the beginning of another. Tuckered out gardeners (I'm ashamed to say I am in this group, but don't tell anyone) tend to look at this month as a time to sit back and let everything just go to blazes. For you industrious ones, take advantage of the season and start thinking about what you need to do to prepare the garden for winter, to improve the soil, and to consider what needs to be done to keep the garden looking presentable right up to frost and beyond. You can take great satisfaction in your lovely garden as the rest of us just dry up and keel over. This is a season of garden opportunities. So away we go!

Annual and Perennial Flowers and Vines

Now is the time to seed those hardy flowers like purple coneflower, Shasta daisy, larkspur, foxglove, poppies etc. Wildflowers like oxeye daisy, bachelor buttons, black-eyed Susan, goldenrods, and gaillardias should be sown now. Refer to the Extension Publication 1709 Wildflowers for Mississippi Meadows and Gardens for complete details on how to start a wildflower garden, plus good tips of site selection and soil preparation that would help with the establishment of any flower garden in the fall. If you have cut back or groomed summer bloomers last month like I told you to, these plants should be rebounding now with lush new growth and new flowers. Continue to water, fertilize and remove spent flowers to keep these plants looking good right up to frost. Salvias, petunias, angelonias, bacopas, marigolds, verbenas, daisies and others respond well to this treatment.

Trees and Shrubs

Roses tend to respond well to fall weather by blooming more productively. Aid this natural reaction by fertilizing, spraying pesticides (when absolutely necessary) and maintaining your roses. Some folks gave their larger roses a pruning in August to encourage new growth and flowers for the fall. If you didn't, you can prune early this month, fertilize and you should get some blooms before our first killing frost in late October.

Do not prune trees and shrubs this month unless removing broken or dead branches. Otherwise, pruning now will encourage new growth that will be susceptible to cold damage this winter. Also, if you prune azaleas, forsythia and other spring bloomers you will be cutting off new spring blooms. Don't fertilize your shrubs this month either as this will encourage that cold tender new growth.

Vegetables and Herbs

By this time, most of the harvesting has been completed and the summer vegetables are on their way out. Those veggies that are still growing and producing include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra and sweet potatoes. If you haven't already, now is the time to remove those old cornstalks, bean and peas vines and get the ground ready for seeding that fall "sallet patch." Mustard, turnips, kale, rape, spinach, and other greens can be direct seeded now. Beets, radishes, leaf lettuce can also be seeded now for the fall harvest. As summer vegetables get less productive, remove them and plant a cover crop if you aren't going to sow or plant any fall/winter vegetables. Talk to your local farmer's co-op or favorite garden center person for recommendations. Typically there are two types of cover crops, legume and non-legume. I refer the legume cover crops as they, when tilled under, not only add organic matter, but also nitrogen to the soil. Some good choices are crimson clover or winter peas. Know that if you have a deer problem around your place, winter peas are not a good choice as deer eat this stuff like it is candy!

Fruits and Nuts

It is the beginning of the apple harvest in north Mississippi this month. I love going to the apple orchard and picking the fruit right off the trees. I can't help but sample the harvest as I go, too! It would not be a bad idea for the orchard owner to weight people like me before and after visiting the orchard so they wouldn't lose the profit from all the apples I eat!

It is better to pick the apples and pears off the trees rather than waiting for them to hit the ground, rot and attract those nasty little yellow jackets! Pears and apples will continue to ripen after harvest. Pears, in particular, will become sweet and juicy after picking-just don't refrigerate them before they are ripe, as this will hinder the process.

Don't fertilize or prune fruit trees this month. The second application of the insecticide to control borers in cherries, nectarines, peaches and plums is due this month. Check with your Extension office for recommendations. Remove old canes of blackberries if you haven't already to make room for the young canes that will bear fruit next summer. Keep these young canes well watered as we move into the drier weather that can accompany the fall season. Watch the muscadines as these Southern grapes will begin to ripen this month and those pesky birds will get them if you are not vigilant.

Lawns

Now through November 1st is the optimum time to seed cool-season grasses like tall and creeping fescues and Kentucky bluegrass in north Mississippi. Seeding rates per 1,000 square feet of planting area are 11/2 pounds for Kentucky bluegrass, 3 pounds for creeping fescue and 4 pounds for tall fescue. If you want that emerald green temporary winter lawn grass, sow perennial ryegrass between September 15 and November 1, or annual ryegrass between September 1 and November 1. Seed perennial ryegrass at 8 to 10 pounds per 1000 square feet; annual ryegrass at 10 to 12 pounds per 1000 square feet. Fall is the ideal time to take a soil sample of your lawn and apply lime if needed. Mid-September is the time to fertilize cool-season grasses. Refer to Publication 1322, Establish and Manage Your Home Lawn for recommended rates.

Bulbs, Corms, Roots and Rhizomes

Bearded iris and peonies can be planted this month. Peonies thrive in morning sun and alkaline soil. Plant with the pink buds just above the soil surface. Bearded iris love full sun and well drained soil. Leave the tops of the rhizomes exposed. Roots will initiate from the lower portion of the rhizome and anchor the plant. Plant the summer-flowering Madonna lily now or in early spring with no more than 1 inch of soil covering the top of the bulb. Time to lift and store those caladiums.

This is how, according to Bob Polomski, horticulturist with North Carolina State Extension Service: Shake the soil from the tubers and leave them in a sunny location to dry for seven to ten days. Move indoors if rain is forecast. After this drying period, remove the dead foliage and brush off any soil. Store the tubers in a box or basket filled with dried vermiculite or perlite. Put the container where the temperature will not drop below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Plant the tubers next spring when the soil has warmed to 70 degrees.

Lelia Scott Kelly, Ph.D., writes North Mississippi Gardening Tips monthly and is a Horticulture Specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is in the North Mississippi Research & Extension Center, Verona.