September - The First Autumn Month

September - First Autumn Month

Autumn begins, and the first half of September is known as Indian summer. During Indian summer, the sun still shines and it's warm. This part of autumn tends to be very pleasant. Towards the end of September, bad weather and rainy spells begin. Work in the garden according to the weather's whims. Gradually start harvesting fruit and vegetables. Garden cleanup is also appropriate. After harvesting vegetables from the beds, dispose of the tops and leaves in the compost. Rake up fallen leaves. Proceed systematically from one corner of the garden to the other. Even during cleanup work, the garden can remain clean and tidy.

September is a suitable month for considering autumn planting. Prepare your beds. It's also a good time to purchase seeds for spring. Consider which vegetables did well for you, which ones you enjoyed, and which you'd like to try growing.

From experience, we don't recommend that gardeners grow crops from their own seeds. If a variety is not maintained through breeding, it degenerates. Your own seeds may therefore not be of the highest quality. Purchasing seeds is not a large budget item, and it guarantees you a better quality harvest. Choose seeds carefully. You're not just buying a type, such as CARROT, but also varieties and their qualities and suitability for your bed and consumption, e.g. EARLY AMSTERDAM CARROT. Select potato seed tubers, bulbs and flower bulbs with the same care.

Does it seem like there's more work with autumn approaching? The days are getting shorter, suddenly it's dark and you can't get everything done. September flies by like water. You're harvesting, picking fruit, canning, in short you can't keep up. But September is the month when you see how successful you've been, and in winter you'll appreciate the harvest once again over pickled cucumbers or a cake made with preserved plums. In September it doesn't rain that much yet. If you're still growing vegetables, don't forget to water.

So what do we plant in the autumn months?

We plant rhododendrons, azaleas, heather, erica, blueberries, cherry laurel, viburnum, etc. These plants love lighter acidic soil with sufficient moisture and humus. Don't plant these plants in clay, heavy and calcareous soils. In such soils they turn yellow and have deformed leaves. If you have heavy, clay soil in your garden but would still like to plant blueberries, for example, dig a hole with a diameter of 1m and a depth of also 1m. Mix peat, bog soil, sand and leaf mould into the hole.

Other plants we care for in autumn and which we plant:

• conifers - we also plant them in soil with a root ball
• roses - we cut off shoots growing from the rootstock
• lawn sowing - a lawn sown now in spring will create a decent growth

Lawn - if we have places in the garden where the lawn doesn't thrive, for example in permanent shade, we can plant these areas now in autumn (or in spring) with suitable plants, thus replacing the lawn. The area will be neat and we won't be bothered by the sight of an imperfect piece of lawn. Suitable plants include, for example, periwinkle (lat. Vinca), ivy (Hedera helix), wild ginger (Asarum europaeum), bugleweed (Ajuga reptans), yellow archangel (Lamium galeobdolon), lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) and others.

If you have a lawn on a dry side of the garden - on a southern slope - and the grass grows there poorly, in such a case, grow in this location: blue fescue (Festuca glauca), stonecrop (Sedum acre), houseleek (Sempervivum), wild thyme (Thymus serpyllum), saxifrage (Saxifraga arendsii) and speedwell (Veronica).

All plants grown in autumn need suitable and abundant nutrition.

In September, we mainly plant tulips and daffodils. Daffodils are planted at a depth of 10-12 cm. The rule here is that the bulb is planted 3 times deeper than its diameter. For winter, we cover the planted bulbs with a layer of conifer branches.

September is a suitable time for planting bulbs - flowers. Bulbous plants that bloom in spring are planted in September-October so they have time to root before winter and bloom well in spring. (We planted crocuses and snowdrops already in June).

Bulbs - according to the rules, we plant bulbs 3 times deeper than their diameter. The smallest bulbs are therefore planted at a depth of 5 cm. The largest bulbs can be planted up to 20 cm deep or even deeper.

Don't mix individual bulbs together. Always keep one species and one colour together in a group. We don't plant bulbs in rows like vegetables. We plant them in irregular groups. If you don't remember what you planted where, mark the planted bulbs with a label and tag.

In September, we can also plant biennials in warm locations. For combinations with tulips (white and red), pansies are suitable, for example. Try a light blue shade. Or forget-me-nots. In these shades, you can create an unconventional tricolour composition, which is coming back into fashion. Red pansies and red daisies are also interesting. You can, of course, stick to spring shades - yellow, white and pink.

Dahlias - not just gardeners with this name take pride in a profusion of beautiful dahlias in front of their house. If morning frosts are expected, cover the dahlias at night with foil or fabric. If you don't manage to cover the dahlias and frost destroys them, then remove the tubers from the ground, clean them and store in a dry place. Also harvest faded gladioli from the soil.

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Author: Hana Michalíková