Gardening Jobs for September

These are just some of the jobs we will be carrying out as we go around and maintain our customers’ gardens during the month of September:

Divide herbaceous perennials including Astrantia, Pulmonaria, and Ophiopogon.
Pick autumn fruiting raspberries regularly to keep them cropping.

Pruning Tips:

Wait until mid to late winter when your berries have lost their leaves or have gone unpleasant looking.
Cut down every single stem one inch above ground level.
If you aren’t sure if your berry is summer-fruiting or autumn-fruiting, simply prune out every single cane that has produced fruit. You can tell which ones have borne fruit because there will be obvious stem remnants where the fruit was picked.
Winter is also a good time to dig up and move any raspberry plants that have travelled outside of your garden bed. These plants are good and will bear fruit.
For other kinds of brambleberries such as blackberries and loganberries, simply remove every cane that has borne fruit.
Continue to disbud and deadhead dahlias to get the best out of them before the frosts.
Harvest maincrop potatoes and store in a clean, dry, dark place.
Finish planting daffodil bulbs for spring by mid-September because they begin growing before the last winter snow has melted from the garden. Daffodil bulbs are usually planted in the autumn so they have time to produce a healthy root system before their spring debut.

Scarification Tips:

Scarify your lawn with a spring tine rake or you can hire a powered scarifier. The scarification process involves digging into the top layer of soil and removing some of the built-up thatch layer, which is comprised of decomposed organic matter.
Scarifying is useful where moss growth occurs, as it from the lawn. The advantage of scarification is that it allows air and light to access the grassroots, thus promoting a healthier lawn.

Mow the lawn with a mower. Set the blade height to one inch.
Rent a vertical knife scarifier machine at a DIY shop or heavy equipment rental company.
Place the scarifier at the edge of the lawn and set the blade depth to half an inch.
Turn the scarifier on and move it slowly along the lawn in a straight line. When you reach the edge of the lawn, raise the blades up, turn the scarifier around and then lower them back into the ground. Walk-in another straight line directly beside the first line. Continue with this method until you have covered the entire lawn.
Move the scarifier so that is perpendicular to the first set of lines. Set the blade depth to one inch and lower the blades into the ground. Move the scarifier over the entire area of lawn in lines just as you did previously.
Rake the entire lawn to remove all of the thatch, moss and dead grass that was removed by the scarifier. Place the organic matter into a compost pile or discard it in your garden waste bin.

Now is the time for those little jobs to finish off the garden before winter set in and the temperatures drop. It’s time to scarify your lawn or to prune your trees, so if you like more information about gardening to be done in September or if you would like us to take a look at your garden please contact us and we will call as soon as we can to give you our best advice.

Contact Us

If you want or need additional advice, at Blue Iris Landscapes, we are experts in anything gardens! Please contact us today to speak to one of our experts on 01782 396 168. Alternatively, we offer a planting landscape design service. For more information visit our planting page!

Alternatively, click here for our July gardening tips.