Skip to content

Top Navigation

Midwest Living Midwest Living
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Home
  • Garden
  • Holidays & Entertaining
  • Videos
  • Spring Getaways Sweepstakes

Profile Menu

Your Account

Account

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Email Preferences
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Help
  • Logout

More

  • Win Your Dream Getaway!
  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Magazine Issues
  • Destinations
Login
Subscribe
Pin FB

Explore Midwest Living

Midwest Living Midwest Living
  • Explore

    Explore

    • Simmering Soups and Stews

      Dish out a steaming bowl of comfort food with 50 of our favorite recipes for soups, stews, chowders, chilis and bisques. Read More Next
    • Midwest Living's Best of the Midwest Winners 2021

      Read More Next
    • Sparkling Spring Dessert Recipes

      The flavors of lemon, lime, berries and more sparkle in our recipes for pies, cobblers, cookies, cakes and puddings. Read More Next
  • Travel

    Travel

    See All Travel

    50 Midwest Resorts We Love

    Our favorite Midwest resort destinations range from cozy lakeside lodges to indoor water park behemoths. Dive in to check out our top picks for a fabulous Midwest getaway.
    • Illinois
    • Indiana
    • Iowa
    • Kansas
    • Michigan
    • Minnesota
    • Missouri
    • Nebraska
    • North Dakota
    • Ohio
    • South Dakota
    • Wisconsin
    • Around the Region
    • Free Travel Info
  • Food

    Food

    See All Food

    Midwest Living January/February 2021 Recipes

    • Comfort Foods
    • Desserts & Baking
    • Breakfast
    • Quick & Easy
    • Chicken
    • Soups & Stews
    • Midwest Favorites
    • Fruits & Vegetables
    • Fish
    • Grilling
  • Home

    Home

    See All Home

    Easy Organizing Solutions for Every Room

    Organizing the clutter of our lives doesn't mean relying on boring boxes. Think out of the box for clever ways to store necessities throughout your home.
    • Quick Decorating
    • Featured Homes
    • Organizing & Storage
    • Outdoor Living
    • Seasonal Decorating
    • Room Decorating
  • Garden

    Garden

    See All Garden

    10 Trendy Plants for Midwest Gardens in 2021

    • Container Gardens
    • Flowers
    • Featured Gardens
    • Midwest Gardening Calendar
    • Garden Ideas & Inspiration
  • Holidays & Entertaining

    Holidays & Entertaining

    See All Holidays & Entertaining

    50 Easy Spring Decorating Ideas

    Add pretty spring flair to your home with our ideas for centerpieces, table settings, door decorations, Easter egg displays and more.
    • Easter
    • July 4th
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Valentine's Day
    • Christmas
  • Videos

    Videos

    See All Videos
    • How to Make an All-Butter Pie Crust
    • How to Make Pumpkin-Spice Icebox Cake
  • Spring Getaways Sweepstakes

    Spring Getaways Sweepstakes

    See All Spring Getaways Sweepstakes
    • Best Vacation Sweepstakes
    • Spring Getaways Sweepstakes

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Account

Account

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Email Preferences
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Help
  • Logout

More

  • Win Your Dream Getaway!
  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Magazine Issues
  • Destinations
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Midwest Living
  2. Garden
  3. Midwest Gardening Calendar
  4. September Garden Calendar

September Garden Calendar

June 01, 2012
Skip gallery slides
Pin

Enjoy cooler temperatures, bountiful harvests and late-season blooms in your September garden.

Start Slideshow

1 of 5

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

General tasks: Water, weed, rake

Water as needed. Even though weather is getting cooler, plants still need adequate moisture. If the fall is dry, water well. Otherwise, plants might go into winter dehydrated and stressed, making them more likely to die out by spring.

Keep weeding. Late summer and early fall are when many of the worst weeds go to seed. Let them go now, and they'll scatter thousands of seeds all over your garden. Basic cleanup in late summer and fall will prevent far more cleanup and weeding come spring.

Pitch 'em. If any annuals are struggling this late in the season, just pull them up and put them in the compost heap. If a perennial is looking shot, cut it off at ground level and discard the foliage.

Start raking. Don't worry about leaves that collect around shrubs and perennial plantings--they'll actually protect your plants. But don't allow leaves to hang out for more than a few days on lawns. They suffocate the grass.

1 of 5

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 5

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

A great time for planting

Stock up on bulbs. October is the ideal planting time for bulbs in the Midwest, but supplies can go fast. Buy bulbs when you see them and keep in a cool, dry place (65° F or under, if possible) until planting time.

Brighten your garden with mums. Buy them now in full bloom. Choose from either florist's mums, which aren't winter-hardy but are very tidy-looking with large flowers, or garden mums, which are more wild-looking but will come back again next year. Florist's mums are great for pots indoors and out, while garden mums are good for planting in the ground for a permanent display.

Consider cool-season annuals such as flowering kale and cabbage, pansies and lobelia. They will brighten bare spots and outdoor containers for several weeks to come.

Especially in the southern half of the Midwest, fall is a great time to divide and plant most perennials and roses. Plant trees and shrubs throughout the entire Midwest—just be sure to keep well-watered if the fall is dry.

2 of 5

3 of 5

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Fall lawn care

Reseed problem patches or lay new sod as days grow cooler and fall rains start. There's a saying that beautiful lawns are made in the fall!

Check or adjust mower height. If you like shorter grass, lower your mowing height to about 2 inches for cool-season grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass, ryes and fescues. Or continue to mow at the ideal height of 3 inches. With warm-season grasses, such as bermudagrass, creeping bentgrass or zoysiagrass, keep mowing at hot-weather heights--about 2 inches.

Fertilize cool-season lawns to encourage good root growth. Do not fertilize warm-season grasses.

3 of 5

Advertisement

4 of 5

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Enjoy the bounty

Pick vegetables often and small to avoid tough or bitter produce.

Tomatoes should be harvested when about three-quarters ripe. At that point, they are no longer taking nourishment from the plant. Allow to continue to ripen indoors.

Cut back and harvest herbs before the first frost. Put in jars of water, like cut flowers, and cover with a plastic bag. Change water every few days. They'll keep for weeks this way.

4 of 5

5 of 5

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

More September garden advice

Don't have a compost heap? Start one! It can be as simple as a length of chicken wire, wrapped into an oval or square and held loosely in place with a few long wooden stakes. You can get away with just one, but with most gardens, three works better--each in a different stage of decomposition. In large gardens, you might have as many as a half dozen.

Keep an eye out for frost. In the northernmost Midwest, the first frost can come as soon as the last week of September. However, for the rest of the Midwest, it tends to be mid-to late October. Cover annuals and other tender plants for the first few frosts to get as much enjoyment of your plants as possible!

5 of 5

Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Trending Videos
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 5 General tasks: Water, weed, rake
2 of 5 A great time for planting
3 of 5 Fall lawn care
4 of 5 Enjoy the bounty
5 of 5 More September garden advice

Share options

Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Login

Midwest Living

Magazines & More

Learn More

  • Contact Us
  • Help
  • Free Newsletters this link opens in a new tab
  • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
  • Customer Service this link opens in a new tab
  • Renew this link opens in a new tab
  • Advertise this link opens in a new tab
  • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
  • Affiliate Program
  • Free Travel Info this link opens in a new tab
  • Special Promotions this link opens in a new tab
  • Sweepstakes this link opens in a new tab
  • Video
  • Home Advisor this link opens in a new tab

Connect

Follow Us
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Other Meredith Sites

Other Meredith Sites

  • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
  • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
  • Cooking Light this link opens in a new tab
  • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
  • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
  • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
  • Entertainment Weekly this link opens in a new tab
  • Food & Wine this link opens in a new tab
  • Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
  • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
  • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
  • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
  • More this link opens in a new tab
  • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
  • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
  • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
  • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
  • Parents this link opens in a new tab
  • People this link opens in a new tab
  • People en EspaƱol this link opens in a new tab
  • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
  • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
  • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
  • Shape this link opens in a new tab
  • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
  • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
  • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
  • Travel & Leisure this link opens in a new tab
Midwest Living is part of the Meredith Home Group. © Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
© Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.midwestliving.com

View image

September Garden Calendar
this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.