Hey there everybody. I'm so excited that you're joining me today for the first episode of my new podcast. I'm Colleen Dieter, a landscape consultant at ATXGardens.com. Some of my customers told me they wish they could get alerts or reminders from me about what to do in their yards, and while I'm working on other ways to send alerts, I figured a podcast might be a good way to keep everyone in the loop about what's happening in our Austin and Central Texas gardens. Today’s episode is all about what to do in your landscape and garden in late September.

Before we get to our late September gardening to-do list, this episode is sponsored by my landscape consulting business at ATXGardens.com. I help my customers by alleviating their anxieties about their yards. If you book a consultation with me, you can ask me anything about what to plant, how to care for your soil, tree problems, lawn maintenance—anything you can think of.

You can make an appointment with me for a landscape consultation at your property at ATXGardens.com, and of course, there’s a link in the show notes. Alright, let's get to the show.

In general this week, do not trim any of your trees, shrubs, or perennials. Trimming at this time of year will stimulate new growth, and we need the plants to stop actively growing in order to get ready for winter. Mid-September is also the last chance to fertilize anything—potted plants outdoors, trees, roses, lawns, and perennials. Don’t fertilize your plants after October 1st. Fertilizer will stimulate new growth, and in the winter we want the plants to stop growing.

If you don’t know what kind of fertilizer to use, don’t just buy something randomly. Fall is a great time for soil testing instead. I recommend sending a sample to the Texas A&M University Soil Lab, the Texas Plant and Soil Lab, or any soil lab in the U.S. to find out what nutrients your soil is missing. I especially recommend this for vegetable gardens and fruit orchards, because those plants tend to need more nutrients than landscape plants.

September can be hot and damp, and those are good conditions for plants to get fungal diseases. If you have a history of fungal issues in your yard, now is the time to sprinkle some cornmeal over fungal spots in the lawn. You can spray any plant, especially turfgrass lawns, with Actinovate to inoculate it with beneficial microbes. Actinovate is available via the show notes or on my website ATXGardens.com. Homemade compost tea also works to inoculate your plants with beneficial microbes to help crowd out diseases.

Late September is the time to transplant any kind of plant. Most of our plants are reaching their maximum size this time of year, and if your landscape is looking crowded or overgrown, now is a good time to take some plants out and move them to open spaces—or pass them along to a friend. A border spade is a great tool for transplanting, and that’s available in the show notes and at ATXGardens.com through my Amazon affiliate links.

Something else I’m doing this week is organizing shopping lists for plants, both for my own garden and for customers. This is a great time for plant shopping and plant sharing. I offer plant shopping and delivery as a follow-up service to customers who hire me for consulting. I have access to wholesale nurseries and growers, so I can get larger quantities of plants than you might be able to get yourself. If you’re interested in plant shopping and delivery, make an appointment with me at ATXGardens.com.

Up next, I’m going to talk about woody plants—that’s all the trees, shrubs, and roses. Mid-September kicks off the planting season for woody plants. This planting season continues until mid-March, April 1st at the latest, and I’ll talk about that more in future episodes. This is a really good time to shop for trees because many will start going on sale when they lose their leaves. When they lose their leaves, they’re less attractive and less sellable, even though planting them while they’re dormant is actually best.

Some nurseries will also be making room for winter seasonal plants like Christmas trees or pumpkins, so check out your locally owned garden centers and start looking for trees and shrubs now. In your yard, some trees will start losing their leaves in October and November. If you use a leaf blower for leaf management, make sure it’s working now. If it’s gas-powered and needs servicing, do that now. And of course, I encourage you—if possible—to go electric or use a rake. I’ll be talking a lot more about leaf management in future episodes.

This time of year, we often get webworms in our trees. These caterpillars spin big silky pouches that protect them from predators while they feed. If you have one or two pouches in a big tree, it’s nothing to worry about. But if more than one-third of your tree has webworms, that’s more serious. If you can reach the webs, pull them down with gloves and smash the caterpillars. If you can reach with pruners or a pole saw, remove the infested stems. If you can’t cut them but can reach them, poke a hole in the pouch so predatory wasps can enter and eat the caterpillars.

Now, something else happening with trees and shrubs: I’m the founder of Central Texas Seed Savers and we have a program called the Seed to Tree Partnership with TreeFolks, Austin’s tree-planting organization. Fall is peak time for collecting acorns, nuts, and other tree seeds to send to TreeFolks. They plant those seeds in their native nursery and later plant the seedlings throughout Central Texas in reforestation and community tree plantings. There’s a link to the Seed to Tree Partnership in the show notes. I’ll be collecting tree seeds this fall myself!

If you have roses, now is a good time to spray them with compost tea or other beneficial microbe inoculants to prevent disease. I recommend one called Arbor Biofungicide, and there’s a link in the show notes or on ATXGardens.com.

We’re going to take a little break now for a message from our sponsor—and since this is the first episode, that sponsor is me.

Hi all, this is Colleen Dieter and you’re listening to the ATXGardens Podcast. I give plenty of garden advice on the show, but there’s nothing like meeting in person to get the best information for your plants and landscape, and that’s what I can do for you. Visit ATXGardens.com. As a certified arborist and professional gardener, I’ve been giving advice to DIYers for over 20 years. I help my customers by alleviating their anxieties about their yards. Visit ATXGardens.com to book a consultation with me. During your consultation, we’ll walk through your yard together and answer all of your questions.

At ATXGardens.com, you can also shop “Colleen’s Favorite Things”—the gardening apparel, tools, and books I often mention. From trees to vegetables to wildflowers, I’m here to help. Make an appointment at ATXGardens.com.

Now we’re going to talk about perennials and bulbs. Now is a great time for planting perennials and ornamental grasses. Perennials are plants that grow up in the spring, bloom in the summer and fall, and then the tops die back in winter but return in spring. Examples include salvias and indigo spires. It’s also a good time for planting most bulbs, and you’ll want bulbs adapted to southern gardens. This is also a great time for dividing bulbs such as irises, daylilies, canna lilies, amaryllis (hippeastrums), rain lilies, and more. I like using a digging fork or a border spade for this.

It’s also a good time to divide perennials, especially if they’re getting large or flopping open. Certain plants like indigo spires and Amistad sage often do this, and dividing helps. At ATXGardens.com you can purchase my three-volume set of booklets called “Let’s Care for Texas Plants,” which includes diagrams and instructions for dividing bulbs and perennials.

Now for a little part of the show I call “Nature Stuff”—what’s going on in nature in Central Texas right now? Hummingbirds should be arriving on their fall migration. Clean your feeder and get ready to refill it more often. Plants are really the best way to feed hummingbirds, though. At my house, hummingbirds love wax mallows, common sunflowers, and pokeweed. Pokeweed comes up on its own, and I see hummingbirds visiting it all the time.

Now onto the vegetable garden. Mid and late September is a transitional time—from hot-season vegetables to cool-season plants. Now is the time to take out summer crops that aren’t thriving anymore or that you’re tired of eating. Okra, black-eyed peas, melons, peppers, tomatoes are all nearing the end of their life cycle. If they still look good and you’re enjoying them, you can keep them until the first freeze, usually in November or December. But if the plants are ragged or wrapping up, it’s fine to pull them now.

You might keep one plant from each species for seed-saving if that interests you. I’ll talk more about seed saving in later episodes. For now, clear out anything not working and add compost to the soil before planting cool-season crops.

Cool-season crops are the vegetables that live through winter—arugula, peas, radishes, mustard, turnips, bok choy, Swiss chard, beets, collards, and kale. You can sow all of them directly into the garden now. Broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage should be planted as small transplants. You can also plant artichokes and cardoons as transplants now.

If you're taking a break from vegetable gardening this winter, you can plant a cover crop now. Alfalfa, rye, clovers, peas, and Texas bluebonnets are just a few cool-season cover crops that help feed and restore soil.

In the herb garden, you can plant all perennial herbs now—oregano, sage, thyme, chives, and others that live for many years. Now is also the time to harvest warm-season annual herbs like basil. Annuals only live one season, and after a hot summer, basil may be wrapping up. Remove it to make room for cool-season annual herbs like cilantro, parsley, dill, calendula, and fennel, all of which can be planted in October. Add compost before planting anything new.

Now, I know many of you are wondering about wildflower planting. This is one of the biggest questions I get, and now is the time to plant wildflower seeds—especially bluebonnets, poppies, and larkspur.

Here’s my recipe for wildflower success: Get a wheelbarrow, trash can, or tarp. Mix together one bag of compost and one bag of granite sand. Mix your wildflower seeds into that blend. Rake the area you’re seeding with a hard rake to make the soil slightly rough. Spread your compost-sand-seed mix over the area as evenly as possible. Walk over it to press the seeds into the soil. Then it’s time to bust out your funkiest dance while asking Mother Nature for rain! This is a fun project to do with friends or kids. Tune in to future episodes for more guidance on caring for wildflowers as fall and winter arrive.

Alright friends, that’s it for this episode. Please like and subscribe on whatever podcatcher you’re listening on. Write a review for the podcast. Share this episode with your plant-obsessed friends. Follow me on Instagram and check out the show notes for links.

Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you next time. This is Colleen Dieter with ATXGardens.com.