September Tips: The Desert Southwest
See our planting tips.
For best selection, buy bulbs as soon as they appear at the garden center. Most spring-blooming bulbs, such as tulips, hyacinths, and crocuses, will need to be pre-chilled in the fridge for 6-8 weeks to "fake" winter before planting outdoors.
Plant beds with cool-season flowers, such as pansies, calendula, candytuft, foxgloves, snapdragons, stock, and sweet alyssum.
Also plant cool-season veggies, such as broccoli, carrots, cauliflowers, lettuces and greens, potatoes, radishes, and peas.
Dividing and Planting Perennials -- Divide or plant perennials now that bloom in spring or early summer and midsummer.
Keep up with watering chores. Weather stays warm this month, so keep up with watering all plants in the ground deeply but infrequently. Established natives will need water only once a month or so.
Dusty leaves are a haven for mites and other sucking insects. Hose down your plants every so often to remove dust and dirt.
Feeding Roses -- Fertilize roses to encourage fall bloom.
This month continue to fertilize warm-season lawns, such as Bermudagrass, but halt fertilizing of cool-season lawns, such as bluegrass.
Fertilize any acid-loving plants and any that may be showing an iron deficiency; for example, young leaves appear yellow-green with dark green leaves. Acid-loving plants include azaleas, gardenias blueberries, and camellias.
Fertilizing Plants -- Continue to fertilize containers containing annuals and perennials.
Continue to keep up with watering chores. Soak plants in containers well. If you can't keep up or they're wilting anyway, move them to a shadier spot. Also give your compost heap an occasional dousing to promote necessary decomposition, and consider shading the heap to keep it moister longer.
