The Dirt on September
September is one of those months when the garden seems to have one foot in summer and the other in fall. Warm-season plants may still be producing, but cooler nights are a reminder that it is time to prepare for the next season. Because harvesting, weed control, irrigation, routine pest scouting, food preservation, and general fall-crop planting have already been covered in previous months, this month’s list focuses on new September-specific jobs.
Plant garlic for next summer.
September opens the planting window for one of the easiest crops to tuck into the garden now and forget about for a while: garlic. UT Extension recommends planting garlic in Tennessee from September through early November, with harvest generally occurring the following May or June. Tennessee sits in a transition zone where gardeners can experiment with both hardneck and softneck types.
Choose the largest, healthiest cloves from planting stock rather than grocery-store bulbs. Garlic can be planted about 1 to 1½ inches deep, and a 4-by-4-inch grid works well when garden space is limited. Good drainage is important during Tennessee’s wetter winter months, making raised beds particularly useful.
September can also be dry, so newly planted garlic may need supplemental water until established. After that, it will spend the winter developing roots before producing most of its top growth and bulbs next spring.
Turn the cover-crop plan into action.
August was the month to plan a fall cover crop. September is the month to actually get many of those seeds into the ground.
Cover crops protect otherwise bare garden soil through winter, add organic matter, and can reduce erosion and nutrient loss. Grasses such as rye are economical and establish readily, while legumes such as clover and vetch can fix nitrogen that becomes available to later crops after the cover crop is terminated and decomposes. A mixture such as rye and vetch can provide the advantages of both.
Timing matters. Vetch and other legumes benefit from earlier fall seeding, while rye can be planted somewhat later.
Clear out plants as their job ends.
There is no need to wait for one enormous end-of-season cleanup. As beans, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, and other summer crops finish producing, begin removing them a few plants at a time.
Healthy plant material can become the beginning of a fall compost pile. Diseased material, however, belongs somewhere else. Infected leaves and other plant debris can carry pathogens into the following growing season and should not be added to the home compost pile.
Think of September cleanup as selective rather than spotless: remove material that could perpetuate garden problems while leaving beneficial habitat elsewhere in the landscape.
Keep fruit plants leafy until frost.
Once fruit harvest is over, it can be tempting to mentally check fruit plants off the list for the year. Don’t do it quite yet.
The September calendar specifically recommends maintaining healthy foliage on fruit crops until frost to support good growth and fruit set the following spring. Leaves are still doing important work even after this year’s fruit is gone, capturing energy and helping perennial plants prepare for dormancy and next year’s growth.
This is therefore not the time for unnecessary defoliation or aggressive late-season pruning. Let healthy leaves remain and allow the plants to complete their natural seasonal cycle.
Leave the late-bloomers for pollinators.
Goldenrod sometimes gets treated like an untidy roadside weed, but September is a good month to reconsider what gets mowed.
UT Hort identifies goldenrod, asters, ironweed, and partridge pea as important late-summer and fall nectar sources and advises gardeners not to mow them down, just as beneficial insects need late-season food.
This is part of a larger shift in fall garden cleanup. UT Hort also recommends considering the wildlife value of standing stems, dried seed heads, and fading vegetation rather than automatically cutting everything to the ground. Those materials can provide food, shelter, and overwintering habitat.
A slightly less tidy garden can be a considerably more useful garden.
Bonus: Think spring and plant bulbs.
While the vegetable garden is winding down, September is also a good time to start thinking about next year’s ornamental garden.
Consider planting spring-flowering bulbs in fall and into early winter. Tulips, daffodils, and similar bulbs benefit from the winter chilling period needed to initiate spring flowering.
It is one of gardening’s better bargains: a little digging this fall can produce flowers at exactly the point next spring when you are desperate to see something blooming again.
September Garden Checklist
Plant garlic for next summer’s harvest.
Seed fall cover crops, especially legumes that benefit from early establishment.
Remove finished warm-season plants and compost only healthy material.
Maintain healthy foliage on fruit crops until frost.
Protect late-blooming goldenrod, asters, ironweed, and partridge pea for pollinators.
Plant spring-flowering bulbs for next year’s display.
September may feel like the garden is winding down, but much of this month’s work is really an investment in what comes next. Garlic planted now becomes next summer’s harvest. Cover crops protect soil through winter. Healthy fruit foliage supports next year’s crop. And a patch of goldenrod left standing today may help pollinators make it through another season. In September, good gardening is as much about setting up the future as finishing the present.
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