September Garden Checklist - Fall Gardening 

Thank you for all your great videos, including the checklists! You are always so positive, so friendly, so straight forward, and you don’t let anything negative cloud your way. Thank goodness for gardening and gardeners such as yourself - the world is a better and more beautiful place because of you and my other fellow gardeners. Keep up the great work! I look forward to the next video.

Here in upstate SC (7b) we often get fall "monsoons" of rain, so we're a little different.

Oh my gosh,look at that Maple behind you!Its beautiful.

Learning what NOT to do in the month of September is a valuable lesson for me. I get impatient to change out the raggedy looking plants.

I have never done snapdragons in the fall. I mostly stick to ornamental kale and pansies, but over the course of the last year you have gotten me into wanting to try snapdragons.

I’m pretty new to gardening, so I appreciate the info.

Thanks for keeping me on track Jim. Great information, as always!

Your checklists are awesome! Really helps me make my own punchlists for my weekend warrior projects.

I find these monthly Checklist very useful and helpful. You have a bountiful garden, looks great!

Thanks Jim 💕 and everything in the garden is still looking fantastic 🪴🌺🪴

Sept - I find that many "annuals" are on clearance, and I picked up great plants that make great houseplants because they are perennial in tropical climates, like rex begonias, surefire begonias, fuschias, fishnet stocking coleus, red hot variegated tropical hibiscus, cuphea, etc - thus I will be very ready when next summer comes along.

Love these checklists!

Love a month to assess and "don't do"! Thanks!

I get so excited to see these every month now. As a new gardener it answers probably all of my questions as I go into a new season. This summer has been brutal, and I’m ready for cooler weather. Question: You said not to plant ornamental grasses, and I was getting ready to plant a few orange wedge carex this weekend/week. Should I not plant it now and keep it in the containers until the spring? Thanks for everything you do.

Don't forget to visit your favorite local nurseries! I just found perennials 75% off at one of mine.

Japanese maple is looking great getting ready with its fall outfit on. Thanks for the video.

In zone 5a, the cooldown hasn't started here yet, but, hopefully, it's right around the corner. I've got several new shrubs and some trees to plant, and I'm so ready for fall. I hope you have a great weekend!

I need to order seeds so thanks for the reminder! I haven't been able to get out and weed much because of the heat, so it looks like my autumn will be a whole lotta damage control.

This was amazing Jim. Thank you so much for your insight. You just got a new subscriber :)

PICKLE those green tomatoes before the frost takes them. Pickled Green Tomatoes are so delicious.

Love these monthly checklists! I’d be interesting in seeing more about what I can harvest seed from, especially flowering annuals.

Me too, love your check list Jim. Thank you so much!

Awesome tip for ordering seeds now! I am.going to attempt all my annuals from seed next yr after following along all season in your channel. I feel confident I can do them now🙂 Thank you

Thank you

Another great video. I have a question though…you mentioned your tomatoes are still flowering but won’t make it to maturity. Would it be a good idea to snip off these new flowers so the plant will focus more energy on finishing the existing small tomatoes? Thanks.

Another great checklist! About pulling plants that are done for the season: how do you deal with the excessive contributions to your compost? Do you/how do you chop up big tomato plants and that huge okra? No many “browns” available for layering the massive amounts of “greens”.

I find this time is good to thin-out overgrown hardy perennials and gift them away - like hostas and phlox etc

Thank you for the checklist!

Here are some tips that really help ripen all those tomatoes before it's too late. Harvesting instructions for my personal zone 8b Aurora, Oregon but can be formulated for your zone too. Using Oct 21st as a general first frost date. The next step is to subtract 6 to 8 weeks from that date to start taking steps to speed up the ripening of your tomatoes. I started implementing this strategy on August 10th of 2020 to see if it really works. It is a game changer. Remove all tomatoes that are about half way done turning color and finish ripening them on the windowsill (about 3 to 5 days) This will help prevent cracking and also allow the plant to focus the energy on ripening the next tomato. Cut the actively growing top off your indeterminate tomato plants 6 to 8 inches above the last fruit truss. That will redirect the energy from growth to ripening the existing tomatoes. Cut all flowers off knowing those flowers will never grow to a ripe fruit. This will also alleviate useless energy loss for the plant. Remove all fruit that is too small to ripen on time. Remove leaves below the lowest fruiting truss and all yellowing or diseased leaves as well. When removing the last tomato from the branch, remove the branch as close to the main stem as possible to keep the plant from wasting energy on a fruitless branch. Stress plant by twisting the stem at root level gently until you hear a few crackles. You do not want to damage the root system just panic the plant to believe that it must ripen fruit before it dies.( I won’t be trying this one) Cut back water by 50% to panic the tomato to ripen the fruit quickly. The tomatoes will have a richer flavor because of less water as well. Spray with 600 mg uncoated aspirin per 1 gallon of water on the tomato plants. It makes them think they’re being attacked but it doesn’t hurt the plant in fact it helps the plant to strengthen up and build a stronger immune system. (I don’t bother with this step either) When the weather starts to cool down, cover the plants with fleece to keep the frost off the plants. It might extend your season by 2 weeks. Remove fruit before damage and ripen indoors (not in the frig). Some people have become so good at this method that they brag of eating ripe tomatoes at Christmas dinner. When all else fails and you don’t want to give up on the green tomatoes, look up the many recipes that use them well. Such as fried green tomatoes, green tomato salsa verde, green tomato and bell pepper relish, fermented green tomatoes and Green Tomato Cake.

Siempre rodeado de hermosas plantas. Gracias por compartir sus conocimientos😀👏🏽👍🏽

Thanks

Great info great checklist! Terrific no nonsense to the point videos👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻☺️☺️

We have had a very wet summer here in north central Alabama. We were out this morning being sure things were staked/supported for the weather expected from Ida in the next few days. I decided to groom a couple beds while it was still relatively cool. I found I have iris rotting in the ground from all the rain. I have never had this before. They are all in raised beds or on slopes and not planted too deep. I had to dig a few up and throw them in the garbage. Ugh!

You may get some rain from Ida. Since I garden in 8b, your checklist gives me planning time though I will start seeds for bluebonnets and snapdragons in September, as soon as the temperatures drop to at least the low 90s.

Amazes me every year how fast winter comes.

Hi Jim, what about overwintering Mandeville ? I’m also in zone 7b. Thanks. jd

Hey! Is that an Mbao game from Kenya on your coffee table? We lived in Kenya until just 5 years ago when we transitioned back to North Carolina. Also, what was your conclusive word about digging up dahlia tubers in zone 7b? I'd love to leave mine in the ground but this is my first year growing dahlias and I'd hate to be disappointed next year.

Great list.

Can you show how to gather some seeds please

This is great, thanks! I'm also in NC. Curious if you have chigger problems?

Hi, highly informative as always, and it's great to see your garden develop. Question: I'm in the South of England which probably equates to your Zone 8. Some of my dahlias in the ground got decimated by slugs in late Spring when they were about 40cm tall, and hardly have time to recover before they are stripped again. Now with no leaves so will they grow again next year if I leave and mulch heavily, or is there no goodness left in the tubers?

Great checklist- thanks! Question: overrun with Squash Bugs- will they overwinter in my raised bed, or can I get rid of them somehow?

Good information ,Thank You

What about pruning Black Diamond crepe myrtles? Should I wait on those til Spring?

Would you slowly lower the height of all turf types this month? Warm and Cool season grasses?

I deal with powdery mildew on a few perennials this time of year. Is it best to cut those back or wait it out on smaller plants. My coreopsis I have no problem with chopping, but my coneflower clumps are small.

So are you saying in your area you can keep your dahlia's in the ground? How about Elephant ears and banana plants

Jim..i had cala lily bulbs (or corms?) to plant this past spring but i got laid up for the whole summer with back problems so didnt get them in the ground..will they be good next spring? Ive kept them in the house in a box..

May I add something to your August Garden Checklist? “Get all your yard work done before 8:00 AM.”

Jim, how about pruning boxwood in zone 8. It is still so hot, you can't trim them when is to hot , is September to late. Our projected first frost is around November 16-30. Last time was way earlier

I have Caladiums under big Crepe Myrtles about 12 feet from the south side of house. I’m in 7b in north Alabama. Do you think they would be ok if I mulched about 5” and left them or should I dig the bulbs up?

What about perennials that are now on clearance. Can those go right into the ground or should we wait a bit in 7b?

👋😃

I've looked at your past videos, didn't find where you started Mahonia from seed, or did you ? would love to try to start from seed .

At this point, would it be worth it to try to save some of my annuals that were damaged by the most recent hurricane? It will look bare for a while but not sure if it is worth the hassle

Hey Jim, I have to move some endless summer hydrangeas this fall that are too big for the space... for sure going to do some good damage when digging out. Prune with the move (knowing I’ll lose my buds for next year and possibly push new growth late in the season) or don’t prune but have more plant than my root system will support easily???

✔️‼️✔️‼️NICE VIDEO ✔️‼️✔️‼️

I believe conventional wisdom is not to plant camellias in the fall (wait until spring). Is it related to the root rot reason you gave for grasses? Or was it the need for camellias to get established before the cold?

Great informational video on fall gardening! Thank you! Can you please answer to my question on Nellie Stevens on your channel? Thanks!

I'm in zone 6 caterpillars have eaten all the leaves off my 10 year old catalpa tree. Will this kill the tree?

My Japanese maple is losing all the leaves before turning brown and crisp :( what can I do?

I don't know if it's a medical issue that you know about but you're right eye has been twitching in videos for some time. Just checking.

Are you going to do any propagation this fall?

Where did your camellia go beside the shed

Can I use my compost thermometer for soil temperature?