September in the Vegetable Garden

• Plant Garlic now to harvest next summer – buy bulbs right from the grocery store, divide them into cloves and plant 2″ deep and about 7 inches apart (intensive) with the pointy end up.
• Plant Spinach now for fall harvest – you may have to use cloches or row covers in a few weeks depending upon your zone to extend the harvest.
• This is also a good time to plant horseradish roots (straight from your grocers shelf) for harvest next fall (and ever after – it’s a persistent perennial) but consider planting in a plastic laundry basket or other large container sunk into the ground (with drain holes of course) to keep it from becoming invasive.
• Plant turnips as a winter cover crop that will also yield greens and turnip roots.
• Plant crimson clover as a green manure/cover crop to turn under or cut for compost next spring.
• Plant lettuce and other salad greens either to be covered later to extend harvest or in containers to take into a sunny window for winter greens.
• Stockpile grass clippings for making autumn compost when leaves start to fall.
• Use up any finished spring compost that you still have.
• Clean up crop residues and generally clean up the garden as summer crops finish up.
• Plan to prepare ground soon for mid winter planting (spinach in February, snow peas in March for example) while it can still be worked.
• Apply lime.
• Enjoy those last tomatoes – it’s gonna be a long time before next year’s crop.

September Lawn care

• Spread lime if needed
• Broadcast seed – early September is the best time for sowing cool season grasses like fescue or blue grass.
• Consider adding white Dutch clover (or other small clover) to your lawn seed. Clover is good for the soil – birds love it, bees love it, deer love it (which may be good or bad according to how you feel about deer) and it makes great compost – drawbacks are that it is somewhat invasive (nothing like Bermuda grass though) and your neighbors will think you’re nuts if they find out.
• Aerate if you get a chance after a soaking rain when the ground is softened.
• Fertilize very lightly if at all.