September Diary

Daphne

Get excited - spring has officially arrived! It’s a busy month in the garden, but one of the very best, so celebrate by getting your hands dirty. In September, the veggie patch is begging to be filled with beans, carrots, celery and cucumbers; there are gorgeous marigolds, chrysanthemums and salvias to plant; and once you're done, it's time to protect all those delicate new vegetable and flower seedlings with animal-friendly snail pellets - always applied in accordance with package directions, of course!
 
What's flowering in September?

• Trees & shrubs: Azalea, cistus, convolvulus, crab apple, daphne, diosma, escallonia, geranium, hebe, lavender, lilac, loropetalum, polygala, prunus, rhaphiolepis, rhododendron, rose, viburnum.
• Natives: Banksia, boronia, bottlebrush, grevillea, hardenbergia, kangaroo paw, waratah.
• Annuals & perennials: California poppy, campanula, cineraria, cornflower, English daisy, gerbera, lobelia, Federation daisy, penstemon, polyanthus, poppy, wallflower.
• Bulbs: Anemone, babiana, bluebell, clivia, crocus, daffodil, freesia, hyacinth, iris, ranunculus, tulip.
• Climbers: Clematis, jasmine, pandorea, wisteria.

 
What to plant in September

• Glorious flowers to plant now include ageratum, aster, chrysanthemum, cleome, cosmos, everlasting daisies, jasmine, lavender, marigold, nasturtium, penstemon, petunia, salvia, snapdragon, verbena and zinnia.
• Plant your favourite citrus, plus passionfruit, rhododendron and wisteria.
• It’s not too late to plant summer and autumn--flowering bulbs such as agapanthus, belladonna lily, canna, dahlia, daylily and hippeastrum.
• Fill your veggie patch with beans, carrots, celery, chillies, cucumber, eggplant, garlic, leek, lettuce, melon, potato, pumpkin and tomato.
• For a great harvest, companion-plant blue, purple or yellow flowers near your vegies. Bees are especially attracted to these colours and will help pollinate your veggies. You can also match beans with carrots, cucumber and lettuce; or tomatoes with aromatic basil, mint, chives and parsley to help get the best out of your crop.
• It's repotting time for any plants, indoor or outdoor, that have outgrown their current homes. Repotting into a larger sized container will help to stimulate new growth!
• Most potting mixes last one year before their nutrient stores are depleted, so it’s out with the old and in with the new. If your plants don't need repotting, at the very least you should be topping up their pots with some fresh, high-quality mix.

 
Which plants to feed in September

• As your garden is waking up from its winter dormancy (much like a 3-month nap), it'll be hungry – so fertilise everything from lawns to trees! Click here to find the best fertiliser type for your garden.
• Fertilise camellias, daphne and azaleas once they’ve finished flowering. Kahoona is a popular choice for these acid-loving blooms.
• Keep citrus well-watered and feed with a complete citrus food.
• A soluble plant food such as Thrive Flower & Fruit Soluble Fertiliser will keep spring-flowering annuals blooming longer.
• Don't forget your indoor plants - their needs change in spring, too! Start watering more frequently in September, and also fertilise fortnightly, right through to about March, with a specialist indoor plant formula.
• Top up mulch. Composted pine bark is great, as are lucerne hay, pea straw and sugar cane. Woodchip mulches are particularly good for native gardens. Mulching your garden beds has the bonus effects of both stopping weeds finding their way through, and keeping your soil cool and moist! Click here to shop our wide range of bagged mulches.

 
Which plants to prune in September

• Spotted some sad-looking leaves on your favourite indoor plant baby? Now's the time to tidy them up. Not only will your plant look much better, it'll help to encourage new growth. Double win!
• Prune hibiscus, camellia, plumbago and poinsettia.
• Native shrubs such as bottlebrush should be trimmed after flowering to encourage bushy growth. In the same vein, now's also the time to trim hedges, encouraging the kind of lush new growth that will keep nosy neighbours at bay.
• Prune flowering peach after flowering. Do not prune edible peach trees this month.
• Ornamental grasses looking a little on the sad side? Don’t be afraid to cut back to ground level. Conditions are perfect for them to reshoot and grow back better than ever.

 
Garden pests, weeds and diseases to look out for in September

• Gently wipe over the foliage of all your indoor plants to help keep them clean - and check thoroughly for pests and diseases as you go. If you find mealy bugs, wipe them off with a cloth or use a horticultural soap such as eco-insect killer Natrasoap to control them.
• Protect vegetable and flower seedlings with snail pellets, like Multiguard Slug & Snail Killer (use as per product instructions).
• Keep a close watch for aphids on new growth and spray with eco-pyrethrum PLUS when necessary, particularly roses.
• Azaleas and rhododendrons are best sprayed regularly to protect flowers from petal blight. Searles Mancozeb Plus is the product to use.
• Caterpillars are on the hunt. Keep them away with eco-caterpillar killer Dipel or Yates Success Ultra.
• Spray viburnum tinus with Yates Mavrik if two-spotted mites attack. They appear as red specks on the backs of leaves and cause silvering of foliage.
• When they come into leaf, check grapevines for vine moth caterpillars and spray with eco-caterpillar killer Dipel if affected.
• Protect citrus against louse by treating with Searles Lime Sulphur, and for leaf scale, spray with eco-oil.

 
September's general garden and lawn care tasks

• After its winter snooze, your lawn is springing to life - which means it’s hungry. Unfortunately, broadleaf weeds are also taking advantage of the perfect growth conditions. Help your lawn get off to a good start, strengthen its roots and beat weeds with a weed-and-feed combo, such as Supergrow Feed'n'Weed Hose-On, which is safe on grass but effective on all broadleaf weeds. If you'd rather a product that's solely focused on feeding, try a slow-release granular formula, such as Supergrow Buffalo Lawn Food, which will help your lawn grow extra-strong roots while providing a lush green colour. A general application of top dress can also be useful at this time.
• If your lawn is looking patchy, sow some lawn seed and fill in any dips and holes with top dress. For a quicker result, you can also use rolls of turf, cut to size in order to fill patchy areas. For more spring lawn care advice, click here.
• As the weather warms up, be kind to our pollinating friends - they do us a very important favour, after all! Provide a bird bath or shallow water dish for birds, bees and other pollinators to drink from. Be sure to pop in a few rocks or sticks to ensure that small insects have a safe escape route.
• Feed camellias with cow manure, or with azalea and camellia plant food such as Kahoona.
• Keep gardenias well-watered and fed with complete fertiliser so you get the best summer flowering results. Again, Kahoona works really well here, or try a gardenia-specific formula such as Harry's Gardenia Food.
• Prepare vegetable gardens by forking cow manure through the garden, then giving a thorough water before planting. Add blood and bone and sweeten the soil with garden lime.
• Water gardens regularly as spring-flowering plants tend to get very thirsty when in flower.

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Courtesy of Flower Power: https://www.flowerpower.com.au/