for suggested varieties and spacing.
Plan for Winter in the Herb Garden
Perennial herbs will need to store energy for next season's growth. Make your last harvest early this month, then
allow them to provide for themselves. Annual herbs will not winter over, so you might as well get what you can from them.
See Harvesting and Preserving Herbs for more specific guidelines.
Trees & Shrubs
Allow woody plants to acclimate to cooler weather.
These plants go dormant in response to specific environmental cues such as
shorter days (longer nights), cooler weather, or drought. Gardeners should avoid providing any stimulus for these plants to put on
new growth. Do not fertilize now. Reduce pruning to minor shaping. Cut back on regular irrigation. You probably should only water
trees and shrubs that have been planted within the last year and then only if we are not getting any rain.
Premature fall color or premature leaf drop
in trees is usually evidence that the tree is under some stress. The cause of the stress may be lack of water, lack of nutrients, root injury,
poor adaptation to the site, or any of a wide range of causes. Determine the cause of stress before attempting any remedial treatment.
Annual & Perennial Flowers
You can divide or tranplant most perennials about anytime if they have gotten crowded or you want to get them started in another location.
Planting container plants is even easier.
Be sure plants are well watered before planting. Water them in after planting to ensure
good root-to-soil contact. Watch as new growth begins, and water on an as-needed basis.
Many perennials will look better if "dead-headed." That's simply removing the old flower heads. In some cases, removal of old flowers
may stimulate more bloom but not always. And in some cases the seed heads are considered attractive - either to humans or to
wildlife. It's usually a judgement call (your call) as to whether to remove the seed heads or not.
If you have perennial beds that need pumping up
or a period with nothing in bloom, visit garden centers or public
gardens to see what is possible. Nearby public gardens include
JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh
North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill
The Sarah P. Duke Gardens in Durham
Annual flowers
such as pansies or violas will be showing up at garden centers. Most people will
wait till next month to pull the summer annuals and replace them. But if you have a bed that is readly to plant,
September is not too early. Just pay attention to the weather. Most of September is still summer and it can still be
hot and/or dry. Plant late in the afternoon to reduce stress. Pay attention to plant water needs long enough to
get them established.
By September many fescue lawns have barely survived or may be very weedy. It may be appropriate to evaluate certain areas to determine if a
lawn grass is the best option. Likewise consider your
fescue maintenance program to determine if lawn problems can be traced to your failures. In most of our soils
core aeration is advisable. For best results run the aerator after a good rain or irrigation. You can break up the cores by
dragging a mat or rake over them. Or you can allow them to break up naturally over the next week or two.
Overseed thin or bare areas with a blend of "turf-type" tall fescue cultivars. In most of Chatham County tall fescue will
perorm better than any of the other types. Blends that include bluegrass or ryegrass should be selected only with careful
evaluation of site conditions. Examine the seed tag carefully for weed and other crop content; these can be kept to less than
1%. Seed is usually not a good place to save money, especially if your lawn expectations are high. Apply seed at no more than
6 pounds per 1,000 square feet of lawn. Be sure that the surface of the soil remains moist. Depending on conditions, that may
require a light application of water several times a day.
If you are overseeding your lawn, you will not be able to use a pre-emergent herbicide. In this case your best defense against
weeds in the lawn is good competition in the form of a well established lawn.
For more information on fescue renovation see
Carolina Lawns on line or contact your Extension office for a hard copy.
September is also the time for the next fertilizer application for
fescue lawns. Follow your
soil analysis recommendations for
fertilizer selection.
Do not fertilize
Bermudagrass,
Centipedegrass, or
Zoysiagrass now. Allow them to slow growth prior to dormancy.
Routine Chores
Walk around the lawn and gardens at least weekly
to monitor plants for problems during the growing seasons.
Regular monitoring allows you to develop a sense of how plants look. Then if there is a problem, you’re more likely to notice it early.
Early detection allows control before damage is severe and the plant unsightly. Take your favorite beverage in one hand, pruners in
the other and unwind.
We will never eliminate weeds. We can suppress them with mulch. At a minimum try to avoid letting them drop seeds. Try to avoid
introducing new weed seeds when you bring in things like mulch, compost, and manure.
The most careful observers will start observing cool season weeds such as annual bluegrass, chickweed, and henbit. The sooner you
deal with these annual weeds, the easier it is. You can pull them by hand. Use a tool to get beneath
the roots when pulling perennial weeds. Be careful when using tools such as hoes around the roots of desirable plants.
If you use
herbicides, pay attention to details. Make sure the product includes your site/crop on the label. Mix carefully. Check the label for
any temperature/humidity guidelines to minimize injury to desirable plants. Wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE)
as directed on the label.
At a minimum you should be wearing a hat, long sleeves, long pants, and close-toed washable shoes. Depending on the product, you may also
need things like gloves or goggles especially when mixing.
Mulch can help suppress weeds as well as reducing moisture loss.
Mulch helps moderate temperature in the soil and maintains moisture. It allows the soil to cool gradually in the fall.
Water can encourage plants to put on a new flush of growth. But this is the time for them to start slowing down as a natural response to
shorter days (longer nights) and cooler temperatures. Hold off on watering until you have confirmed that the plant really needs more water.
Soil testing can be done at any time of year.
Boxes and forms are available at your
County Extension Office. Turn-around time at the Agronomic Lab may become a little longer in the fall as more samples come in.
Check their website for
Estimated Processing Time.
It's good to sample now for soil preparation you'll be doing for fall plantings.
Get samples in as soon as possible for timely reports.
For quickest action get them directly to Raleigh yourself rather than leaving them at any local collection point where they may sit for days or weeks.
You can mail them to the address on the form or deliver them to
the lab in Raleigh. From the State Fairgrounds, go north on
Blue Ridge Road. When you see the Art Museum on the right, turn left on Reedy Creek Rd. The lab is about 1/2 mile down
Reedy Creek Rd. on the right.
Things to Watch For
New fire ant queens that mated last spring may have been slowly building up enough numbers to make a mound. Small mounds may
begin to show up now. As the weather cools,
fire ants begin to forage again. Foraging activity provides us
opportunities to deal with mounds more effectively.
Fire ant baits take advantage of the ants' habits to distribute a small amount of insecticide throughout the mound. Before baiting a mound,
use the potato chip test to determine if the mound is active and ants are foraging. Drop a potato chip (the oily kind) about a foot
from the mound. Check back in about a 1/2 hour. If the ants are on the chip, you can apply a bait also about a foot from the mound.
If the ants don't feed on the chip, there's no point in using the bait product. Baits should be kept dry in an air tight container and used
under dry conditions - afternoon is better than morning. Baits work slowly so give them several weeks to allow the mound to
die out.
Fall armyworm does not survive winter here but migrates up from the Gulf areas. Adult moths lay eggs in masses of 100s. The
caterpillars emerge and feed gregariously. The damage can be sufficient to eliminate large areas or entire lawns in a few days.
An unusual number of birds in the lawn may be cause for taking a closer look. Recently planted lawns, either from seed or sod, can
be favored targets. Control is difficult and prompt action is required. Insecticides may be useful, but you should make sure
there are still caterpillars present to treat. Once they move to the pupal (resting) stage lower in the soil, there is little value in
any treatment. See
the Turf Insect Note, Fall Armyworms in Lawns
for more information.
Dieback in Rhododendron
When an entire branch or section of the plant dies, pruning is in order. When you cut out the dead stem, look at the stem
cross-section. If it's all brown or brown on one side, prune further until the stem is completely green. Then sterilize
your pruners and make one more cut. The sooner you prune it out, the less damage there will be.
If you prune the stem and find a hole tunneling down through the center, then you might suspect
Azalea Stem Borer.
If you find the hole, the insect is likely lower down and you need to cut again until you get to a solid stem.
If you get all the way to the crown of the plant, you'll have to stop. But the insect may spend the winter down there.
Watch for injury early next summer and prune promptly.
By this time of summer, many of these beneficial insects have built up notable populations.
Among their benefits are pollinating our food supply and feeding on insects (such as caterpillars and grasshoppers) that damage plants.
Disadvantages include those annoying stings. Careful observers will notice high activity and avoid those areas. Always look carefully
before sipping a sweet beverage that has been sitting exposed when
yellow jackets are about.
Many caterpillars such as
orange-striped oakworms,
azalea caterpillars, and
stinging caterpillars may become numerous
in late summer. They are the larval
stage of butterflies and moths. Many feed on plants. Plants can often tolerate it. And
that's a good thing because most of us can't spray full sized trees anyway. Newly planted trees or shrubs may need protection. In
some cases protection can be achieved by quickly pruning a stem or shaking the feeders on the ground.
may be obvious by the extensive tent-like webbing they build near the ends of stems of trees such as
persimmon,
pecan, or
sourwood.
They are usually more unattractive than damaging. Gardeners can reduce their own stress levels by inserting a long stick into the webbing
to break it apart and remove it by wrapping it up on the stick. This strategy is most effective when all the caterpillars are in the nest - on a rainy day
or at dawn or dusk. Fire is not recommended as it may damage the tree more than the insects would.
The two-spotted spider mite thrives in hot weather and affects more different host plants than
any other arthropod pest throughout the southeastern U.S. Use the white paper test to monitor for them. Hold a piece of paper (or even a white glove)
under a stem and shake the foliage vigorously. Pause and observe the debris that falls out. Ignore anything that moves quickly.
Watch for a speck smaller than a period on this page to begin moving slowly. This is likely a spider mite. If you
confirm the presence of mites, look for more information about
Two-spotted spider mites in this insect note.
Many insects will be attracted to porch lights or even lighted windows.
If any of these are particularly annoying, turning off lights may encourage them to move on. Motion sensors can be used to allow outdoor
lighting on an as-needed basis only. You may also notice
spiders find the lights attractive feeding areas. They simply build their web near the
light and wait for dinner to show up in the form of insects. Pound for pound, spiders are among the most effective insect predators
we know. There are many opportunities to introduce children to the webs of life.
The single most effective means of reducing mosquito populations is to eliminate standing water. Some commonly overlooked sources of standing water
include roof gutters; tarps on boats, lawn furniture, or firewood; children's toys; buckets (even when upside down); bird baths; and dishes under plants.
Water for pets and birds should be changed and cleaned at least weekly. In most cases, protecting yourself with
mosquito repellent products will be more practical than broadcast treatments of insecticides. But elimination of standing water is
still the best long term strategy.
usually appear in peak numbers around the first of September. About the best strategy we have to prevent their larvae from tunneling under the
bark of trees is to have an insecticide in place when the adults arrive. Applications are often made in late August and early September.
The adult is a moth that resembles a wasp in appearance. The adult
female lays eggs in the rough bark around the base of trees and seems to have some affinity for trees that have physical injury at their base.
Any member of the genus Prunus (peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, Carolina cherry-laurel, skip-laurels, Otto Luykens, and others) is
a preferred host. Larvae tunneling beneath the bark can be quite damaging. And once there, we don't have a less destructive method of
getting them out. Prevention is our best option.
This page created and maintained by
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July 13, 2009,
Most Recent Revision August 26, 2009
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