What should you do to keep your garden looking beautiful in the months of August and September? Remember that better maintained and better landscaped homes sell better!
August
- Apply a pre-emergent herbicide to ward off bluegrass, chickweed, henbit and other winter weeds in the lawn.
- Check for aphids, flea beetles, spider mites, thrips and white flies.
- Keep strawberry plants mulched and add a light side-dressing of fertilizer.
- Plant colchicum, fall-flowering crocus, sternbergias and other autumn bulbs. Also add helianthus, helenium, heliopsis and rudbeckia to the flower border.
- Mulch and water holly, pyracantha, nandina and other fall-fruiting ornamentals.
September
- Plant fescue and Kentucky bluegrass. Diversify your selection with a mix of Kentucky 31, red fescue or one of the new turf-type fescues. Spread a light covering of straw over the newly seeded area and water thoroughly at least once a week.
- Fertilize established cool-season lawns of bluegrass and fescue with one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet. Fertilize Bermuda, St. Augustine and zoysia lawns with 1/2 pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet.
- Plant perennials. The winter will allow the plants to develop strong root systems.
- Divide perennial herbs such as mint, parsley, chives and lemon balm.
- Buy spring-flowering bulbs and store them in the refrigerator.
- Start a backyard strawberry patch for a spring crop. Plant blueberries.
- Add color to the fall flower garden with calendula, dusty miller, ornamental kale, flowering cabbage, pansy and stock.
- Bring in houseplants before night temperatures dip into the 40s. Repot if necessary. Prune and check for insects.
- If needed, apply Thiodan or Tanglefoot to the trunk and lower limbs to attack peach tree borers.
Source: Triangle.com Gardening in the Triangle
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