 Happy Autumn! September 22 marks the first day of fall this year. Leaves turn their bright autumn colors, and chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, mice, prairie dogs and pocket gophers race around madly storing up food for the winter. September is a great month to plant bulbs (check out a complete list of Payne's bulbs by clicking here), trees, hardy chrysanthemums, and shrubs. And keep filling those hummingbird feeders (see "September Wildlife" below for more information).
Throughout September and October, both Payne's locations will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and closed on Sunday. Payne's Organic Soil Yard continues open (under the guidance of the fabulous compost king, Sam McCarthy) Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. In November, we'll go back to regular hours in time for the holidays, then we revert to restricted hours until our grand spring reopening at the end of March. Don't worry about remembering all this; we'll give you plenty of notice.
"September" means the seventh month of the year in Latin, which makes sense if you count the year as beginning in March with the spring solstice, as much of the world did until relatively modern times. It is the month in which we make our boo-hoo farewells to the glories of summer.
But wait! Don't put away that trowel and those clippers! Fall is a very busy time both above and below ground. Perennials, shrubs, vines, and trees can still be planted this month. Beneficial microbe levels in your garden are higher now than they've been all year. Roots are growing like crazy everywhere (fall's their busiest time). Weed competition is light, since you've been so good about keeping on top of it (ahem). Wind-stress is less in the fall than in other seasons. Evil insect populations dwindle markedly this month.
There's harvesting to be done of late flowers like dahlias and late-ripening vegetables. There's lots of fall cleanup to be done. There are notes to take on what did well for us and what did poorly. Time to clean all those bird feeders and get them ready for the cold weather. And fall - not spring - just happens to be the perfect time to create new planting beds for next year.
Many thanks to various County Agricultural Extension Services, to Charlie Nardozzi, Horticulturist, of the National Gardening Association, and to Dr. Leonard Perry of the University of Vermont Extension Department of Plant and Soil Science, for some of the material in the sections that follow.
September Annuals & Biennials
Annuals and second-year biennials are extremely interested in setting and ripening their seeds this month, so they can pass on their genes to the next generation. Cosmos, four o'clocks, foxgloves, hollyhocks, Johnny-jump-ups, annual larkspur, love-in-a-mist, morning glories, petunias, snapdragons, annual toadflax, and wallflowers are just a few of the annuals and biennials that will reseed in your garden all by themselves if you let them be until the first frost blackens them. And none of them are such a pest that you can't yank 'em out next spring if they stray where you don't want them.
September Bulbs, Corms, & Tubers
Plant the bulbs of hardy lilies until mid-September, after which you may start planting other hardy bulbs. I know it seems a little early, but the more time you give bulbs to establish root systems before the first frosts, the healthier will be the plants that grow from them come spring. And don't worry: bulbs you plant now (such as grape hyacinths and crocuses) that put up leaves before the frosts will get through the winter just fine. Some tips on bulb selecting and planting:
(1) Buy the largest, firmest bulbs you can. Cheap bulbs usually produce weak plants with few or no flowers. Avoid bulbs that are mildewed, fungusy, blackened, or squishy. (Payne's takes great pride in offering only the highest quality bulbs, so you don't have to worry about these issues as long as you buy your bulbs from us!)
(2) For a succession of bloom from late winter to early summer, plant (in this order): crocuses and snowdrops; daffodils; oriental hyacinths, tulips (early, midseason, and late), squills, and grape hyacinths (Muscari); fritillaries, camassias, summer snowflakes (Leucojum), ornamental alliums, particularly the azure-blue Allium caeruleum or blue onion (a beautiful 1-2' June bloomer ideal for cutting), and Santa Fe-hardy Crocosmia 'Lucifer'. You may plant bulbs among existing shrubs and perennials, but if you reserve a separate bed for your bulbs, leave space between bulb-groups for plugging in annuals, which will grow up and help mask the aging bulb-foliage as summer progresses.
(3) Bulbs need well-drained soil and at least 6 hours of direct sun a day. (One of the best bulbs for clay is the checkered lily, Fritillaria meleagris.) For new beds, remove the top six to eight inches of soil. If burrowing rodents are a big problem in your area, line the floor and walls of your bulb bed with fine-gauge wire mesh, available at most big box stores. Then mix the soil you took out with equal amounts Payne's Soil Conditioner™, backfill the bed with this mixture, and finally dig in rock phosphate, which will provide the bulbs with the phosphorus they need for good flower formation in years to come. Don't use bone meal — it attracts rodents like pocket gophers. Water the bed and wait a day before planting.
(4) Bulbs look much better planted in clumps rather than rows. For a naturalized look, toss them into the bed at random and plant them where they fall. (When I try this, I always cheat and end up surreptitiously pushing the bulbs around till I like the way they're grouped.) Large bulbs, such as tulips and hyacinths, should be placed 4-6" apart; smaller bulbs, such as grape hyacinths and crocuses, should be planted 1-2" apart. (I'm afraid I tend to cram.) Plant bulbs butt down and tip upward. 3 times as deep as their greatest dimension: in other words, if your daffodil bulb is 3" tall by 2" wide, plant it so its butt is at the bottom of a 9" deep (3" x 3) hole. Iris rhizomes — which are not, technically, true bulbs, but stems adapted to water storage — should be planted half-buried in the soil or just below the soil line (they like to bake in the summer).
(5) Firm the soil over the bulbs you've just planted and water them in thoroughly once. Then leave them alone till spring.
(6) When your bulbs emerge in spring, sprinkle some Yum-Yum™ Mix or other organic, slow-release fertilizer over the bed. Once their petals start to fade, remove the flower parts with a sharp scissors so the bulbs don't set seed; if you let them go to seed, they'll tend to put all their strength into forming pods instead of underground offsets, and the mama plant will likely croak. Do not remove the flower stem or any aboveground parts of the plant as long as they are still green (green means the plant is still storing sunshine for next year). Once most of the top growth has died, you can cut if away and compost the refuse.
 NOTE: If you've planted tulips and hyacinths and been disappointed by the results, don't blame yourself. The best tulips for naturalizing (coming back year after year) are the species tulips and their hybrids (such as the Kaufmannias or waterlily tulips), the single early tulips (many of which possess a lovely scented-candle fragrance), and the double earlies, also known as peony-flowered tulips, such as the fragrant double pink 'Angelique'. The tall, showy Darwins and other later blooming tulips are glorious, but tend to die out after a few years. The big, fat oriental hyacinths naturalize well, but every year their bloom gets sparser and sparser — which is to say, more like their wild ancestors'. That's why many gardeners recommend planting hyacinths and the taller, later tulips fresh every year. On the other hand, crocuses, daffodils, narcissi, flowering alliums, and scillas naturalize very well and should be left undisturbed year after year unless (and this goes for all bulbs) you find their bloom getting sparser. That usually means the bulb colony has exhausted the food in the soil at that spot and the bulbs need to be divided, the soil re-amended, and the colony replanted.
(7) The best time to divide and replant spring- and early summer-blooming bulbs and tubers is immediately after they have completed flowering. Treat them like any perennials: prepare the bed where they're to go before you dig them; when you dig, dig down deep enough that you don't damage their root systems; transfer the dug plants to their new location immediately (don't trim back any of their aboveground parts except the spent flower-heads); and water in thoroughly. But if you forgot to do this in the spring, do it now. Choose only the healthiest roots. Trim any leaves to 6" long before you replant only as deep in the ground as they grew before. (Plant iris tubers no more than an inch or two below the soil surface.) Then water them in.
SUMMER BULB CARE: Late this month, dig up for winter storage the bulbs, corms, or tubers of your caladiums, cannas, dahlias, four o'clocks, gladioli, montbretias, ornamental sweet potatoes (the tubers of which are completely edible, by the way), and those intoxicatingly fragrant tuberoses (Polianthes tuberosa), which are native to México (the single-flowered form is more fragrant than the double). Gladiolus corms can take frost without damage, so dig them last; the longer you let the plants grow after they've flowered, the bigger the corms (and next year's flower harvest) will be.
Dig gently — if you cut into a root or bulb with your spade, you'll expose the root to disease invasion, which could spread to the other bulbs in storage. (Leave 6" of stem on your dahlias.) Shake off any adhering soil, let the tubers dry for a few hours to a few days in the shade, then store for the winter in vermiculite-, sawdust-, peat moss-, or sand-filled paper bags in a cool, dry, dark place (35oF-50oF). Keep the bulbs or tubers of different varieties separate. Vermiculite-, sawdust-, peat moss-, and sand-filled cardboard boxes work, too, as long as the corms, bulbs, or tubers don't touch one another in the boxes. Check the stored bulbs once a month for rodent damage. If you find your dahlia tubers are starting to wrinkle in storage, moisten the vermiculite before you replace them in their bag or box.
For a complete list of the bulbs Payne's has available right now, click here.
 September Composting
The compost you began in the spring should have matured by now. If it hasn't, you probably weren't aerating or moistening your heap regularly, or you did not use the proper layering of dry and green materials, or you didn't shred your compost materials small enough. Turn, turn, turn. And remember that garden refuse will compost much more quickly if it is cut into small pieces. (See "What To Do In May" elsewhere on this website for more composting tips.) When composting yard waste, do not compost any plants that are mildewed (look for the powdery frosting on leaves and stems). Wastebag 'em instead. Why? Because powdery mildew spores over winter in compost heaps and so continue to infect gardens for years to come.
Have you considered vermicomposting (that's composting with the help of worms)? You can buy a redworms and a worm bin through catalogues (check out the Farmer's Market, too) or you can make your own bin; all you need is a covered receptacle that you can drill air-holes into the sides of. Fill it halfway with moist (not soggy) shredded black-and-white print newspaper or leaves, add worms, and every day bury some vegetable scraps (no more than 1/2 lb a day) in the bin to feed the critters. You'll be amazed at how fast your little buddies can turn kitchen waste into gold. The best commercial worm bins come with little spigots at the bottom for decanting nutritious liquid wormpoop — otherwise known as "toad champagne" — from the bin. It makes great liquid fertilizer for houseplants.
September Containers
September's a great time to rip out those old container annuals and vegetables and replant with cool-tolerant plants, such as pansies, chrysanthemums, and ornamental cabbage and kale. Before you replant, however, you'll need to refresh the potting soil in your containers. Tip out the soil onto a tarp or newspaper, and break up any root-clumps from the plants you've removed. (Really big, cohesive rootballs should be removed and composted, any soil adhering to them shaken off first.) Then refill the containers with the old potting soil, adding fresh as needed to top up the containers. Finally, mix in a fresh sprinkle of a good time-release bloom fertilizer, such as Osmocote™ 14-14-14 (in the green Osmocote™ bottle or bag). Now you're ready to replant.
September Fertilizing & Mulching
Now's a great time to get your soil tested for acidity/alkalinity (pH) and nutrient levels, particularly if you haven't had it done for a while. You can purchase one of those home soil test kits, which are often inaccurate, or you can contact your local County Extension Service: in Los Alamos County, 505-662-2656; in Rio Arriba County, ABQ 505-685-4523; in Santa Fe County, Santa Fe 505-471-4711; in San Miguel County, Las Vegas 505-454-1497. Inquire the current costs of a professional soil test (it's usually not expensive and it's well worth it). Then, armed with the information yielded by the test, you can plan your soil emendation program cost-effectively, rather than just dump a bunch of amendments into the ground and hope for the best, which is what I always used to do).
And consider cover cropping! Cover crops are crops grown on otherwise empty beds or patches of yard in the fall, for the express purpose of (1) keeping the bare soil in your bed from eroding during the winter; and (2) turning the cover crop under by hand or by rototiller come spring. One of the best cover crops, particularly for vegetable gardens, is oats (Avena sativa). Apply seed at the rate of 1 lb of seed per 300 square feet of area (that's an area 10' x 30', 15' x 20', or 5' x 60'). Rake in lightly, water evenly, and keep moist. Keep the ryegrass watered until hard frost, which will kill it; then, next spring, till it under. It will add organic matter and nutrients to your bed.
September Grasses & Lawns
Many ornamental grasses put on their best show this month. Don't whack them back till spring; their seedheads look pretty — and feed many bird species — in the winter.) The passing of hot days will cause your lawn grass to grow more vigorously. Give it its last shot of fertilizer this month, being sure to water in well. This is also a good time to de-thatch your lawn if you've got more than half an inch of mat.
 September Herbs
Feverfew and chamomiles should still be in bloom this month, and so may some reblooming lavenders. Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) may be sown now for indoor growing; it and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) do very well in a sunny fall and winter window. Hardy herbs, such as garden sage (Salvia officinalis), English thyme (Thymus vulgaris), oregano (Origanum vulgare), French tarragon (Artemisia dranunculus 'Sativus'), and 'Arp' rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis 'Arp') may still be planted outdoors in the first half of this month. Just be sure the site you choose is well-drained (avoid dripline from eaves and gutters) and mulch the plantings with stones or gravel, not organics. You may also plant seeds of curled or flatleaf Italian parsley this month (the seeds are hardy and will over winter). Parsley makes a lovely groundcover under trees and, though biennial, if left to flower, set seed, and self-sow at the end of the second year will maintain itself for years to come.
Cuttings may still be taken of tender sages, such as 'Santa Barbara' sage (Salvia leucantha 'Santa Barbara') and pineapple sage (Salvia splendens), and rooted indoors for winter growing. Scented geraniums should be harvested now for drying and using in holiday potpourris and sweet bags. Fresh leaves of lemon-scented geraniums, rose geraniums, and mint-scented geraniums lend a lovely fragrance and scent to fall batches of apple jelly (just put a couple of fresh leaves at the bottom of each canning jar just before you pour in the liquid jelly). Now's also the time to harvest herb seeds used in holiday cooking and baking, such as coriander seed (Coriandrum sativum), aniseed (Pimpinella anisum), dill seed (Anethum graveolens), caraway seed (Carum carvi), and the seed from second-year parsley plants (Petroselinum crispum).
Harvest the last of your sweet basil and your sweet or knotted marjoram (Origanum majorana). Sweet marjoram (not oregano, its ranker cousin) not only makes a delicious tea when steeped fresh and sweetened with honey, but dried is useful for poultry dishes, fish, and sleep pillows. Make your final mint (Mentha sp.), French tarragon (Artemisia dranunculus 'Sativus'), and stevia leaf (Stevia rebaudiana) harvests, now, too.
Harvest all herbs and herb seeds on a dry day, after any moisture has evaporated from the plants' surfaces. You may freeze herb leaves and flowers fresh in freezer bags, cutting them into the sizes best suited for your uses; this the best way to store chives (Allium schoenoprasum) or garlic chives (Allium tuberosum), snipped small; cilantro (Coriandrum sativum), chopped; lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus), chopped coarsely; parsley leaf (chopped), which lose most of their fragrance and flavor when dried.
One great way to dry herbs is to bind them together in small bunches, tie a paper bag around them, and hang the bagged bunches from the rod in one of your closets, away from the light and damp. Check them every week or so until they have dried thoroughly (the paper bag will protect the herbs from dust, and catch any leaves that drop off the stems during the drying process). When the stems have thoroughly dried, strip their leaves and flowers into cardboard boxes, paper bags, or plastic bags for winter use (be sure you close the bags tightly and mark them with the name of the herbs they contain; it's appalling how very much alike different dried herbs can look). You can also dry herbs by spreading them out on a table in a dark room between layers of muslin, cheesecloth, or black-and-white newspapers.
September Houseplants & Tropicals
Around the middle of the month, when night temperature is dipping to 50F or lower, it'll be time to move indoors for the winter any houseplants or tropicals you put outdoors for the summer. Do it before temps hit 45ºF (take into account wind chill!) or most of your tropicals will start showing signs of damage.
Some sources recommend moving the plants in gradually, to get them used gradually to indoor conditions so they don't suffer shock. Make sure all the windows and shelves of your sunroom or plant display areas are clean.
Check the water-catching trays under your pots to make sure they haven't developed any leaks outdoors — a frequent problem with the cheap, easily torn, transparent plastic ones. If they have, replace them (Payne's has a good selection). Groom plants before you bring them in, removing withered foliage and flower spikes. Earwigs and centipedes are almost certainly hiding in the pots, so unless you want the critters crawling up your sunroom walls and scaring the bejeebers out of Aunt Serena this Thanksgiving, sink each pot into a larger container of lukewarm water to flush its population of critters out.
Repot anybody that's rootbound, and refertilize. If you plan to use organic fertilizers indoors during the winter, bear in mind that organics attract fungus gnats indoors. Yellow sticky-traps or Safer's™ Insecticidal Soap, which Payne's sells, can keep the gnats under control; I sidestep the issue and use artificial fertilizer instead. I like Osomocote™ time-release because one application lasts 3 months. Ignore the label illustrations: use the green jar for flowering plants, the pink jar for foliage plants.
Lots of tropicals like high humidity. Since our area is naturally low in humidity, and American houses even back East have been found to be (I am not exaggerating) literally drier than the Gobi Desert, I'd group my tropicals in one area and buy a little humidifier for them. Alternatively, you can arrange the pots on trays of gravel and pour water into the gravel. As the water evaporates, it will moisturize the plants. Humidity also discourages spider mites, those web-weaving, leaf-stippling, plant-sap-sucking little monsters that are the bane of dry homes everywhere.
Check your houseplants for pests before you bring them indoors. Be especially on the lookout for scale insects and mealybugs, both pests that are nearly ineradicable once established. Where do these pests come from? Frankly, they are often hiding as immature larvae or as eggs in plants that retail nurseries bring in from wholesalers. They were epidemic in Florida, where I used to live, and Florida happens to be a major source of lots of the tropicals and houseplants sold in this country. In Zone 11 Key West, where I used to live, we'd deal with scale and mealies by painstakingly slathering each insect with eyedroppers of mineral oil or rubbing alcohol, taking care to look on the undersides of leaves or in the hidey-spaces where the leaves sprout from the stems. Or we'd apply systemic pesticides to the plants, which are taken up by the plant's roots, rendering every part of the plant toxic to insects (and pets, and kids, and you). Nurseryperson's secret confession: nowadays I just throw out scale- and mealy-infested plants. They're just not worth the bother.
Now's a great time to take final cuttings from your favorite coleuses or tender geraniums for rooting over the winter. To do this:
- Dip a sharp knife in rubbing alcohol;
- Cut a three-inch length of stem from a non-flowering shoot or branch;
- Strip off half the leaves from the bottom end of the stem;
- Plant it in a pot filled with just-moistened vermiculite (keep the cuttings an inch apart in the pots and don't let them touch).
You can also dip the stems in powdered rooting hormone before you plant them in the vermiculite (make your holes with a pencil and be careful not to rub the hormone off as you insert the cutting). Bag the pots in loosely-tied plastic and place them in a bright windowsill (don't let 'em fry). Keep them just moist; never let them dry out completely, but never let them get soggy, or the cuttings will dry out or rot.
Another technique is to use translucent rooting gel packs, which are supposed to be easier to use than falling off a log backwards: you just take the cutting, shove it in the gel, set the unit in a partially sunny spot — don't let the unit bake! — and stand back. The translucent packs let you watch the progress of your cuttings. Be patient; some cuttings root within a couple of weeks, others can take several months. If any flowers form at the top of the cuttings, pinch them out, or the strength of the cutting will go into forming seeds rather than roots.
If you have any favorite garden geraniums that you'd like to over winter, but don't care to take cuttings from or don't have shelf-space in your sunroom for, just pot them up (if they're not potted already), and bring the pots into a cool dark place for the winter. Or try this old Victorian trick: later this month, before the first frost, dig up the plants, being careful not to damage the roots; shake excess soil gently from the roots; and hang the entire plant upside-down in a cool, dark, dry place (a cellar is ideal). Whichever method you try, don't cut back your plants or water them until spring. Believe it or not, geraniums stored this way resprout when they're replanted in fresh soil come spring. Try it!
September Perennials
Perennial roots will keep growing until the soil temperature falls to around 40ºF. So any hardy perennial may be planted this month — but September and October are traditionally Mum Months in the nursery trade, and Payne's has a fabulous selection this year. Mums are unusual in that they can be successfully transplanted when they're in full bloom. Lighter colors, such as white and yellow, tend to come into bloom earlier than reds and purples. Plant in a sunny, well-drained soil, fertilize lightly, and keep just moist (don't overwater!) until established.
Now's also a great time to plant spring-blooming perennials such as columbines and penstemons, and it's not too late to divide spring and early summer bloomers if you didn't do it last month (irises, daylilies, peonies, and Oriental poppies come to mind). Just be sure to cut out and discard any portions of your iris rhizomes that are diseased or insect-holed. Keep deadheading — many late-blooming perennials will flower till frost if spent stems are pinched back.
You may also collect seed from your perennials. Gather the seeds, in or out of their husks, on a dry day; remove them from their husks (do this over a tray that will catch fugitives when they slip between your fingers); place the seed in paper envelopes marked with the name of the parent; and store the envelopes either in the fridge or another cool, dark place.
Don't do what I do, which is to neglect marking the envelopes because obviously I could never forget what these seeds are. Why? Because four months from now you'll find yourself peering into an envelope filled with alien objects that seem to bear no resemblance to any seed you have ever seen, collected, or heard of.
Malvas, perennials in the hollyhock family, are particularly prone to setting lots of seed; the zebra mallow (Malva sylvestris 'Zebrina'), which has lovely purple-striped, lilac flowers, would reseed itself all over Payne's North if we let it (and the plants themselves are perfectly hardy as well). Perennial flowering peas are prone to reseeding, too (Lathyrus latifolius, often misnamed "perennial sweet peas", although the flowers are absolutely without fragrance). Remember that seed saved from hybrid plants - plants created through the crossing of two dissimilar parents - will not produce plants identical with their parents, any more than your kids (which are hybrids of you and your spouse) will produce grandchildren that are twins to you. This doesn't mean it's pointless to save (and grow out) seed from hybrids; just be prepared for surprises.
September Pests & Diseases
Watch for powdery mildew. It overwinters in compost heaps, so pull up or cut back and trashbag any mildewed plants. Rake up and trashbag leaves that have fallen from fruit trees; they can over-winter disease spores.
September Planting & Transplanting
Continue to plant container-grown trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, and biennials this month. The seeds of perennials, biennials, and cool season annuals may be sown outdoors now (see "What To Do In August" by clicking here). Transplant your spring-blooming perennials if you haven't already.
September Roses
Don't cut any more flowers from your rose bushes. Instead, let rose hips form, because that will let your plants know it's time to harden off for winter. (Rose hips also provide lots of nutrition for wildlife — and for you; just don't use the hips from any bushes to which you have applied pesticides or fed with systemic insecticides.) If your mulch has melted down around your roses, don't renew it until the first hard frost or the mulch's insulating properties will encourage your plants to keep growing when they should be sleeping.
September Shrubs & Trees
Continue to plant shrubs and trees this month, since their roots are in active growth into November. September's cool weather keeps moisture in the soil lots longer than in summertime, and nursery stock planted now is lots less prone to transplant shock. Remember to do it in the cool of the day if at all possible, and to water them in thoroughly (see directions for planting shrubs and trees in "What To Do For May" by clicking here). Consider also wrapping the lower trunks of young transplants in protective hardware cloth. Otherwise rodents could nibble their bark in the winter, girdling the trunks and killing the trees. For this reason it's also a good idea to cut back any plants growing up close to your tree-trunks; grasses in particular give rodents winter nesting protection and can encourage their depredations.
Some sources also recommend root-pruning young shrubs and trees if you are planning to relocate them next spring. Slice around the rootball with a sharp spade (you did remember to have your tools sharpened this spring, didn't you?), cutting through the roots so new roots are encouraged to form. Those who recommend this technique says shrubs and trees treated in this way will suffer far less transplant shock next spring.
 September Vegetables & Fruits
There's still time early this month to sow fall crops of lettuce, spinach, mustard greens, and other leafy salad and stir-fry guys. Cloches, cold frames, and breathable woven plastic blankets can extend the harvest several weeks. You may harvest your onions once their tops have fallen over. Put off harvesting your root crops until the first frost; they'll taste way sweeter then. Plant your garlic sets from the middle to the end of this month.
Pull up your harvested-out vegetable plants, such as snap peas, pole beans, tomato plants, peppers, and cole crops. Except for tomatoes — which many oldtimers swear like to be planted in the same spot year after year (usually the full sun, rich soil part of the yard your Significant Other wants to reserve for roses) — plan on rotating your vegetables to new spots of your property next season. Also, rake up any leaves that have fallen from your fruit trees and throw the leaves in the trash — don't compost them). Why? Because fruit tree diseases often overwinter on fallen fruit tree leaves.
Speaking of tomatoes, if frost threatens and you still have green fruits on the vines, don't rant and despair the way I do. Instead, pick them (greens with a hint of red are best), wrap each in a newspaper, and store in a cool, frost-free place in shallow boxes, one or two layers deep. As you need them, bring fruits into the warmth. A mature green tomato will ripen in 2-3 weeks at 65-70ºF.
If you have a sunroom with room to hang baskets, plant a hanging basket with dwarf sugar snap peas. They'll grow and fruit well into winter, and what a welcome snack come January! And now's a great time to let us at Payne's know which varieties of Payne's vegetables did best for you this year. Customer feedback helps us select varieties for the coming growing season. Just email Rand by clicking here.
 September Watering
Keep it up. The monsoon patterns were weird this year, and your lawn, trees, shrubs, and perennials will need regular moisture until the first hard freeze.
September Weeding
Keep pulling weeds before they go to seed. If you let your weeds go to seed, cut off and trashbag the seedheads before you cut up and compost the remainder. Otherwise, the weed seeds will get into your compost and — since weed seeds are notoriously thick-skinned — will probably survive the winter to end up being spread around your garden when you spread your compost next spring.
September Wildlife
Keep those hummingbird feeders filled for the next seven to eight weeks! Even though it may look as though most of your hummers have fled south already, the male black-chinned hummingbird and broad-tailed hummingbird — both of which nest in Northern New Mexico — will still need it. And so will two hummer species that pass through Northern New Mexico on their migratory route south: the teeny-tiny calliope hummingbird and the rufous hummingbird. For this info, thanks to Anne Schmauss, co-owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Santa Fe and co-author of For the Birds: A Month-By-Month Guide to Attracting Birds to Your Backyard, which may just be the most user friendly bird book ever. Check out Anne's bird care website by clicking here. •
— Compiled and written by Rand Lee; edited by Ruth Johnson
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What To Do Now 
