Just keep telling yourself: 

This is late summer, it is not fall. 

Repeat after me:  September is late summer, late summer, late summer.  The soil is still warm, the nights are cool and the plants are programmed to put down roots.  From a horticultural perspective, this is a perfect time to plant.  It’s like a mini-spring to the plants.  Some rhodies actually re-bloom in late summer and many hedge plants put on another flush of growth.  Even the lawn starts to grow again and look green for a change.  The plants are excited about the season and you should be too.  There’s lots of great stuff to plant and lots of reasons to be optimistic.  So forget any of this fall nonsense, it’s just late summer.

Here’s my “to do” list for September. 

LAWNS:  this is the ideal month to plant a new lawn or resurrect an old one.  New lawns will perform best if they have six or more inches of good soil.  Skimp on the soil and you will be forever fighting weeds, bugs and drought stress.  Existing lawns can be dethatched right down to the ground and over-seeded and look like new in just a few short weeks.  Feed with an all natural fertilizer and some lime too.

ROSES:  If you’ve been caring for your roses properly then they should be budded and ready to burst into bloom one last time.  If not then you are probably fighting rust and mildew and black spot.  Aside from using a fungicide, I have found it is helpful to hose off roses first thing in the morning.  This removes any morning dew and dislodges diseased leaves.  Keep the ground around roses clean and free of diseased leaves. 

PERENNIALS:  After that down pour we had in late August I bet you wish you had staked your tall perennials. I wish I had.  Nurseries have lots of late blooming perennials in stock and it’s a great time to plug up a few holes in the garden.  Japanese Anemones and Toad Lilies are wonderful for the shade. Asters and upright Sedums work well in the sun.  This is the ideal time to dig and divide large clumps of perennials like day lilies and irises.  Share the extras with a neighbor.  Always add some fertilizer and compost when you are planting.  Those new little roots need the food.

BULBS:  Believe it or not, now is the perfect time to plant spring bloomers like tulips, daffodils, crocus and hyacinths.  But that’s not all!  There are many other fine specialty and minor perennial bulbs available, most of which will naturalize and never have to be dug again.  Buy them early while the selection is at its best and then don’t forget to plant them.  I hate finding bags of shriveled bulbs in my basement in April!

FRUITS AND VEGGIES:  Most of us think of September as harvest time.  But it’s also planting time for cool season crops like peas, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, carrots and garlic.  If you don’t plant a fall crop, then consider sowing a cover crop over the garden area. This will keep the winter weeds down and when tilled into the ground in the spring will enrich the soil.  Fruit trees need their limbs supported before the weight of the fruit breaks them.  Keep the ground underneath trees clean.  This will help minimize diseases come spring.

CONTAINERS:   We’ve come a long way from just thinking of annuals when designing our pots and baskets.  In addition to winter pansies, dusty miller and flowering cabbage and kale, there is a huge pallet of plant material that is appropriate for late summer planting into containers.  Herbs, grasses, evergreen perennials and small conifers are all finding their way into beautiful winter containers.  Think of using foliage and texture rather than just flowers and don’t forget to stuff a few bulbs underneath the plants while you are at it.

I think we are probably all in agreement about the challenges of this year.  The weather has been our constant nemesis throughout the spring and summer.  But being the eternal optimists that all gardeners are we just keep believing that the next day or week or month will surely be perfect and our gardens will flourish in the warmth and sunshine that nature rains down upon us.  September has got to be our month!