Garden -- September

September is more of the same with a few exceptions.
One is, buy your cornmeal gluten.
Put this down by the middle  of the month.
It will suppress this year's crop of weed seeds.
Be careful where you put it.
If you have clover in your lawn, don't put the cornmeal gluten there.
You want clover.
It puts nitrogen in the soil and that's good for your grass.
For other places, measure the gluten carefully.
In the DC region there are laws limiting the nitrogen homeowners put on their lawns.
Cornmeal gluten is nothing but nitrogen.
The law is aimed at preserving the crabs and oysters in the bay.

Second, Mike McGrath says it's time to plant trees.
Print out the post at this  link.
http://wtop.com/garden-plot-living/2015/08/tips-lawn-seeding-tree-planting/
Follow the instructions if you are planting your own trees.
If you hire somebody to do it, show them the print out.
Tell them if they don't follow these rules, you won't pay them until they fix things to be the way the rules say.
If  they walk, let them.
You spent too much on that tree to let people kill it by not doing what you tell them.

Third, if you are ambitious, you can have fresh vegetables until about Thanksgiving in the DC region.
This probably doesn't apply in the  Baltimore or Frederick (MD) areas.
Put down a fresh two inches of compost.
Plant dark green leafies, cabbage, beets, turnips, parsnips, and some kinds of salad greens.
It's drought time here so water deeply IN THE MORNING (the slugs are out), wait a couple of days, and water again.
You can put straw baskets over late cabbages and they might survive the winter if they're in the sun, but you'll have  to harvest early in the spring because those cabbages will flower as soon as it gets warm.
As soon as greens flower, they become inedibly bitter.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved