Keith Hansen

If you're like me, you're ready for a weather change! It has been a hot, mostly dry summer, hard on plants and on enthusiasm for gardening or just being outdoors. The recent rains have been most encouraging. And, September is right around the corner, bringing with it a promise of better things to come. If you have been planning a landscape or gardening project, wait a few more weeks, and the weather will be changing for the better.

In the meantime, learn about some of the Texas-tough plants that have earned the North Texas

Winner's Circle designation. A free program highlighting some of the best ornamental plants for the landscape will be presented at the First Tuesday in the Garden series next week through Sept. 2).

This noon lecture series in the IDEA Garden, located in the Tyler Rose Garden, features Master Gardeners bringing you practical gardening topics for your home gardening success. The North Texas Winner's Circle is a program developed in partnership with Texas AgriLife Research in Overton and the Dallas Arboretum, where they test hundreds of annuals and perennials and pick the best performers for our area.

Lawns. Back in the garden, folks will want to pay attention to lawn care this month. Hot, dry weather can encourage chinch bugs which can turn St. Augustine into what looks like a drought-stricken lawn. Check your sprinklers carefully to make sure they are applying all that you expect in an even, uniform pattern.

Later in September is also the time to apply lawn fertilizer to keep the grass healthy and growing up to first frost. Fall fertilized lawns are better equipped to make it through the winter and resume growth next spring than lawns that receive no fertilizer.

Fall is also an ideal time to apply lime to correct acidic soil conditions, although liming can be done at any time of the year. The chemical changes lime brings about take place over a period of several months, so, when growth resumes next spring, the pH will be more conducive for plant growth.

But please -- don't guess; have your soil tested first to find out whether your soil even needs lime, and how much to apply. I recommend you do this soon, so you will also know how much and what kind of fertilizer your lawn requires. County offices of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service can supply you the information needed to submit soil samples for testing. Or, go online at soiltesting.tamu.edu and click on "Our Submittal Forms" -- and then select the "Urban Soil Submittal Form". The basic test is $10 per sample.

Did you have a lot of weeds last spring before the grass started growing?

These would have been cool-season weeds, most of which germinated last year in the fall. A pre-emergence herbicide (weed preventer) applied this month will help reduce the recurrence of the same weeds next spring (unless they are perennials like dandelions).

However, avoid pre-emergent herbicide applications on weakened grass (from pests or drought) or in dense shade. Carefully follow label rates of application, since applying more than the label rate can damage your lawn. Also keep in mind that you cannot overseed a lawn with ryegrass or tall fescue if you use a pre-emergence herbicide that controls grassy weeds.

Tip back roses this week or next week to stimulate a new flush of growth for a final burst of fall color in October. Don't take off too much, cutting back only a quarter of the growth. Make a light application of fertilizer, and watch for black spot disease which can be a problem once frequent rains return.

Vegetables. For a fall and winter harvest of delicious vegetables, the following can be sown or transplanted: beets, broccoli (plants), Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower (plants), Swiss chard, collards, kale, garlic, lettuce, mustard, parsley, English peas, radish, spinach and turnips.

If you had a spring garden, then just add nitrogen to the garden soil before planting to provide an initial supply of nutrients. If you're making a new garden, add a complete fertilizer.

Soak seed furrows with water before sowing seed, and mulch lightly. Water the rows daily in hot weather to promote germination and growth of young seedlings. Treat cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower with Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) as needed to prevent damage from cabbage loopers.

Examine your flower, ground cover and shrub beds for seedlings of privet, sweetgum, oaks, elms, blackberry, sedges and other unwanted weeds. If they are already well established, wait for soaking rains to soften the ground when they'll be a little easier to pull. A pair of pliers may also help get woody plants out of the ground.

Greenbriar (also called Catbriar and Smilax) forms a tuber at the base of the plant, so dig this weed out rather than just pulling. It's a lot easier when they are young and small!

Pine needles will soon be abundant. Collect and use them as a long-lasting mulch around shrubs, young trees, and in vegetable gardens and other places where weed control and water conservation is needed.

If you would like to duplicate in your yard the riot of color produced by spring wildflowers, fall is the time to purchase and sow seed. Wildflowers germinate when milder, wetter weather returns. The plants grow as tight, low-growing plants until signaled by warmer weather and longer days to produce flower spikes in the spring.

For more reliable, uniform seed germination of our State flower, purchase acid-treated bluebonnet seed. This treatment softens the seedcoat, allowing nearly 100 percent germination in one to two weeks.

Perennials. September and October is an ideal time to dig and divide crowded perennials like iris, daylilies, shasta daisies, liriope, perennial phlox, bulbs and other spring-blooming perennials and groundcover plants. Transplanting at this time will give them plenty of time to become well established prior to winter's cold and then bloom next spring and summer. Water frequently after transplanting to prevent drying.

One of the best times to garden is in the fall. You would think this is one of the best kept secrets in the world of horticulture because it seems that most folks only think of planting in the spring time. Actually, horticulturists and avid gardeners know that fall offers a great planting opportunity.

Trees and shrubs planted in the fall have several months to establish themselves in your garden before the searing onslaught of summer heat and drought returns.

The roots of most trees and shrubs continue to grow fall through spring, even though their tops lie dormant. When spring arrives, they'll be better able to support the new flush of leaves that demand support from roots down below.

So, now is a good time to carefully consider an addition or renovation to your landscape and visit your local nursery.