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Somewhere in the shed sits a bag of gravel waiting for the next repotting job. You might possibly also have a few old broken pots in the shed looking for a new life, and perhaps you know someone who has recycled them in the bottom of a pot while muttering something about drainage? The question of whether a layer of stone or terracotta shards belongs in the base of a container is a thorny one – in fact, it has been argued about for over a century and often gets slammed as a gardening myth.

This sounds like a perfect topic for Garden Mythbusters! So welcome back to our series aimed at probing some of the garden advice that often gets handed down long past the point where the logic seems to hold up. The practice of adding drainage rocks goes back a long way, with pebbles, pea gravel, or broken crocks laid in the base of containers before potting mix goes in. This topic is very controversial in container gardening circles. And the thing is, this particular “myth” comes with a fascinating twist. Most busted myths tend to stay busted – but this one got busted, and then the "busting" itself got re-examined and busted by soil scientists!

Gardening books were recommending it for generations before anyone thought to test the underlying science. Then, in the mid-2000s, extension services flipped hard, with warnings that gravel can actually obstruct drainage. If that wasn’t confusing enough, fresh research carried out in 2025 then turned the debate on its head once again. Which leaves the poor gardener now clutching that bag of gravel in confusion, torn between two camps that are each sure of themselves. So, should you put gravel in the bottom of plant pots or not? In our quest to separate myth from reality, it seems the real story is far more nuanced than a simple yes or no…

How this Gravel Myth Began

Old gardening manuals detail adding drainage layers with remarkable precision: laying a terracotta crock concave-side down over the drainage hole, topped with exactly half an inch of crushed pot shards or gravel chips, followed by coarse organic leaf mold. Half an inch, mind, not a whole one! This level of specific detail reads as authority. Nobody specifies an instruction like laying half an inch of pot chips unless somebody, somewhere, had worked out why… right?

(Image credit: ImageBROKER Anastasiia Yanishevska / Getty Images)

It’s amazing how the certainty behind the advice has helped it survive for generations without being checked. This advice has been passed from Victorian books to nursery staff and garden clubs with confidence intact, even if the reasoning about why it helped with good drainage failed to follow. Underneath it sits a physical fact that has nothing to do with gravel. Water a pot, let it drain, and a band of saturated potting soil mix stays put above the drainage hole. That's the perched water table, and it's real.

When you water a container and let it drain freely, gravity pulls moisture downward, until you get a band of saturated mix at the bottom. This saturated layer stays put, regardless of whether the pot sits on bare ground or a patio deck. Its depth is set by the quality and texture of the mix rather than the height of the pot. So a squat 6-inch (15cm) saucer style pot can end up holding proportionally more water than a tall 18-inch (45cm) urn containing the same mix. Shrinking that saturated layer was the original purpose of the layer of gravel and crocks. But as you may already be suspecting, there is a bit of a gap between the logic and the, ahem, crock.

Why this Myth Sticks

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On the surface, it seems to make a certain visual sense. Those gaps between the stones and gravel chips look like an easy exit for excess water to escape out of the pot’s drainage hole. After all, gravel drains in seconds on a driveway or garden path. So of course one might think that a dedicated layer of such chunky pieces would naturally speed up drainage inside a confined plastic or terracotta planter.

There's the reassurance of doing something extra, too. In a hobby full of things that go wrong quietly, an added step feels like insurance. One of the most common causes of pot plant death is root rot, which is linked to waterlogging in the soil. Because of that, adding a dedicated “drain-away” like this feels like a positive, proactive measure. Yes, you can check soil moisture inside your containers with a good probe, like the Xlux Moisture Meter from Amazon, but any extra level of active drainage feels like a good deed (and a fairly cheap one).

But in the early 2000s, a persuasive counter-argument started to emerge. University extension horticulturists demonstrated that water moving down through fine-textured material stalls when it hits a coarse one (like pea gravel, crocks or rocks). Water refuses to cross until the fine soil layer above is totally saturated. When applied to a flowerpot, the implication is alarming: gravel doesn't drain a pot but acts as a dam.

(Image credit: Kinga Krzeminska / Getty Images)

Let’s think again about that perched water table, the soggy layer of waterlogged soil sitting at the bottom of a pot after free drainage stops. Following the logic put forward in the early 2000s, when a gravel layer is added, it doesn't eliminate this soggy band: it just elevates it. For shallow-rooted or moisture-sensitive plants like lavender, succulents, Japanese maples, or potted citrus, lifting that soggy band into their root space starves roots of oxygen – risking the root rot it is trying to prevent.

It feels like quite a startling myth to bust. For well-intentioned gardeners who had added a bottom layer of gravel method to solve the threat of waterlogging, it was very frustrating – to think this gravel might be causing the very rot it was supposed to prevent. No wonder it spread through extension bulletins and gardening columns as fast as it did. Sadly, in attempting to bust the tradition of using pot shards, experts created fresh panic, telling growers that a layer of stone would ruin their plants.

Problems with the “Gravel Myth”

(Image credit: Дина Орлова / Getty Images)

Here's where it gets awkward. That reversal was reasoning rather than measurement, extrapolated from experiments run on field soils instead of pots. For two decades, gardeners were told that adding gravel would lead to root rot. But in 2025, a landmark study by researcher Avery Rowe in PLoS ONE finally put the theory to a rigorous test, using 10 replicates across multiple potting media, coarse materials, and layer depths. The findings surprised both camps: the coarse drainage layers mostly reduced or had zero negative effect on total water retention. They almost never increased the water held in the container.

It was found that thicker aggregate layers drained better than thin ones. Coarse sand layers performed exceptionally well. A 2.5-inch (6cm) layer of coarse sand came out ahead across every mix tested. Rowe's own conclusion was that the raised-water-table warning should be treated as inaccurate. One study isn't the last word, of course, and this one measured water, not plants. Rowe says as much and calls for growing trials. But what it does undercut is the root rot story.

(Image credit: StephanieFrey / Getty Images)

While this new testing refutes claims of gravel layers acting as dams, there is another issue with having a layer of crock, gravel, pebble or stone in the bottom of a pot. And this one is a bit harder to argue with. Put simply, a gravel layer takes up room that roots could have used. Two inches (5cm) of stone in the base of a 10-inch (25cm) pot is a lot. Furthermore, adding river rock adds weight to large planters. For anyone looking to add a bit of easy drainage in a more lightweight way, it makes better sense to use an aeration amendment like perlite. SunGro Black Gold Perlite from Walmart is a good-value option and one bag can easily last all year.

When Gravel Really Helps

(Image credit: Repinanatoly / Getty Images)

Whether or not we choose to use gravel a a layer at the bottom of our pots, there are some very straightforward ways in which it can be beneficial. Coarse material still earns its place when used intentionally. Placing several inches in a tall, top-heavy container filled with tall ornamental grasses or wind-vulnerable evergreen topiary works as ballast. On the soil surface, a clean half-inch (1.25cm) topdressing of poultry grit or fine pea gravel, such as Fantian Mixed Color Pea Gravel from Amazon, creates a polished topdressing while keeping rainsplash off lower leaves.

(Image credit: Westend61 / Getty Images)

There is also a benefit to adding a few handfuls of grit or pumice that are mixed evenly through the container. Desert cacti, Mediterranean herbs like rosemary, and alpine succulents thrive when coarse grit opens up air pockets from top to bottom. You can add a little volcanic pumice or horticultural sand to help with drainage. Lightweight expanded clay aggregate pebbles (LECA) are another option. These porous baked-clay balls can be mixed into potting media to boost aeration for tropicals. Alternatively, you can go for a custom blend. Back to the Roots Organic Succulent & Cacti Mix, available from Walmart, is a great-value substrate.

Reality Check: Fall Container Care

(Image credit: FactoryTh / Getty Images)

All this myth-busting of myth-busters might not leave you feeling loads more confident about that gravel layer. But don’t let it put you off putting your fall containers together, or giving your existing pots a timely seasonal refresh. If you want to play it safe, and you care about good drainage, a couple of handfuls of perlite or coarse sand added through the whole potting mix can help reduce the risk of waterlogging and compaction. Used in tandem with a good quality potting soil, this should be fine for fall favorites like pansies, kale, mum, and fountain grass. To give roots a helping hand, top up your soil with a little organic bone meal, such as Espoma’s Organic Bone Meal Fertilizer, available from The Home Depot.

Old summer pots that look tired and shrunken away from the rim can be topped up rather than rebuilt, adding an inch or so (2.5cm) of your fresh mix firmed gently around the crowns. Old mix that's compacted to the point of shedding water off the surface is past topping up, and just wants replacing. Once you have replenished your potting mix, don’t forget to keep the drainage holes clear in the bottoms of your pots, which is clearly more of a win-win. To prevent planters from sealing themselves flat against wet concrete patios, elevate them using Lemon Road’s Classic Terracotta Pot Toes from Amazon for easier drainage down below.

Container Planting Essentials

Tip-Top Toes

LemonRoad Lemonroad Terracotta Pot Feet for Planters

Give drainage an easy lift with these sturdy clay pot risers. They elevate containers off flat surfaces, preventing sealed drainage holes and patio stains.

NItty Gritty

Back to the Roots Back to the Roots Succulent & Cacti Mix

If you need a premium, fast-draining gritty potting blend, this popular blend contains perlite and organic matter, perfect for succulents and herbs.

Roll With It

Bloem Bloem Plant Caddy With Wheels, 100 Lb Capacity

This is a durable, weather-resistant wheeled base for heavy planters, making light work of any larger terracotta pots you may need to move indoors this fall.

(Image credit: John McKeen / Getty Images)

It’s little wonder container growers are muddled. First, we’re told gravel layers could save our plants from drowning. Then we’re told they could be a death sentence – and then we’re told they might be OK after all. But perhaps the real takeaway from the 2025 research isn't that you must use gravel, but rather that containers are more forgiving than warnings suggest. So focus on easy wins: choose a quality, well-aerated soil mix, keep drainage holes clear, and water sensibly.

More Garden Mythbusters

• Does the Pointy End of a Bulb Really Need to Be Facing Up When You Plant It?
• Vegetable Companion Planting Myths – Plus, the Planting Pairs that Really Work

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

At first glance, Monos’s new Mount Pleasant headquarters could easily be mistaken for a beautifully considered apartment or boutique hotel. Not your workday office.

Launched in 2019, Monos has grown from a luggage company into a travel lifestyle brand, with collections that include bags, wallets, travel accessories and sunglasses, seven retail stores across Canada and the U.S., fashion collaborations and, most recently, a move into hospitality with Postcard, a café and listening lounge in Chicago.

As the company has expanded, so has its need for a place to bring people together. Rather than create a conventional corporate office, Monos turned to Vancouver-based Ste. Marie to design something more fluid.

Mount Pleasant, with its mix of light industry, arts, design, fashion and technology businesses, is the perfect backdrop, says Ste. Marie founder Craig Stanghetta.

Postmedia sat down with Monos co-founder Hubert Chan and Ste. Marie founder Craig Stanghetta, whose studio designed the space, to chat about how it came to be.

The starting point for Ste. Marie was a home vibe.

“We were interested in creating somewhere that felt personal and lived-in. An apartment became a useful point of departure because it naturally accommodates different rhythms of life,” says Stanghetta.

A place where people can sit quietly, work, talk, eat or socialize without necessarily moving into a room designed for one particular purpose.

The interior itself is restrained. Polished concrete, natural oak, neutral textiles and diffused light provide a quiet backdrop, while different seating areas and more intimate spaces soften the openness.

For Chan, how their headquarters feels is just as important as how it functions.

“We wanted our HQ to be somewhere people actually enjoy going to — a place that feels more like a home or luxury hotel than an office,” he says. It also needed to shift easily between daily work and much larger occasions, including dinners, tastings and events.

Investing heavily in an office when many employees work remotely might seem counterintuitive, but Chan sees it differently.

Monos has always operated as a hybrid company, with employees now spread across Vancouver, Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere, and their headquarters isn’t intended to reverse that, he says: “As a hybrid company, we don’t expect everyone to be here all the time. The point is to make the time we do spend together more meaningful.”

He describes their new headquarters as “a centre of gravity for the company.”

Rather than requiring people to be at a particular desk every day, the space is designed around the things that are difficult to replicate remotely: informal conversations, shared meals, product development, collaboration and simply spending time together.

“For a creative company, it isn’t simply somewhere to perform work that could otherwise happen remotely,” says Stanghetta.

“Ultimately, it’s a place where Monos can practice being Monos.”

Central to the design of their new HQ is a long communal table.

It can function as a workspace in the morning, a surface for product development later in the day and the centre of a dinner or launch that evening.

The result is a workplace where furniture, communal areas and more intimate spaces provide choices rather than rigid divisions.

Chan says that reflects the way Monos operates internally too:

“We wanted our HQ to be an expression of not only our design philosophy, but also our culture and way of working,” he says.

“There are no individual offices here — we all work, eat, and socialize in the same space because we’re one team, constantly communicating and working together.”

The headquarters also reflects a company thinking more broadly about what the Monos brand can encompass.

Chan describes travel not simply as getting from one place to another, but as a way of moving through and experiencing the world. This is reflected in Monos’s expansion into fashion and hospitality, alongside a growing interest in food, design, community and the rituals around travel.

Ste. Marie’s brief was not simply to design somewhere for employees to sit and work, but to create a setting where those ideas could develop, says Stanghetta:

“It’s less a finished office, more a place for discovery, like travel itself.”

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Kat Von D isn't necessarily a name you might associate with gardening; the iconic tattooist is far more likely to be found in a pair of leather fingerless gloves than pruning mitts.

Still, it seems the real world's answer to Morticia Addams has a surprisingly green thumb – albeit one with a distinctly gothic twist – and her most iconic gardening project is more than glamorous enough to make even the most devoted cottage garden enthusiast consider switching sides.

When you consider the fact that our appetites for gothic romance have been well and truly heightened by the dark drama and sweeping silhouettes of Wuthering Heights, no wonder more and more of us are sitting up and paying attention to Kat Von D's horticultural efforts, eh?

Kat Von D's Gothic Garden

Yes, Kat Von D has been busy; on top of her day job as a tattooist, recording artist, and beauty entrepreneur, she has also created a spectacular display of thousands of near-black tulips outside her Indiana home.

Unsurprisingly, when you consider who you're dealing with, they're about as far removed from the usual pastel spring border as you can get. Better still, we know exactly which variety she's planted, which means you can take full advantage of the fall (aka prime tulip planting season) and recreate a little of Kat's wonderfully dark garden at home.

Check it out:

A post shared by Kat Von D (@thekatvond)

A photo posted by

Kat Von D's famous display is made up of 'Queen of Night' tulip bulbs, one of the deepest, darkest tulip varieties you can grow. Sure, the flowers aren't technically black (if you want to split hairs, they're actually a wonderfully moody maroon-purple) but, when planted en masse, they come pretty close.

What makes the tulip garden so striking isn't just the unusual flower color, however; it's the sheer number of them. Kat originally planted around 10,000 'Queen of Night' bulbs, and the display has since grown to around 15,000, creating an incredible wall of dark blooms.

Shop Kat Von D-Inspired Tulips:

Burpee.com Queen of Night Tulip Bulbs

GSB Garden State Bulb Black Nightmare® Tulip Bulbs

Burpee.com Paul Scherer Tulip Bulbs

Now, you don't necessarily need thousands of bulbs (although, if you have the space, go for it!) to get the Kat Von D look. Instead, plant in big drifts of one color, rather than a little bit of everything.

The idea is simple; a smaller planting of the same variety offers a much more dramatic effect than scattering a few different tulips around a border. And, if you stick to dark flowers, then you will find that they provide an instant contrast to everything around them, whether that's green foliage, pretty pastel blooms, gravel, brickwork or an old house.

In other words, you don't need to turn your entire garden into a gothic fantasy to get the look.

(Image credit: Rob3rt82 / Getty Images)

The best thing about all of this is that Kat Von D hasn't used some impossibly rare variety of tulip that you'll have to hunt down from a specialist collector.; 'Queen of Night' is classic late-flowering tulip that's sold far and wide.

That means you can steal Kat's idea for yourself very easily, and now is the perfect time to do it! After all, tulips are planted in fall so that bulbs have time to develop their roots before winter; the exact planting window depends on which USDA planting zone you're based in, but gardeners in colder regions generally plant once the soil has cooled, while warmer areas can plant later in the fall.

Essentially, you're looking for a window several weeks before the ground freezes.

Shop Gothic Blooms:

BULBORIUM Burgundy Dahlia Seeds

Burpee.com Chocolate Cherry Sunflower

SPROUTARAQ Chocolate Cosmos Seeds

If you're tempted to create a whole Kat Von D-inspired border, you don't even have to stop at tulips. Look for other flowers and foliage in deep burgundy, plum, wine and near-black shades, then use green or pale flowers to stop the planting from becoming too heavy.

Think dark dahlias, purple-black scabiosa, burgundy foliage, deep purple irises, chocolate cosmos, and near-black petunias. And remember: you don't need to copy Kat Von D's garden exactly. Instead, choose one dramatic element – in this case, a mass of almost-black tulips – and let it dictate the rest of your planting scheme.

The result can be every bit as glamorous, mysterious, and wonderfully over-the-top, even if your garden is considerably smaller than a celebrity's.

Pollinators make our world go round. And those of us who keep gardens have a real chance to do something to help bees and butterflies. The best way to do so is by planting the pollinator plants to feed them throughout the whole year. Sure, we can plant flowers in spring. But it’s also possible to install nectar-rich plants into the landscape in September.

So what are some of the best fall-blooming pollinator plants? Luckily, you have more than a few to choose from. To choose the right ones for the autumn landscape, though, you should select resilient perennials that bloom in the cool season and provide essential late-season food for bees and butterflies.

Here are the best plants to provide a fall feast for pollinators in your garden.

1. Asters

(Image credit: Peter Photos / 500px / Getty Images)

Botanical Name

Symphyotrichum spp.

Hardiness

Zones 3-8

Are asters the best fall perennial plants for autumn? A good argument can be made that they are. Asters offer lovely daisy-like blooms in purples, pinks, and blues. These flowers offer essential late-season nectar to feed both bees and migrating butterflies. In fact, they are pollinator magnets from late summer into November.

There are a number of aster varieties, some growing to 6 feet (2 m) tall, but all are exceptional perennial plants for autumn planting. Asters don’t like hot, sunny sites, but they do need some sunshine and well-draining soil. They do best in regions with cool, moist summers and cool nights.

If you are transplanting young plants, do it in spring once all chance of frost is gone. But early September is the perfect time to transplant mature asters in containers you bought at the garden center.

Explore unique native aster plants from American Meadows online.

2. 'Autumn Joy' Sedum

(Image credit: Joanne Dale / Shutterstock)

Botanical Name

Sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’

Hardiness

Zones 3-10

It’s hard to think of a desirable attribute for a fall-blooming perennial that doesn’t apply to ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum. It’s hardy, adapts to cold climates and hot ones. It's also drought tolerant and lovely, offering thick flower clusters in autumn that are magnets for butterflies and beneficial insects during the cooler months after summer. They bloom after most summer flowers fade, providing interest into fall and early winter.

This sedum is a clump-forming succulent perennial beloved for its huge flowerheads that appear from late summer into fall. It’s a real color-show of a plant with green flower buds in late spring that open to pink flowers in summer. These deepen to rosy, coppery and bronze tones as fall arrives. And best of all, Autumn Joy provides vital late-season nectar and pollen for pollinators, including bees and butterflies.

You can find Autumn Joy sedum plants online for under $10 from American Meadows.

3. Butterfly Bush

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Botanical Name

Buddleja davidii

Hardiness

Zones 5-9

Butterflies love butterfly bush – as the common name suggests. But this is not a one-pollinator shrub. Its panicles contain hundreds of nectar-filled florets. These bright flowers in purple, pink, and blue also draw in bees with their sweet honey fragrance. Some butterfly bush varieties have flower spikes almost a foot long and many bloom straight though the summer to the first frost.

Butterfly bush grows fast, making it weedy and even invasive in some parts of the country (check your local extension office before planting). It’s a perennial shrub with arching stems and a bushy habit. These shrubs offer an abundant late-season nectar source for fall pollinators when other garden flowers fade. Pollinators like monarch butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees will certainly be grateful!

The dark and moody 'Black Knight' butterfly bush from Trees.com (formerly Fast Growing Trees) adds a Halloween-y touch to the fall landscape.

4. Goldenrod

(Image credit: Mark Nistico / Getty Images)

Botanical Name

Solidago spp.

Hardiness

Zones 3-9

Goldenrod, with its bright yellow blossoms, is a favorite fall-pollinator plant in Europe, but less popular in the United States – and that’s our loss. But wait, you say. Isn’t goldenrod the plant that causes hay fever and makes you sneeze? Nope! That’s a myth that is more accurately attached to ragweed, which blooms around the same time

Goldenrod blooms from late summer and keeps those flowers coming right through the first frost. Its flowers are loaded with nectar and heavy, sticky pollen that's available to bees and butterflies when most other flowers have faded. In fact, dozens of bee species rely heavily on goldenrod pollen. This plant also supports dozens of species of native moth and butterfly caterpillars, which are essential food for songbirds.

Find the perfect goldenrod species for your yard from High Country Gardens.

5. Joe-Pye Weed

(Image credit: Danita Delimont / Getty Images)

Botanical Name

Eutrochium spp.

Hardiness

Zones 3-9

Joe-pye weed may not be the most gorgeous plant in the garden, but it's a powerhouse pollinator perennial. Its small, fragrant flowers are arranged in large, domed flower clusters that smell like vanilla. They are loaded with nectar that provides high-energy food for pollinators in late summer and fall. It’s a late-season lifeline for autumn pollinators, appearing just as other summer flowers fade.

This plant is one of the primary foods of monarch butterflies getting ready for the long trip south for winter. But it also is a staple for bumblebees and hummingbirds. As fall merges into winter, the dried seedheads offer foraging material for wild birds and beneficial insects as well.

Explore native Joe-pye weed plants online from American Meadows.

This heatwave summer has wreaked havoc on our lawns but grass is an incredibly resilient plant, especially if you give it a helping hand with some essential fall lawn care. Late September and October bring a short window of warm soil and regular rain that are conducive to strong grass growth, but you’ll need to set your lawn up to make the most of it. Spend a few hours this weekend tending to your grass with this essential September lawn care, and you’ll be richly rewarded with lush green grass next spring.

Don't bother, and your lawn will suffer. You see, after the stress of a hot, dry summer, a neglected lawn goes into the winter weakened. Dead drought-striken blades clog the grass that’s still alive, creating moist conditions that invite fungal problems as fall progresses. Plummeting temperatures and compacted soil then means roots sit in cold, soggy soil through the winter, further compounding the damage.

Do these five easy tasks however, and you’ll help prevent all those issues as well as create optimum conditions for fallgrass growth, allowing plants to recover and strengthen before winter arrives. Ready? Let’s get your lawn sorted for the lushest, plushest grass next spring!

1. Banish Weeds

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Thankfully, this summer has been hard for weeds, too, so their roots won’t have too tight a hold in your lawn. And if you hate weeding your lawn, I'll wager you're not using the right tools. There’s no point trying to remove persistent perennial weeds like dandelions and thistles with a standard weed puller: you’ll simply snap off the top mop of leaves and leave the long tap root in the ground, and the plant will grow back even stronger.

To tackle that pesky tap root, you need a weed puller with serrated claws to grip it, such as Fiskars Triple Claw Stand-Up Weeder, available from Walmart, which does the job without you even kneeling down. A two-pronged hand weeder like Fiskars Ergo Weeder, available from Walmart, is also designed for removing perennial weeds, or use a Hori Hori knife like this from Amazon to extract that long root once and for all.

This isn’t just a matter of aesthetics, as weeds rob grass of valuable space, water and soil nutrients. Weeding is an especially important part of autumn lawn care as many weeds carry on growing after cold weather has halted grass growth, further increasing their hold.

2. Rake to Remove Dead Grass

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Your next task to help your lawn recover from summer is to get rid of dead grass and moss that’s taking up valuable room that could be full of lush new blades. As well as making space for new grass growth, raking this unwanted plant material out will improve air circulation, which will in turn help to avoid any fungal issues. It also allows water to soak into the soil more easily, and the process is known as scarifying or dethatching.

You’ll need a spring-tine rake, and a design with strong, closely-spaced tines such as the Kobalt Steel Rake from Lowe’s will rake up leaves effectively as well as scarify your lawn. Rake the lawn all over, and preferably repeat in a different direction, and you’ll pull up all the dead grass and moss (thatch), which can be put onto your compost heap. Don’t be alarmed by how much thatch is pulled out, especially after this year's El Nino summer, or that you can now see the soil – that’s a good sign, and you’ll see why in a moment.

If you’ve got a sizable lawn, then an electric dethatcher that you push along as you would a lawnmower is a good investment and you can pick up a basic model from under $60, such as this Senix Scarifier with Collection Bag from Walmart.

3. Spike the Soil to Improve Structure

(Image credit: Peter Kniez / Getty Images)

What would happen to your precious borders if you walked all over them? And what would happen to your plants? Well, your lawn has just had a long summer of being trampled on, so the soil is likely compacted and the grass roots will be struggling to get enough air and water. Aerating the soil is going to sort that, and it’ll improve drainage, too, for fewer puddles of standing water on your lawn through fall and winter.

To aerate your lawn, you can use a regular garden fork to create holes to allow water and air to grass roots, pushing the tines into the soil at 6-inch intervals. A rolling lawn aerator with metal spikes on a roller such as this Aerator Roller from Walmart speeds up the process.

If you’ve got any problem patches that get waterlogged in winter, or clay soil that doesn’t drain well, you can take aerating up a notch to improve the drainage long-term. You’ll need a lawn aerator tool with hollow tines such as the Landzie Plug Aerator, available from Lowe’s. This punches slightly bigger holes, removing plugs of soil at the same time.

Fill all the holes you’ve created with a mix of two parts washed concrete sand such as Yard Elements Premium Concrete Sand from The Home Depot, and one part garden topsoil, such as Kellogg Garden Organics Soil, also from The Home Depot. Use the back of a flat rake or a stiff yard broom to brush the mix into the holes. It should flow easily into the holes and not create a layer smothering the grass – if it does, you’re applying too much.

You don’t need to aerate your lawn every year. Aerate the entire lawn well this year and you can wait another three years before repeating the process, or simply aerate the parts that are most heavily used or get waterlogged each year.

4. Overseed for Thicker Grass if Needs Be

(Image credit: Getty Images)

If all your scarifying has made the area look bare, or there are patches of grass that haven’t made it through summer, early fall is the perfect time to overseed your lawn. Warm ground plus rain will mean fast, even germination.

Make sure you buy grass seed that’s tailored to your zone, and it’s a smart move to choose a mixed blend that grows well in both sun and shade when overseeding. That way, you’ll move towards a uniform look across your lawn. Scotts Turf Building Sun & Shade Mix 16lb, available from Lowe’s, contains enough to overseed a typical US garden of 6,400 square feet. Whatever you do, don’t mistake fast-growing grass for fast-germinating grass because, while you’ll get quick results with both, you’ll be mowing your lawn more often for years to come if you buy the former.

By scarifying, you’ve already exposed and scratched the surface of any soil where there's room for new grass plants to take root, but go over any particularly bare patches again with a rake. Sow the seed according to the instructions, using a rake or broom to ensure the seed is in full contact with the soil. Grass germinates best when the air temperature sits between 60°F and 80°F and unless it rains, you’ll need to water twice a day for three weeks or until grass grows 2 inches tall.

5. Boost Root Growth with the Right Fertilizer

(Image credit: Getty Images)

There’s no need to fertilize a lawn in fall every year but if the grass looks like it needs a boost, warm late September days are the ideal time. In fall, it’s vial to pick a tailored autumn lawn feed that’s high in phosphorous and potassium to encourage root growth for long-term strength, rather than a more general-purpose lawn fertilizer with high levels of nitrogen that boosts leafy growth above ground. Choose a product without moss or weed killer such as Scotts Tuft Builder WinterGuard Fall Lawn Food, available from Amazon.

Apply as directed by the instructions but if you overseeded, check the fine print on that packaging too. Many grass seeds include a lawn fertilizer, in which case you should apply the dedicated fall food more sparingly. There’s no need to water in a fall feed unless it doesn’t rain within a couple of days.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

And you’re done! Your lawn can now spend the next few weeks growing – and most grass species will continue to grow until temperatures drop consistently below 40°F-50°F, which in most zones will be around early November. This gives your lawn plenty of time to recover from the rigors of this heatwave summer and strengthen its roots, ready for lush growth next spring.

It's been almost a month since we lost Dolly Parton, but the tributes and memories are still pouring in. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more universally-loved and sincerely missed public figure.

It'd be easy to gush about Dolly's musical genius or her incredible work supporting children's literacy, but plenty of other writers are doing that. This is Gardening Know How, after all, so I want to talk to you about flowers. Wildflowers, to be precise.

Wildflowers Don't Care Where They Grow

Welcome back to Quote of the Week, where I pick out garden-related celebrity quotes and examine the wisdom behind them and the impact they can have on our lives. This week's pick isn't a quote, per se – it's a whole song.

In 1987 Dolly Parton wrote the song "Wildflowers" for the album Trio, a supergroup endeavor she recorded with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. Here it is for your listening pleasure:

And the flowers I knew / In the fields where I grew / Were content to be lost in the crowd / They were common and close / I had no room for growth / And I wanted so much to branch out

The song tells the story of a flower that sprouts in a field where it doesn't fit in. One day the flower uproots itself and takes off on the wind, ready to tackle the mysteries the world has in store for it.

It doesn't take a literature degree to tell that Dolly isn't singing about actual flowers here. She was famously born into a poor family, one child of twelve living in a one-room cabin in rural Tennessee. Buoyed by her grit, musical ability, and business acumen, she took off to tackle the music industry, building a successful career that spanned the better part of a century.

(Image credit: Jason Kempin / Getty Images)So the Garden One Day Set Me Free

While her song may express a need to break free, Dolly never spoke badly of her upbringing. She's described her father as one of the smartest people she ever knew, and credits her mother with her musical talent. The song even gives a nod to the way she was raised, crediting it with her toughness and ability to survive:

When a flower grows wild / It can always survive / Wildflowers don't care where they grow

That's what the song "Wildflowers" is really about – setting out to pursue your dreams, but also being adaptable. You can't expect the world to cater to you or treat you like you're special. (We're not talking about high-maintenance plants here). If you go with the flow and let the wind carry you, you just might have a successful life free from regrets. It certainly seems to have worked for Dolly.

Grow Your Own Wildflowers

American Wild Native Wildflower Mix

Pollinator Garden Flower Mix Seeds

All Annual Wildflower Seed Mix

If you know your state bird (and I suspect you do), then I bet you've wondered what you can plant to make your state's official bird feel more at home in your yard?

Whether your state bird is a bright red northern cardinal, a cheeky Carolina wren or the rather more unusual cactus wren, the right plants can provide one of the three most important things that all birds need: food, shelter, and somewhere to nest or shelter.

And guess what? You don't need a big backyard to make a bird sanctuary; the trick is choosing plants that work with the bird you're hoping to see. While some state birds will happily feast on berries and seeds, others are more interested in the insects living among native trees and shrubs, and a few... well, a few are, admittedly, are rather harder to tempt into an ordinary garden.

What To Plant For Your State Bird

You know your birth month bird, but do you know your state bird? And, more importantly, do you know how to attract them?

To help you out, scroll down, find your state and see which plants could help make your yard more inviting to its official feathered resident. (Just remember that several states share the same official bird, so look for the information in bold)

Northern Flicker

(Image credit: 1306771945/Getty Images)

Alabama

Alabama's state bird is the northern flicker (also known as the yellowhammer), and, unlike many seed-eating backyard birds, these beauties spend plenty of time foraging on the ground for ants and other insects, so a bird-friendly garden doesn't need to be all about bird feeders.

Native trees such as oak, hackberry and serviceberry can help create the kind of habitat flickers use, while leaving some natural leaf litter and mature trees in place can provide additional foraging opportunities.

American Beauties Red Maple Tree

CROWN The Genius of Trees: How They Mastered the Elements and Shaped the World

Nature Hills Nursery Eastern White Pine Tree

Willow Ptarmigan

(Image credit: pchoui/Getty Images)

Alaska

The Willow Ptarmigan is Alaska's official state bird, which means it is rather different from the backyard songbirds on this list. In fact, it is closely associated with tundra, shrublands and willow habitats, so the best way to support it is to think about native habitat rather than ornamental garden plants.

Native willows and birch, along with naturally occurring berry-producing shrubs (something like black chokeberry works beautifully), can provide food and cover where they are appropriate to the local landscape.

Cactus Wren

(Image credit: mdesigner125/Getty Images)

Arizona

If Arizona's cactus wren is your state bird, your garden doesn't need to look like a traditional flower border; in fact, native cacti and desert shrubs can provide shelter, nesting opportunities and food, making them far more useful than thirsty ornamental plants. Prickly pear is particularly valuable in the Southwest, with some species producing fruit that birds eat.

The trick is to work with the desert habitat you already have rather than trying to recreate an eastern-style garden (and, as an added bonus, native plants adapted to Arizona's conditions can provide food and cover while using considerably less water).

Try something like the organ plant cactus if you want a true statement plant.

Northern Mockingbird

(Image credit: Aminda Jayasundara / 500px / Getty Images)

Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas

Five states have chosen the Northern Mockingbird as their official bird, making it one of the most widely shared state birds in the country.

One of the easiest ways to make your yard more appealing to mockingbirds is to provide native berry-producing shrubs.

American beautyberry is an excellent choice in appropriate parts of the South, while other native fruiting shrubs can provide food at different times of year. Mockingbirds also eat insects, so a diverse planting that supports insect life is more useful than a garden that has been scrubbed completely clean.

Generic American Beautyberry Shrub

HILROQG American Beautyberry Live Plant

Florida Foliage American Beautyberry | 3 Live Plants | Callicarpa Americana | Drought-Tolerant, Vibrant Purple Berries, Attracts Birds & Butterflies | Easy to Grow

California Quail

(Image credit: George Lepp/Getty Images)

California

California's state bird is the California quail, and these ground-dwelling birds spend a lot of their time foraging and nesting on or near the ground (flying? Not so much their scene), so dense, low-growing habitat is particularly useful.

Try combining ornamental grasses with low-growing shrubs and groundcover to provide food and places to hide. Dense native vegetation can give quail somewhere to shelter from predators while producing seeds and insects for them to forage... and, while you might love a neat lawn, they certainly do not.

Lark Bunting

(Image credit: williamhc / Getty Images)

Colorado

Colorado's lark bunting is a prairie bird, so the best planting strategy is to think less about flower borders and more about native grasses and open prairie plants.

Allowing native grasses and seed-producing plants to remain standing can provide food and cover, while a more naturalistic planting can support the insects birds need during the breeding season.

For this bird, a little wildness is very much a good thing. Try mixing the following:

CZ Grain Rattlesnake Master Plug Plant

Clovers Garden Purple Coneflower

Clovers Garden Black Eyed Susan

American Robin

(Image credit: Bryan Steingard / Getty Images)

Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin

American Robins are famously adaptable, but they're not simply lawn birds. They eat huge numbers of invertebrates as well as fruit, and in winter they make greater use of berry-producing trees and shrubs.

Try planting serviceberry, hawthorn or other native fruiting plants suited to your region. These can provide berries later in the year while also adding useful structure to the garden. Personally, though, I love a dogwood.

And if you're hoping to see robins hunting for worms, keeping at least some healthy lawn or open ground can help too.

Expert Gardener 4-5' Dogwood Venus® in 1 Gal. Grower Pot

Nature Hills Nursery White Flowering Dogwood

Nature Hills Nursery Kousa Dogwood Tree

Blue Hen Chicken

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Delaware

This one comes with a rather important caveat; Delaware's state bird is the blue hen chicken, a domestic breed rather than a wild bird that you can realistically lure into your backyard with a particular plant (not without annoying your poultry-rearing neighbors, anyway).

So instead of promising a magic chicken-attracting shrub, use this as an opportunity to create a generally wildlife-friendly garden with grasses, shrubs and fruiting plants. Because, if your actual goal is attracting wild birds, those same plants will be considerably more useful.

Brown Thrasher

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Georgia

The state bird of Georgia, brown thrashers like dense cover, leaf litter and places where they can forage, making them a good match for a slightly less manicured garden.

Plant native berry-producing shrubs and allow some fallen leaves and natural groundcover to remain. Dense shrubs can provide shelter, while fruit and the insects living among native vegetation provide food.

It's another excellent excuse not to make every inch of the garden look like a golf course (and rest on your laurels a bit rather than whip the lawn mower out every five seconds).

Nēnē

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Hawaii

Hawaii's official state bird is the nēnē, or Hawaiian Goose, and this is another bird where habitat is more important than choosing one ornamental garden plant.

For gardeners in Hawaii, prioritize native Hawaiian plants appropriate to your island and habitat. Native vegetation can provide food and shelter while helping preserve the ecosystems this endemic species depends on.

This isn't a case where planting one particular shrub will bring a nēnē to your yard; try to think habitat restoration rather than backyard bird attraction.

Mountain Bluebird

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Idaho and Nevada

Mountain bluebirds are associated with open country, so a garden that combines native grasses with berry-producing shrubs can provide more useful habitat than a densely planted border.

Serviceberry is one option where it is native and suited to local conditions (and, hey, there is a great deal on the Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry at Nature Hills right now). Otherwise, native shrubs can provide fruit, while grasses and open ground create foraging habitat.

The important thing is to choose species native to your particular part of Idaho or Nevada rather than assuming a plant is suitable statewide.

Northern Cardinal

(Image credit: Saddako / Getty Images)

Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia

If you're hoping to attract your state's official bird, cardinals are probably one of the easiest birds on this list to garden for. They're the state bird of seven states, more than any other species, and n wonder; they look stunning!

To tempt them into your yard, try planting hawthorn, dogwood, serviceberry, hackberry, sumac or other native fruiting and seed-producing plants. Cardinals eat plenty of seeds and fruit, too, which means you should have luck if you keep feeders topped up, too:

Kaytee Kaytee Cardinal Seed Cake

Birdfy Bird House With Camera

Feeding in Style

Sweetfull Sweetfull Solar Bird Feeder

American Goldfinch

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Iowa, New Jersey and Washington

The American goldfinch is a particularly easy state bird to garden for because its favorite foods are so closely tied to plants.

Plant native thistles, sunflowers, asters and other seed-producing plants, and resist the temptation to cut every seedhead down as soon as flowering finishes. After all, goldfinches eat seeds almost exclusively (although they also use shrubs and small trees for nesting).

Basically, consider this permission to leave the slightly untidy seedhead you were about to cut down out for your feathered friends.

Western Meadowlark

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon and Wyoming

Six states share the western meadowlark, another state bird that makes a strong case for replacing some manicured lawn with native prairie grasses.

Choose something like Golden Sunset™ Yellow Prairie Grass from Nature Hills or any other plants suited to your local prairie ecosystem, allowing them to provide seeds, insects and cover. This isn't a bird that needs a carefully designed flower bed; keep things natural and relaxed.

Brown Pelican

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Louisiana

Louisiana's state bird is the brown pelican, and you're unlikely to attract one by adding a shrub to your backyard. Instead, gardeners near suitable coastal or wetland habitat can support birds by planting native coastal and wetland vegetation and protecting existing habitat (sign up for something like the Wetlands America Trust).

The trick is to think bigger than the individual garden; native plants can help provide food, shelter and nesting habitat for birds, while healthy coastal vegetation also supports the wider ecosystem on which waterbirds depend. Win win!

Black-capped Chickadee

(Image credit: Rumen Raykov / Getty Images)

Maine and Massachusetts

Black-capped chickadees are some of the cutest state birds around, so do them a favor and gift them trees and shrubs; they can use both for both food and shelter.

Try native birch, serviceberry, dogwood and other trees and shrubs suited to your area. Native plants support insects as well as producing seeds and fruit, giving chickadees more than one reason to investigate.

A layered garden with trees, shrubs and lower planting? Way more valuable than a lawn surrounded by isolated ornamental plants.

Baltimore Oriole

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Maryland

Baltimore orioles have a serious sweet tooth. They seek out ripe fruit, nectar and insects, and thus are way more likely to visit gardens filled with plants such as raspberries, crabapples and trumpet vines (this Summer Jazz™ Fire Trumpet Vine from Nature Hills is great for privacy, too!).

For a more wildlife-friendly garden, choose native fruiting trees and shrubs suited to your area, particularly those that produce dark-colored ripe fruit. Mind you, if you already have a mature fruiting tree, don't be surprised if an oriole finds it before you do.

Common Loon

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Minnesota

Minnesota's common loon is another state bird that requires a slight change of thinking. Rather than trying to attract a loon to a residential garden, focus on protecting and restoring native shoreline and aquatic vegetation if you live near suitable loon habitat.

Honestly, healthy lakes and shorelines matter far more than any particular garden plant this this wonderful bird.

Purple Finch

(Image credit: Getty Images)

New Hampshire

Purple finches use a mixture of woodland, shrubland and garden habitat, making a diverse planting particularly useful. Think birches, conifers and berry-producing shrubs, as these can prove a triple threat in terms of seeds, fruit, cover and nesting opportunities.

Greater Roadrunner

(Image credit: Getty Images)

New Mexico

New Mexico's greater roadrunner is another state bird that appreciates a garden with a little more wild character; so, plant native desert shrubs and cacti to provide cover and support the insects, lizards and other small prey that roadrunners hunt.

Rather than filling a desert yard with exotic ornamental plants, work with the vegetation that naturally belongs there. Native Southwestern plants can provide food and shelter while also being better adapted to local heat and drought.

Generic Red Barrel Fishhook Barrel Cactus

GINGERGLOW Colorful Hedgehog Cactus

GINGERGLOW Purple Prickly Pear Cactus Live Plant

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Oklahoma

The scissor-tailed flycatcher is an insect-eating bird, so planting for it is less about berries and more about creating habitat that supports insects. With that in mind, then, choose native trees and shrubs suited to Oklahoma, and let your garden get a little more interesting. Eastern red cedar, American plum, serviceberry and roughleaf dogwood are all worth a look, and you certainly don't need to plant them in matching rows.

A mixture of trees, shrubs and smaller plants creates a much livelier garden, supporting far more insect life than a highly simplified landscape. And that's good news for insect-eating birds, which suddenly have somewhere to hunt, hide and raise a family.

Ruffed Grouse

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Pennsylvania

Ruffed Grouse are woodland birds, so gardeners in Pennsylvania should think less about pristine borders and more about creating the kind of slightly untidy woodland edge a grouse might actually appreciate. Serviceberry (again!), American hazelnut, dogwood and viburnum (especially this Brandywine™ Viburnum from Nature Hills) are all useful native choices, providing berries, cover and plenty of opportunities for birds to forage.

Don't worry about everything looking perfectly manicured, either. A mixture of young trees, mature vegetation, fallen branches and dense shrubs creates a much more useful habitat than a garden where every inch is neatly trimmed.

In other words, this is one bird that may genuinely appreciate you leaving things a little wild. And, frankly, that's a gardening style I can get behind.

Rhode Island Red Hen

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Rhode Island

Like Delaware's blue hen, Rhode Island's official state bird is a domestic chicken breed rather than a wild bird you can tempt into the garden with one magical plant. Still, think about creating a varied planting of little bluestem, American beautyberry, serviceberry and native sunflowers, giving visiting birds a mixture of seeds, berries, cover and places to forage.

And if you happen to keep Rhode Island Reds yourself? Why, that's a whole different gardening problem. Those ladies have their own opinions about what belongs in a flower bed.

Carolina Wren

(Image credit: Getty Images)

South Carolina

Carolina wrens love dense, brushy habitat, making them an excellent candidate for the slightly informal garden. Wax myrtle, American holly (go for the self-pollinating Royal Family Holly Combo from Nature Hills), yaupon holly and native dogwood can all help create the thick cover these busy little birds appreciate, while also offering food and shelter for other garden visitors.

Don't be too quick to remove every fallen branch, twig or patch of natural vegetation, either. Carolina Wrens hunt among dense foliage for insects and use thick vegetation for shelter and nesting, so a garden that's a little rough around the edges can actually work in your favor.

In fact, that messy corner you've been meaning to tidy up? It could be exactly what your state bird wants.

Ring-necked Pheasant

(Image credit: Getty Images)

South Dakota

Ring-necked pheasants aren't looking for a perfectly manicured flower bed. They're birds of grasslands, farmland and scrubby edges, where food and cover are often found side by side.

If you're gardening in a suitable rural area, think in terms of layers rather than landscaping. Native grasses, shrubs and dense vegetation can provide places to feed, shelter and hide, while patches of open ground give these ground-dwelling birds room to move around. So don't worry about creating a garden that looks polished from every angle; for a ring-necked pheasant, a little bit of a scruffiness may look a lot more inviting than a pristine border ever could.

Ring-billed Gull

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Utah

Utah's state bird is the ring-billed gull, which presents a slightly different gardening challenge. Unless your backyard happens to come with a lake attached, you're probably not going to tempt one in with a particularly enticing flower bed.

Near suitable water, native shoreline and wetland plants can help support the wider ecosystem that gulls and other waterbirds rely on. But if your garden is nowhere near the habitat these birds prefer? Well, don't feel obliged to start landscaping like a lakeside resort. Instead, plant for the birds that actually live around you.

Honestly, a diverse native garden can provide food, shelter and nesting opportunities for plenty of local species, even if Utah's official feathered mascot remains firmly elsewhere.

Hermit Thrush

(Image credit: Michael Warren / Getty Images)

Vermont

Hermit thrushes aren't really border-and-lawn birds. They're woodland dwellers, so the more your garden can resemble a little slice of Vermont woodland edge, the better.

Keep mature trees where you can, then build up the layers beneath them with native shrubs, berry-producing plants and other woodland-friendly vegetation. That gives hermit thrushes somewhere to forage, shelter and move through the garden without everything feeling too exposed.

Think less “collection of ornamental plants” and more tiny woodland with a few gaps for you to enjoy, too!

Remember, attracting birds isn't only about food; native trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers can provide nesting sites, shelter from predators and weather, and the insects birds need to feed their young.

So whether your state bird is a cardinal, goldfinch, bluebird or something considerably less likely to visit a suburban backyard, the same principle applies: plant for habitat, not just for the bird. And if your state isn't represented here because it doesn't have an official state bird, don't let that stop you! A garden planted with native trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers can and will still welcome plenty of local birds, whether your state has given one of them an official title or not.

A garden full of feathered friends? Well worth the effort, quite frankly!

Tomato plants in September sit in a strange spot. Days still feel like summer, but nights have cooled and the light is shorter, and the plant keeps throwing out flowers it has no chance of finishing. Most gardeners let it ride until frost takes the whole thing down. That leaves a lot of fruit on the table.

Most of the advice on how to grow tomatoes covers the first half of the season, back when more of everything was the goal. September flips that. The work now is mostly subtraction – cutting off what will never finish so the plant spends what daylight is left on fruit that can.

Here are the top tasks to do in September to get the most out of your tomato plant before the season ends.

What to Do With Tomatoes in September

How urgent these tasks are come down to your average first frost date. Count backward from that date to decide what to tackle first.

1. Top the Vines

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Pruning the growing tip off each main stem of your tomato plants and they will stop growing and ripen the existing fruit instead. The energy will go into swelling and coloring the fruit that's already set. Four to six weeks ahead of the average first frost is the window for this type of tomato pruning, which for much of the country, puts it right about mid-September.

Indeterminate tomatoes are the plants that need this pruning technique. Determinate tomato varieties wrap up on their own and tend to get set back by early topping.

Make the cut just above the highest cluster with a realistic shot, and leave enough leaf cover that the fruit underneath doesn’t scald. Use a sharp, clean pair of pruners. Home Depot carries the Fiskars classic bypass pruning shears that get through green stems without crushing them.

2. Strip Late Flowers & Fruit

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

It feels wasteful to pull blossoms off a healthy plant. It isn’t. A tomato flower needs roughly six to eight weeks to become ripe fruit, and cool nights stretch that out further. Any flowers opening now are a draw on the plant's energy resources, but produce nothing to show for it. The same goes for fruit that's no bigger than a marble.

Pinch off flowers and small fruit with your fingers as you walk the row. Go back through in a week or two to do another pass. Topping usually prompts a flush of side shoots that also waste energy. Pluck off any tomato suckers that appear as well.

3. Remove Diseased Foliage

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Small round spots with pale centers on the lower leaves point to septoria leaf spot (Septoria lycopersici). Bull’s-eye rings inside a dark spot usually mean early blight (Alternaria solani). Both need wet foliage to spread and both overwinter in plant debris, so removing diseased foliage is vital to keep next year's garden healthy.

Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) is the one to move fast to remove. Greasy dark patches creeping in from the leaf margin, sometimes with white fuzz on the underside in damp weather.

Bag infected material instead of composting it and wipe your pruner blades between plants. It’s a containment measure, not a cure. But it's important to clean up diseased plants now to prevent issues next summer.

4. Keep Watering Evenly

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

September rain often arrives in bursts after dry stretches, and that swing is a common cause of splitting tomatoes. Fruit that's already at full size pulls water in faster than the skin can stretch. Watering tomatoes steadily at the root zone is the fix rather than more water overall.

A soaker hose handles this better than a wand and keeps the foliage dry, which is half the battle with leaf disease. Walmart stocks the Expert Gardener soaker hose that's cheap enough to buy two without putting much of a dent in your wallet. Tuck mulch over the top of it if there isn’t any down already.

5. Get Frost Covers Ready

(Image credit: Philippe Gerber / Getty Images)

Frost warnings rarely give more than a day or two of notice, and hunting for a tarp at dusk is how plants get missed and accidentally frozen. A floating row cover buys somewhere between 2 and 8°F (1-4°C) depending on weight, which is often the gap between losing everything and picking fresh tomatoes for another two weeks.

These Agfabric plant covers from Lowe’s are the light-duty option. Heavier grades hold more warmth, but cut more light. Old bedsheets work in a pinch. Run whatever you use down to the ground and weigh the edges with rocks or bricks to prevent heat escaping out the sides.

6. Harvest Mature Green Tomatoes

(Image credit: Catherine McQueen / Getty Images)

Green tomatoes that you pick ahead of a freeze ripens well, but only if they have hit maturity – full-sized with the skin shifted from flat dark green to pale whitish or yellow-green. Anything still small and dark won’t color up properly and is better off in a jar of relish.

Chilling injury sets in around 50°F (10°C) out on the vine and wrecks flavor before you ever pick. Clip each fruit with a short stub of stem attached. Sorting by ripeness helps a batch finish together. Hold them between 55 and 70°F (13-21°C). Add a banana to the box to speed up ripening.

7. Save Seeds From the Best Plants

(Image credit: Getty Images)

This one’s easy to skip and easy to regret, but saving tomato seeds is a great way to save money next year and grow more of your favorite crop. Squeeze seeds and gel from a fully ripe fruit off the best plant in the row into a jar, add an inch (2.5 cm) of water, and leave it loosely covered on the counter.

Three to five days on, a film forms across the top and the viable seeds have sunk to the bottom of the jar. The fermenting process strips the gel coat, which carries germination inhibitors and can shelter seedborne disease. Rinse seeds clean and spread them to dry, then label and store in an envelope. Open-pollinated heirloom tomato seeds come back true; hybrids don’t.

Every night through September, millions of songbirds pass silently overhead on their epic journey south. As dawn breaks, they drop into backyards searching for food to help them refuel before the next leg of their flight. At the same time, resident birds are stocking up energy reserves to survive the cold months ahead. What they need is fat, and they need it fast, at the point in the season when insects are thinning out and the wild larder is running low. This is where black oil sunflower seed can help.

Among all the seeds a gardener can harvest or buy, black oil sunflower seed stands out as the ultimate cold-weather superfood. Whether already available in your homegrown plants or added specifically to feeders, it’s something of a superseed for hungry birds this month. Among birdseed plants a gardener can grow, it's the standout because it’s about as close to concentrated fuel as a birdie can get.

While striped sunflower seeds have thick, tough hulls, black oil seeds have paper-thin shells surrounding high-calorie treats. This makes them irresistible for both migratory VIPs and year-round backyard species, especially as other natural wild food sources are beginning to wane. Stocking these seeds this month provides immediate relief for birds burning massive calories. Here’s how black oil sunflower seeds can support your feathered friends this fall.

Why These Seeds are Best

The secret to the black oil sunflower seed’s superiority lies in its packaging and content. Compared to traditional striped sunflower seeds, black oil seeds such as the great-value Happy Wings Black Oil Sunflower Seeds from Amazon feature thinner hulls. This means small-billed songbirds like chickadees will spend far less energy cracking open the shells, allowing them to absorb the goodies rapidly during high-stress migration and fall foraging. While hulled sunflowers offer convenience, they lack protective shells, so they can spoil faster and harbor dangerous bacteria when damp. So to feed birds effectively this fall, whole black oil seeds strike the perfect balance between easy opening and long-term feeder freshness.

(Image credit: Vinay Sinha / Getty Images)

Inside each black oil sunflower shell sits a kernel bred specifically for oil extraction, yielding a dense concentration of crude fat and essential protein. A US Fish and Wildlife Service feeding trial found that black oil sunflower seeds consistently beat striped sunflower seeds and white proso millet across nearly all songbird species. To inspect seed quality or seed hulls before filling your hoppers, use a high-clarity magnifier like the TechShare Magnifying Glass with Light, available from Amazon, to make sure you actually are dishing up the right seeds for the season.

Birds that Crave These Seeds

(Image credit: William Krumpelman / Getty Images)

Early fall brings a fascinating mix of migrants and resident birds to feeding stations, each drawn to black oil seeds for specific reasons. Migratory VIPs like rose-breasted grosbeaks have heavy, conical beaks designed to crush hulls with ease, making a high-fat tray feeder their ultimate fuel stop before flying south. Purple finches travel in flocks, relying on the seed's dense fat content to sustain rapid body heat.

Red-breasted nuthatches, blessed with nimble, gripping feet and light weights, can effortlessly snatch a kernel, carry it to a nearby branch, and stash it in bark crevices for winter survival. Most move at night and drop in at dawn, so a full feeder at first light really earns its place.

(Image credit: Gordon Magee / Getty Images)

Resident species benefit just as heavily from black oil seeds, as they prepare for the colder months ahead. Northern cardinals visit feeders during low-light hours at dawn and dusk, while black-capped chickadees and tufted titmice work relentlessly throughout the day, shuttling back and forth when they know there’s a hearty sunflower seed stash to enjoy.

The Cornell Lab's seed preference chart marks black oil sunflower acceptable to all nine feeder groups it tracks, chickadees through to doves. Nothing else on that chart comes close to the same spread, so one feeder and one seed type makes a huge impact. To spot arriving migrants from your window, keep a pair of high-clarity optics handy. The National Geographic 8x42 Binoculars from Walmart are great value and offer crisp, wide field viewing for tracking bird movements.

Harvesting Sunflower Heads

(Image credit: Sacit Bulut / 500px / Getty Images)

If you grew tall annual sunflowers this summer, you may already have a generous stash of black-oil superseeds ready to go. Heavy-yielding varieties like Peredovik or classic giant sunflower varieties like Mammoth Grey Stripe produce the oil-dense dark kernels birds crave. However, decorative varieties like Velvet Queen or pollenless types like ProCut either produce empty shells or tough, thick-hulled seeds that offer far fewer calories. So make sure you have the right seeds for your birds.

September is the prime harvest season for sunflower seeds. Heads are ready when the back of the flower shifts from green to a rich yellow or brown, the petals dry and drop, and the seeds look plump, sitting loose in the central disc. Birds usually spot this maturity before we do, so a sudden rush of finch traffic on a head is your cue. To protect ripening heads from eager squirrels, slip a paper bag or cheesecloth bag or similar over the head when the petals brown. You can buy Cotton Farm Cheesecloth Bags from Amazon. Secure it with a soft tie to buy a few extra days of ripening, while stopping seeds from hitting the dirt.

(Image credit: Diy13 / Getty Images)

When ready, cut the stem leaving about 12 inches (30cm) of stalk. Use sharp Fiskars Titanium Micro-Tip Pruning Shears from The Home Depot for clean stem cuts. Then hang the head upside down somewhere warm, dry, and airy, with no rodents in residence. Give it 3 weeks to cure, or longer in a damp spell. Seeds drop on their own, so placing a catch bin or bag underneath saves sweeping later.

Whatever seeds stay put will come loose easily if the head gets knocked against a table edge or rubbed hard against a second head. Just make sure everything is bone dry before storage, because damp seed molds quickly, and moldy seed is far worse for birds than no seed at all.

Best Ways to Offer Black Oil Seeds

(Image credit: Joe Houghton / Getty Images)

Tube feeders, platform trays, and suet cages are all great ways to dish up your black oil sunflower seeds. Hanging tube feeders are the safest default, mainly because they keep seed dry. Moisture is one of the real hazards at a feeder, since wet grain grows mold that can sicken birds. A tube also stops one determined jay emptying the lot in a single sitting. The Woodlink Seed Tube Feeder from The Home Depot is great for finches, nuthatches and chickadees, and hangs off a shepherd's hook or a low branch without fuss. Small perching birds like black-capped chickadees, pine siskins, and American goldfinches thrive on narrow tube perches.

Bigger autumn visitors like grosbeaks and cardinals prefer broader perching space. Setting out a wooden mesh tray like the Kingsyard Platform Bird Feeder from Walmart allows larger species to dine comfortably, while the mesh base ensures that rainwater drains away instantly after rain instead of holding a puddle.

(Image credit: Catherine McQueen / Getty Images)

For a high-energy treat, mix homegrown seeds into melted beef fat and chill in a mold to create suet cakes. These will go down a storm with tufted titmice and white-breasted nuthatches. If you prefer convenience, hang a pre-made C&S Sunflower Treat Suet Cake from Amazon inside a metal wire cage feeder. Finally, observe the 3/30 rule when putting out feeders for the fall frenzy. Place them within 3 feet (1m) of windows or beyond 30 feet (9m) to prevent fatal glass collisions.

Complement Your Sunflower Buffet

(Image credit: Cavan Images / NatureTron / Getty Images)

While black oil sunflower seed is the undisputed star of fall feeding, pairing your seed stations with natural garden forage creates a complete wildlife habitat. Leaving spent perennials standing provides essential foraging opportunities. Goldfinches and native sparrows will happily pick seeds out of dried coneflower (echinacea) and black-eyed Susan (rudbeckia) heads well into winter.

Planting berry-bearing shrubs can also help to pull in a different crowd. Soft-billed American robins, cedar waxwings, and hermit thrushes mostly ignore seed hoppers but will clear a fruit-laden branch in an afternoon. When selecting berrying shrubs, just match species to your hardiness zones. Native winterberry holly thrives in zones 3-9, holding bright red fruit straight into winter. You can buy best-selling Berry Poppins Winterberry Holly from Plant Addicts to set up long-term fall foraging. For northern gardens (zones 2–7), American cranberrybush offers high-pectin berries that soften after the first frost, providing critical late-season fuel.

To cater to specialized species like pine siskins and goldfinches who prefer tiny, oil-rich seeds, supplement your main stations with high-fat nyjer (thistle) seed served in fine-mesh socks or a fine-mesh feeder. You can grab 3lb bags of Kaytee Nyjer Thistle Seeds from Amazon. Scrub the feeders out every couple of weeks as well, since a crowded station spreads disease. A feeder filled this week catches birds that will be gone by November and others that will still be working the same perch in February. And never forget fresh water with dedicated bird baths and puddle baths, as your birdies are thirsty, too.

September Bird Care Essentials

Stocking your backyard bird sanctuary requires a balance of prime nibbles with practical yet pretty feeders, as well as reliable hydration sources. Give your birdies the best shot at survival with these curated fall picks to elevate your bird feeding station setup this season.

Superseed Trio

Premium Seeds

Happy Wings Happy Wings Black Oil Sunflower Seeds Bird Food

If you haven't grown any sunflower seeds this year, don't panic. These premium black oil sunflower seeds are packed with nutrients to fuel migrating songbirds and local residents.

Super Feeder

Wayfair Tucker Murphy Pet™ Huebner Mosaic Glass Fly-Through Feeder

A stunning hand-crafted glass mosaic fly-through feeder that catches fall sunlight while offering a sheltered perching tray for seeds.

Suet Cake

Pennington Pennington Feeding Frenzy Suet Dough Cakes

Couple your black oil sunflower seeds with some extra fuel: these suet cakes can be added as standalone extras or can be used to house some of your seeds for the ultimate fuel boost.

(Image credit: Wirestock / Getty Images)

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Raised beds continue to reach new heights in popularity, meaning landscape designers are dreaming up ever-more innovative ideas. Whether you live in the city or the country, raised bed gardening is a practical option for housing flowers, foliage and vegetables, allowing you to create perfect growing conditions at a level that's easy to tend to. But it's time to forget about basic wooden boxes and think instead of raised beds that will work far harder as part of your garden design.

These raised bed ideas will inspire you if you're looking for fresh, on-trend solutions to reimagine your garden, that are achievable on a DIY basis. You don’t always need a big budget to grow plants in above-ground beds, especially if you get creative by repurposing. Everyday objects and materials can be turned into raised garden beds that not only look good but are productive, too, such as the old water tanks planted with a feast of foliage in this stunning designer garden.

Which of these innovative raised bed ideas will inspire you to add this essential garden design element to your backyard?

1. Create Color-Block Beds of Immersive Planting

(Image credit: Tim Sandall/RHS)

A tranquil sanctuary within a compact urban space is the dream if you live in the city and want to escape from the bustle. By using raised beds to achieve wraparound planting and create a fully immersive experience, you'll make the most of a compact outdoor space like a balcony, terrace or courtyard. Use this idea, too, to create a hidden sanctuary in a larger garden. Taller raised beds means you can feel surrounded by nature, even if you live in the middle of the city, especially if you plant them with cold-hardy evergreen vines for privacy.

Painting raised beds in a vivid block color like the brilliant orange used here adds an uplifting, sunny holiday vibe, especially when combined with foliage plants. To give a similar look to existing planters, use Rust-Oleum Real Orange General Purpose Spray Paint, available from The Home Depot, which covers wood, metal and plastic and is suitable for exterior use.

2. Make Room for Wildlife With Upcycled Materials

(Image credit: Josh Kemp-Smith/RHS)

As well as creating an appealing design feature, these innovative brick raised bed ideas are a low-tech, sustainable method that’s easy to install as well as being practical and affordable. To ensure stability, these raised beds were built with vertical rebar rods running through holes in vent bricks, but you could achieve the same effect by stacking regular bricks such as these from The Home Depot around cheap metal raised beds such as these from Walmart.

The nooks and crannies created between the bricks offer stylish shelters for beneficial bugs, making this an eco-friendly design that will benefit wildlife. Add nectar-rich plants for pollinators like the tall golden Verbascum blooms used here, and you have an incredibly stylish designer-look wildlife garden. Also known as mullein, verbascum is much favored by landscape designers for its elegant spikes of densely packed flower heads above silvery gray felted leaves. A drought-tolerant perennial, Southern Charm Verbascum plants are available from Burpee for blooms from spring to fall that attract butterflies and bees.

3. Use Hexagonal Beds for Geometric Appeal

(Image credit: Josh Kemp-Smith/RHS)

Mixing hexagonal raised beds into a garden design adds a geometric vibe and allows a more complex play of light and shade. Whether you choose a sleek finish such as this Exaco Hexagonal Raised planter from Walmart or a more industrial feel with a metal planter like this Hexagon Galvanized Steel Raised Bed from Wayfair, moving away from a standard rectangle immediately creates interest. Raised beds of differing shapes also improves flexibility, allowing you to maximise space in a small garden.

This designer garden of hexagonal raised beds makes the most of the additional vertical surfaces by using an aesthetically appealing weathered metal. By adding smaller cubes amid the hexagonal planters, striking big-leafed plants that need to be moved indoors overwinter can be easily included, too, such as elephant ear (Alocasia Regal Shields is available from Nature Hills).

4. Repurpose a Stock Tank as a Raised Planter

(Image credit: Josh Kemp-Smith/RHS)

Repurposed stock tanks are increasingly being seen in designer gardens as landscapers seek more sustainable backyard ideas. The growing popularity of galvanised metal tanks means that watertight troughs can now command a premium but, especially if you live in a rural area, you'll likely be able to pick up old, leaky tanks cheaply at yard sales and vintage stores.

Buying new can be done on a budget, too, and the range of Tarter galvanized steel stock tanks are easily smart enough to shine in any garden design, with a good variety of sizes – this 4-foot-long oval tank is available from Lowe's and holds 40 gallons, all the way to this 6-foot 170-gallon Tarter trough, also from Lowe's.

As long as the stock tank you choose has good depth and you add drainage holes, you can create a really productive growing space.

5. Create a Compact Raised-Bed Rain Garden

(Image credit: Sarah Cuttle/RHS)

Climate change is affecting us all so there's never been a better time to make your garden more adaptable and resilient, especially to flooding. Start with small and simple changes to your plot such as directing rainwater into a raised bed planter. This not only slows the rush of rainwater through your garden but of course it means these plants get watered for free. Covering the planting surface of the soil with a gravel mulch protects soil from being washed away.

If you're already harvesting rainwater, it's also possible to use a raised-bed rain planter to take the overflow from a rain barrel such as this stylish Eco Bark Rain Barrel with a decorative planter top from Lowe's. Aquatic plants such as this Dutch rush Equisetum Hyemale add even more interest.

6. Turn a Raised Bed into a Water Feature

(Image credit: Josh Kemp-Smith/RHS)

If you love the look of raised beds, try layering up your garden design elements by using one as a water feature. It's easier than you think to DIY a water feature using a solar-powered floating fountain and, if you take a tip from this designer garden and site it alongside your existing raised beds, you'll add light, movement and sound alongside the plants.

To make the planter watertight, you'll need to plug drainage holes and line seals with marine sealant such as this from Amazon or line a wooden planter with flexible pond liner such as this, also from Amazon.

7. Create a Conversation Pit to Escape to

(Image credit: Joanna Kossak/RHS)

Raised beds can be used as 'walls' to define different parts of the garden, especially those that benefit from privacy like a conversation pit or green space for yoga. By using raised beds to form a square with just an entrance gap, you effectively divide the space within it into a separate area of the garden with a clearly defined purpose, and it's visually appealing, too.

While this contemporary outdoor space uses raised beds to frame a sunken area with a granite fire-table for evening relaxation, you could create the same immersive effect without the level change. Using gabion cage planters such as these Raised Bed Planters from Amazon to form the 'walls' would add to the structural, architectural feel, and a simple mix of green foliage and grasses increases privacy, too.

8. Add Curves to a Raised Bed Design

(Image credit: Tim Sandall/RHS)

If you're handy at DIY and are planning on constructing your own raised beds from wood, how about adding curves to create a captivating garden detail. As well as forming a backdrop for an integrated backyard bench, this design maximises planting space with its attractive sloping sides. Using striking groundcover plants that flower for months will stabilise the sloping soil and prevent it from being washed away, as well as adding vibrant color to the raised border.

9. Repurpose Finds into Contemporary Features

(Image credit: Josh Kemp-Smith/RHS)

Who would ever guess that the raised beds in this designer garden were made from old filing cabinets? And who doesn't love the idea of finding something old and giving it new life with upcycling ideas, especially if you're designing a garden on a budget. As this garden proves, once painted in vibrant colors, upcycled items can add a contemporary feel to your garden as well as a homely, vintage aesthetic.

Be resourceful and think about adapting old baths and sinks, recycled plastic barrels or bins, or building a bed from free lumber such as railroad ties, because the only limit to upcycled raised bed ideas is your imagination. Just remember to drill plenty of drainage holes. Consider the safety and environmental impact of any materials you find, and opt for natural materials or those that haven't been chemically treated so they're suitable for growing plants.

Raised Beds to Create More Planting Space

Corner transformation

Corner Raised Bed

Got an unused backyard corner? This bed's assembly system reduces assembly time and the shape slots perfectly into a corner.

Driveway design

Round Raised Beds

Small but tall circular beds planted with trailing stems work well in gravelled areas such as a drive, creating standalone design features.

Front-yard veggies

Oval Raised Bed

Low oval metal beds with an open-base design can quickly turn an unused front-yard lawn area into a productive vegetable patch.

Few climbing vines capture the imagination quite like clematis (Clematis spp.). Known affectionately as the queen of climbers, this versatile perennial creates an enchanting display as it scrambles up trellises and pergolas. It grows fast and blooms profusely, but it’ll also take over your landscape given half a chance. And because there are so many different varieties blooming at different times, fall care needs to be carefully tailored to your particular clem. What keeps one variety thriving could easily strip another of next year’s flowers.

Understanding your clematis vine’s growth habit and bloom routine is key to protecting its long-term vitality this fall. September represents a crucial crossroads. Late-summer bloomers are putting on their last shows of the season, while spring-flowering types are storing up energy reserves in their roots for next year. Taking just 20 minutes this week to attend to your climber’s seasonal needs is not just about keeping things tidy or looking good. These targeted fall interventions prevent premature winter exhaustion, shield sensitive crowns from freeze-thaw cycles, and lay down the foundations needed for explosive spring growth.

The little things you do now will directly determine future displays, the number of blooms you’ll enjoy, and the richness, size and velvety nature of the petals. Whether you’re growing a vigorous ground-planted specimen or nurturing a container-grown clematis on a sunny patio, early fall is your chance to lock in gorgeous future blooms. By tackling these simple checks right now, you can extend current displays while guaranteeing a stunning performance next year.

Help Your Clematis in September

Before reaching for your garden tools, make sure you know your vine’s pruning group or classification. There are 3 main clematis types: spring flowering, multi-flowering, and early fall flowering. Clematis plants fall into one of these groups based on when they bloom and whether their flowers form on old or new wood. So the care approach you take this month needs to be tailored to their group:

• Group 1 (spring bloomers): Varieties like C. montana Rubens or C. alpina set their flower buds on old wood during late summer. In September, these vines should be mainly left alone.
• Group 2 (large-flowered early summer types): Repeat-bloomers like Nelly Moser, Niobe and The President produce their primary display on old wood in early summer, followed by a secondary flush on new growth.
• Group 3 (late summer & fall bloomers): Vigorous late-season stars like Jackmanii, Etoile Violette, and fall-flowering C. terniflora flower entirely on current season's growth. They are either in peak bloom or winding down.

(Image credit: s1llu / Getty Images)

The nature and degree of your clematis care in September will depend on your USDA hardiness zone and growing setup. In cooler USDA hardiness zones (zones 4-6), take a look at soil temperature regulation and moisture checks before the ground freezes. Check soil moisture levels with a digital probe, or by dipping your finger two inches into the root zone. The XLUX Moisture Meter Probe, available from Amazon, can help you avoid overwatering as your plant heads towards dormancy.

Container-grown clematis face extreme temperature fluctuations as ambient air chills pots quickly. Refreshing compacted soils with an airy, well-draining mix, like Back to the Roots Organic Succulent & Cacti Mix from Walmart, ensures healthy roots before winter cold sets in. Once you have a basic read on these levels, you can get cracking with these simple checks for happy clems in fall and into the new year.

1. Resist the Urge to Prune

(Image credit: Robitaille / Getty Images)

The single biggest mistake you can make in September is reaching for the shears for a heavy cleanup. For Group 1 spring-bloomers like C. alpina or C. montana Rubens, or Group 2 repeat-bloomers like Nelly Moser, vines have already set flower buds for next season. Cutting back this old wood in early fall eliminates your future spring floral show before it starts.

Even fall-flowering Group 3 types like Jackmanii benefit from keeping top growth intact through late fall. The fading foliage acts as a protective canopy, insulating the crown against early frosts. Plus, any cuts you make while the plants are still flowering risk cutting short the bloom season. You can prune these just as easily in spring and that also means they pass the winter with additional protection.

So this first task is really about holding back, and only making cuts to fall-blooming varieties if you absolutely must. The only exception is removing dead, diseased, or wind-damaged stems. Use a pair of Fiskars Micro-Tip Non-Stick Pruning Snips from Amazon to cleanly slice thin stems. For thicker, woody cuts, heavy-duty Corona ComfortGEL Bypass Pruners from Lowe’s are comfortable and precise. Make 45-degree cuts just above healthy leaf nodes to prevent dieback.

2. Deadhead Fading Blooms

(Image credit: Kunphel / Getty Images)

While structural pruning is off-limits, deadheading spent flowers is a vital task across all clematis groups this month. Removing faded petals prevents the vine wasting precious energy on seed production, redirecting those essential sugars down into root storage. Fewer seed heads also means less self-seeding. Prolific self-seeders like C. terniflora are classified as invasive in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. So it can be bad news if fluffy seed heads are allowed to scatter. A thorough deadhead prevents unwanted offspring.

Systematically snipping off fading flower heads keeps your vertical displays neat while protecting your landscape. To give your vines a pick-me-up while deadheading, mist yellowing foliage with a seaweed tonic, such as Neptune's Harvest Organic Fish & Seaweed Fertilizer, from Amazon. This provides a gentle, potassium-rich boost that strengthens plants without triggering sappy growth. After deadheading, apply a preventative spray of Arber Organic Bio-Fungicide Concentrate from Walmart. This gentle treatment stops fungal spores from overwintering in foliage, ensuring your vines enter dormancy clean and disease-free.

3. Topdress Soil with Organic Compost

(Image credit: Ashley Belle Burns / Getty Images)

September is a great time to add a slim layer of compost to the top of the soil in the clematis bed. Clematis vines are heavy feeders with deep, thirsty root systems that crave rich organic matter. Applying a generous layer of organic compost to the root zone now allows fall rains and winter snowmelt to break down nutrients slowly, washing essential trace minerals deep into the root zone as vines wake up again next year. By spring, the plant will be accessing the perfect dose of nutrients.

Spread a 2-inch (5cm) layer of well-rotted organic compost evenly around the base of the vine. Keep a couple of inches (5cm) away from the main stems to prevent stem rot. For an extra boost of slow-release phosphorus and calcium (vital for next year’s blooms) dust the bare soil with Down To Earth Fish Bone Meal, available from Lowe’s, before laying down your compost. Alternatively, scratch a handful of Jobe’s Organics Rose & Flower Granular Fertilizer from Walmart into the topsoil. This beneficial feed fortifies roots against the cold.

4. Apply a Thick Blanket of Mulch

(Image credit: Vasil Dimitrov / Getty Images)

There’s a saying for clematis that insists on "heads in the sun, feet in the shade" and this is even more critical as fall transitions into winter. In September, applying a generous 3-4-inch (8-10cm) layer of organic mulch acts as a crucial blanket for roots. A thick layer of mulch (4-6 inches) stops weeds from growing, and also prevents them from gobbling down nutrients and moisture that could benefit your clem. Mulch also moderates soil temperature, preventing the freeze-thaw cycles that can heave shallow roots out of the ground and expose them to frost in harsh winter spells. The more bitter your winter weather, the more you need mulch.

Spread a clean layer of team favorite Back to the Roots Organic Premium Mulch from Amazon over your compost layer. Take care to leave a 2-inch (5cm) gap around the central stem to ensure proper air circulation. If stray winds threaten to whip top-heavy vines around, secure hoots to your trellis using Nutscene Heritage Green Jute Garden Twine, also from Amazon. This biodegradable twine holds stems firmly in place without biting into tender growth or snapping during storms.

5. Protect Container-Grown Clematis

(Image credit: Blickwinkel / Alamy)

Clematis grown in containers are far more vulnerable to winter cold than ground-planted vines. Because container roots sit above ground, severe frosts can freeze the root ball and kill delicate feeder roots overnight. So in September, it’s a good idea to inspect and prep your container setup to ensure that potted stars such as Comtesse de Bouchaud or Niobe are able to survive the cold months ahead.

Check your pot offers superior drainage and aeration. If potting soil has become compacted, blend a little coarse sand or perlite like Sta-Green Organic Perlite from Lowe’s around the inner container edges. This will help to prevent waterlogging. It’s best if the pot is made of terracotta for better cold protection. However, you can bury the pot in the ground or add extra insulation this month.

To shield vulnerable root systems, wrap outer container walls with bubble wrap or burlap, or move pots into an unheated garage or cold frame. Alternatively, place the pot in a thick cardboard box packed with dry leaves. For better pest protection before overwintering, treat foliage with Captain Jack’s Neem Oil Concentrate from Walmart to clear away spider mites or scale insects, so your clem rests safely all winter long.

Shop Clematis Care Essentials

(Image credit: Lisa Herlick / Getty Images)

Preparing your clematis for the cooler months requires very little. Just a few high-quality organic controls, light supports, and proper protective mulches will guarantee a stunning floral return next year. This trio of top vining essentials will help to keep your velvety blooming climbers healthy through fall and beyond.

Fab Fall Trio

Root Cooling

Back to the Roots Back to the Roots Organic Premium Mulch

This high-quality wood mulch insulates sensitive roots against freeze-thaw cycles while suppressing weeds and locking in soil moisture.

Pest Protection

Captain Jack's Bonide Captain Jack's 8 Oz Neem Max Concentrate

Make sure your vines go into dormancy clean, healthy and protected. This organic 3-in-1 spray clears away lingering pests like mites and scale.

Gentle Support

Nancy Nikko Nutscene Heritage Green Jute Garden Twine

Clems need firm support that won’t tear. This soft twine gently secures heavy vines to trellises, preventing winds from tearing shoots or damaging stems.

Taking care of your clematis this month is a smart investment in the future blooming power of your favorite climber, and these tasks take just 20 minutes to carry out. By deadheading spent blooms and tucking the roots under a cozy layer of compost and mulch, you’ll ensure that your queen of climbers survives the cold months in peak condition. So give your vines a little TLC today, and then sit back as they reward you with an unforgettable explosion of blooms next season…

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Who doesn’t want more plants for free? September is a great time to harvest native plant seeds you already have in your yard and expand your gardens. Or if you want to try new native plants, exchange seeds with friends or harvest from the wild in permissible areas.

Many native perennials need a moist, cold treatment, called stratification, before germinating in spring. The cold, wet weather during winter signals the seeds to prepare for germination when the weather warms.

You can harvest those seeds now and store them till late fall or early winter, then plant the seeds in the ground or in containers for more control. If planting in containers, keep an eye on the moisture level till the ground freezes and again in the spring. To keep birds and squirrels out of the plantings, cover them with tulle, hardware cloth, or chicken wire.

Flower seeds to harvest in fall that do not need cold stratification can be planted right away. The ground is warm so seeds germinate quickly. Even if they do not germinate right away, they should emerge on their own timetable in spring. Here are the easiest-to-grow native plant seeds you can harvest in September to expand your garden for free.

Seed Saving Essentials

Fiskars Bypass Pruning Shears

A sharp, clean pair of pruners like these is a necessity for seed harvesting in September.

UCandy Soil Sifter for Gardening

This nifty sifter is half off right now! It makes separating the seeds from the chaff so much easier.

ARTDOT Storage Container

This clever craft bead organizer makes the perfect seed storage container, according to Content Editor Kathleen who's used it for years.

Native Plant Seeds to Harvest Now

When you are giving plants a haircut in midsummer, be sure to leave a few untouched so they can go to seed. Cutting off the faded flowers will also cut off seed production for that flower. And leave a few seedheads for the local wildlife, too. Birds and small mammals eat the seeds in winter when foraging for food.

The plants you want to collect seeds from should be native species and not cultivars of native plants. Most cultivars do not come true from seed. Here are five native plant species you can harvest from now to get more plants for free.

1. Purple Coneflower

(Image credit: Fasil Tiru / 500px / Getty Images)

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is one of the showiest and easiest native plants to grow from seed. Its flowers – drooping, dark pink petals surrounding a center cone – are popular pollinator and songbird favorites in USDA hardiness zones 3 to 9.

It will reseed and grow on its own whether or not you collect the seeds. To start them in a different area, all you need to do is cut a few stalks with the dark brown seedheads, place them in the new area and – presto! – instant coneflowers next spring. But if you want to save seed for yourself or share with others, there should be plenty of dry, brown center cones in September.

To collect the seedheads, wait until they are completely dry then cut the dark brown, stiff cones from the stalk and drop them into a small, labeled paper bag. To remove the seeds, you can tap the heads on a table and they should fall out. Or, with gloved hands, lightly rub the cones.

Coneflower seeds benefit from cold stratification to awaken from dormancy so direct sow the seeds shallowly outdoors in the fall. Or, simulate winter by storing them in moist sand or moist paper towels sealed in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for eight weeks.

To transplant seedlings in spring, sow seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the average last frost date. Lightly cover the seeds with soil and mist them daily till they germinate in about 10 to 20 days.

2. Butterfly Weed

(Image credit: Susan Albert / Future)

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is one of my top five garden plants. It is drought tolerant, blooms off and on all summer with bright orange clusters of nectar-filled flowers, and is a host plant for the monarch butterfly, growing in USDA zones 3 to 9. The seedpods split open when the seeds are ripe and dark brown seeds float out on fluffy silk. Butterfly weed reseeds on its own, but you can collect the seedpods before they open.

To harvest the seeds, cut off the pods when they are turning light brown and the seam separates easily when pressed. If you can see dark brown seeds inside then they are mature. Green or white seeds or an unyielding pod indicate the seeds are not ready for harvesting.

Once ready, break open the seam, and to keep the silk rope intact, grasp it firmly at the top and gently remove it with the seeds attached. Continue holding the top of the silk while using a finger to lightly push the seeds off the silk.

Milkweed seeds need cold stratification to break dormancy. Sow seeds shallowly outside in late fall in a sunny, permanent location with well-draining soil. Seeds remain in the soil through winter, then germinate in spring. To simulate cold stratification, store the seeds in moist sand or in a moist paper towel in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for one month.

To transplant seedlings in spring, start seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before the average last frost date. Sow them in deep, 4-inch (10.2 cm) cells to accommodate the growing taproot. Use a heat mat if available. Perennials spend their energy the first two years growing roots and foliage, so they may not bloom for three years.

3. Wild Bergamot

(Image credit: Brian Woolman / Shutterstock)

Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) is the lavender-colored, fragrant monarda that blooms abundantly in early summer, forming a large mound that increases by rhizomes as well as seeds. Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds love the nectar-rich flowers that grow in USDA hardiness zones 3 to 9.

When the flowers fade, seeds mature within two months, forming dry, brown seedheads. Cut off the seedheads and place in a labeled paper bag. Allow to dry further indoors, then pull the seedheads apart to reveal the tiny, brown, oval seeds. Remove the chaff and place seeds in a paper envelope or paper bag and store in a cool, dry location.

Monarda does not need any pre-treatment to germinate, so the dry seeds can be stored until planting time. They can be planted outside in full sun in well-drained soil right now or in spring after the danger of frost is past.

To transplant seedlings in spring, start seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the average last frost date. Plant them in seed starting trays or containers using a moist, soilless potting mix.

These plants need light to germinate, so sprinkle them on the surface of the medium and press down. Set the trays in a sunny window or under grow lights. Mist the soil daily till germination occurs in about one to three weeks.

4. Blanket Flower

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Blanket flower (Gaillardia aristata) is a short-lived perennial with bicolor red and yellow, daisy-like flowers that attract butterflies. There are many annual and perennial varieties to choose from, but they all require well-draining soil in full sun to thrive and are hardy in zones 3 to 10.

Blanket flower blooms from midsummer to early fall, and flowers left on the plant will dry and produce seed in a rounded center that's relished by goldfinches. To harvest the seeds, cut off dried seedheads when the heads are brown or gray and seeds pull away easily. Remove the chaff and allow the seeds to thoroughly dry before storing in paper envelopes or bags in a dry, cool location.

For earlier blooming, start seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost. Press the seeds onto moist, soilless potting mix and do not cover. Gaillardia seeds need light to germinate such as from a sunny window or grow lights. A heat mat is beneficial, too.

Mist daily until they germinate in two to three weeks. You also can direct sow seeds into the ground after the last frost but they may not bloom till the second year.

5. Threadleaf Coreopsis

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Threadleaf coreopsis (Anacis verticillata) is a showy perennial with lacy, airy leaves and yellow daisy-like flowers that blooms from late spring to late summer. It grows best in full sun and well-drained, poor soil in USDA zones 3 to 9.

Threadleaf coreopsis grows easily from seed and attracts birds and butterflies. Collect the small, golden, dried seedheads about four weeks after the flowers fade. Seeds are small, black or gray, and oblong. Separate them from the chaff and store in paper envelopes or bags in a dry, cool location.

Plant threadleaf coreopsis seeds in late fall or early spring without cold treatment. They need light to germinate so press seeds lightly into the soil. To transplant seedlings in spring, start seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the average last frost.

Press the seeds onto moist, soilless potting mix and do not cover. Place the container in a sunny window or under grow lights. Mist daily until the seeds germinate.

Two tomatoes on the same vine can have completely different futures. One has finished growing and is only waiting on warmth and ethylene to turn it red. The other is still filling out and probably won't get the chance. Every trick below works on the first one and does almost nothing for the second.

Most of what gets written about growing tomatoes in the closing weeks comes down to a single move: take jobs away from the plant so it finishes the ones it started. That part is sound. Past it, ripening runs on ethylene and temperature, and temperature is the variable a gardener can still nudge in late September.

Which Tomatoes Will Ripen?

(Image credit: Iryna Boiko/Getty Images)

Size and shade tell you almost everything. A tomato that has stopped swelling and gone from dark green to a pale, nearly whitish green has reached what growers call mature green. That one finishes ripening on its own, whether on the vine or indoors, and the flavor holds up fine. A hard, matte, undersized tomato is still in the middle of growing. Fruit at that stage tends to rot before it turns.

The calendar backs the eye up here. Pollination to full size runs something like six to eight weeks, so a blossom that opened in early September was never in the race. Pinching those off costs nothing. Whatever survives that triage is the real crop, and it's usually a smaller pile than it looks from the driveway.

Three Moves That Work

Three to four weeks ahead of the average first frost date is when this becomes useful. Earlier and you're ending the season by hand. Later and there's nothing left to work with.

1. Snap Off the Top

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Take the growing tip off each main stem, then strip the flowers and marble-sized fruit underneath. It feels harsh. A plant only has so much sugar to hand out, and every blossom opening in late September is a claim on sugar that could be finishing a tomato instead. Amazon sells a classic bypass hand pruner if the stems have gone woody, though a thumbnail handles soft new growth. One caveat: this suits rangy indeterminate vines. Determinate types set a fixed crop and can lose yield when they get cut back heavily.

2. Water Less

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Advice to shut irrigation off completely turns up everywhere, and it overshoots. Once fruit stops getting bigger, it's good to cut the amount you water tomatoes in half – that is shown to raise sugar content consistently across trials.

Going bone dry is a different animal. Plants swing back sharply when water returns, and split tomato skins and blossom end rot follow. So taper it down instead. The payoff here is flavor more than speed, which is useful to know before rebuilding a watering schedule around it.

3. Trap Heat at Night

(Image credit: Irina Khabarova / Getty Images)

Color development wants 68-77F (20-25C). Push past 85F (29C) and the plant quits making lycopene altogether. Drop under 50F (10C) and green fruit collects chilling injury instead of color. September nights sit right at that lower edge in a lot of places, which is where a cover earns its keep.

A floating row cover from Home Depot goes straight over cages and buys back a few degrees. Throw it on before sunset rather than at bedtime, while the ground is still radiating the day's warmth. Clear plastic holds more of it and has to come off by mid-morning. Fruit already showing a blush responds to all this far more than hard green fruit does.

The Spade Trick, and Why It Probably Doesn't Do What You Think

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Here's one floating around. Sink a spade into the soil about 6 inches (15cm) from the stem, sever the outer roots, and the plant supposedly panics and rushes everything to ripeness. It's a satisfying story. The trouble is that a tomato past mature green ripens on its own ethylene, more or less independent of what the roots are up to, and there isn't much research pointing either way on the technique. What root cutting reliably produces this late in the season is a wilted plant. The gentler tug-the-base version probably does even less.

If the Frost Wins Anyway

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Pick before the first hard night rather than after it. Green fruit that sits through a 40F (4C) night comes indoors already compromised. Hang a wireless min-max thermometer from Walmart out in the bed and you'll know what the plants are getting, which is rarely what a countywide forecast says.

Clip tomatoes with a short stub of stem attached; a torn shoulder is an open door for rot. Then sort the harvest by color so like ripens with like, and hold it at 55-70F (13-21C). A cardboard box in a spare bedroom is close to perfect. The refrigerator strips flavor out of anything not fully ripe, and a sunny windowsill overheats by afternoon.

Anything still hard and dark green when the vines come down is headed for the fryer or the relish jar. That isn't the worst ending for a September that got away from you.

September sees the return of fungus gnats, but there’s a very easy, very lovely way to control them: grow a butterwort as a houseplant and it'll eat them all up. Butterworts are carnivorous plants that produce a sticky dew on their leaves to trap flies, and clumsy fungus gnats are easy prey. And that’s a real relief for us indoor gardeners right now, as the end of summer is peak time for pesky little sciarid flies that breed in houseplant soil. So, rather than reaching for yellow sticky fly traps from Amazon to control those annoying houseplant flies, grow a pretty little butterwort instead.

Butterworts – or ‘pings’ as they’re often called on account of their Latin species name, Pinguicula – are small houseplants so they’ll fit alongside your current plant collection. Leaves grow in neat rosettes with a sticky coating that gives the plant a silvery, sparkling appearance, and tiny flowers grow on slender stalks in spring or summer. Get a few basics right – all explained below – and butterworts are simple to grow, and as plants grow bigger, they'll even gobble up mosquitoes.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

And really, which would you rather see on your windowsill?

(Image credit: Melanie Griffiths)Pick a Mexican Butterwort

While all butterworts are carnivorous, not all are created equal when it comes to catching fungus gnats. If you're serious about ridding your houseplants of sciarid flies, then Mexican (also called tropical) butterworts make far better living flypapers than North American butterworts. Mexican butterworts form rosettes of wide, flat leaves with lots more horizontal landing space for gnats than North American butterworts, and they’re far easier to grow, too. While North American butterworts require humid conditions to grow well and are prone to rotting, Mexican butterworts are far more resilient and will happily sit on a windowsill without much TLC.

Look for Pinguicula cyclosecta, also known as the purple-leaf butterwort on account of the lavender tone its leaves can develop, which has pretty deep violet-purple flowers. Mexican butterwort Pinguicula cyclosecta is available from the Bloomify Store via Amazon. Another Mexican butterwort is Pinguicula esseriana, also available from the Bloomify Store via Amazon. This has pale green, pink-flushed leaves and paler lilac-hued flowers. Both grow to 4 inches high and wide.

(Image credit: Getty Images)How to Care for Mexican Butterwort

Butterworts evolved to extract nutrients from trapped flies because they grow in very poor soil. Replicate this with a potting soil designed specifically for carnivorous plants such as Professional Carnivorous Plant Soil from the Leaves and Soul Store via Amazon. This is vital – use standard potting soil and your plant will probably die.

Just as essential is to irrigate your butterwort with rainwater or distilled water such as Parent’s Choice Distilled Water from Walmart. Tap water contains minerals which will build up in the potting soil and kill your butterwort. It’s best to keep the soil just-damp by standing the pot in a half-inch-deep saucer that you keep permanently topped up with water. That way, the plant will wick just the right amount of water it needs.

A Mexican butterwort is easily scorched by strong midday sun but needs a few hours of gentle sunlight to produce plenty of the fly-trapping sticky dew. Direct sunlight will also bring out the pretty pink or purple foliage colors, so choose a warm windowsill that gets morning or evening sun but is cast into shade through the central part of the day.

If you want to use your butterwort to keep shady houseplants gnat-free, a full-spectrum LED grow light will work just as effectively as sunlight. This needn’t be expensive, as this $13 programmable halo grow light from Walmart proves.

How Effective are Butterworts at Controlling Fungus Gnats?

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

These carnivorous plants will only deal with the adult fungus gnat population and for every sciarid fly you see flying around, there will be hundreds more larvae in the soil. To break the gnats’ lifecycle, you’ll also need to deal with the larvae and maggots that hatch from eggs laid just under the soil surface of your houseplants. Use a natural soil drench that targets larvae like FGX from Amazon. Another smart move is to reduce fungus gnats by sprinkling cassia cinnamon on houseplant soil as its anti-fungal properties help to remove the maggots’ food source in the soil.

Butterworts can enter a state of dormancy over winter, though Mexican butterworts are less quick to nap than North American species as long as they're kept warm enough. During dormancy, the rosettes shrink to the size of a coin and leaves lose their stickiness. There’s no need to worry though – just reduce watering and increase it again once you see signs of growth in spring, and your butterwort will be just fine. Because fungus gnats are most active in September and October and again in April and May, dormancy won’t affect the plant’s performance as a living fly trap.

Butterworts are also fantastic at catching whiteflies, those tiny sap-sucking bugs that can infest the undersides of houseplant leaves and quickly breed in greenhouses. Many folk grow butterworts in their greenhouses to help control whitefly, but you’ll need to make sure you shade plants from strong sunlight.

Mexican butterworts are simple to propagate by leaf pulling, so you can quickly and easily expand your carnivorous collection to give houseplants more protection from fungus gnats. Bye bye sciarid flies!

(Image credit: ViniSouza128 / Getty Images)

Privet has long been the go-to shrub for creating a leafy screen or filling a garden border, and fairly so. It's a speedy grower, tough as nails and semi-evergreen to boot. And yet...

Well, and yet it lacks imagination, acting as the gardening equivalent of choosing beige paint for every single room in the house. And there's another reason many have started looking beyond privet, too – did you know that several species are now considered invasive in parts of the US, crowding out native plants and woodlands?

It's little wonder, then, that has plenty of people are searching for alternatives that are just as attractive, but kinder to local wildlife. Which raises a very important question: if you weren't planting privet, what would you grow instead?

The Berry-Covered Shrub Of Your Dreams

For me, the answer is simple, as there's one rather extraordinary shrub that has been catching my eye lately. It spends most of the year flying under the radar, blending quietly into the background while showier plants steal the spotlight.

Come fall, though, its stems become wrapped in impossibly bright clusters of jewel-like purple berries, transforming an otherwise unassuming shrub into one of the most eye-catching plants in the entire garden.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Looking like something that's been plucked straight from a fairytale (or an alien planet, depending on which genre you favor), American beautyberry is a native shrub that's arguably every bit as useful as privet, but infinitely more interesting once fall rolls around.

Thriving in USDA hardiness zones 6-11, this one is a deciduous shrub which makes for a softer, more natural-looking screen, and one that offers something exciting in fall to boot. And, better still, those purple berries aren't just for decoration: they're an important food source for wildlife, too.

Shop American Beautyberry:

Generic American Beautyberry Shrub

HILROQG American Beautyberry Live Plant

Florida Foliage American Beautyberry | 3 Live Plants | Callicarpa Americana | Drought-Tolerant, Vibrant Purple Berries, Attracts Birds & Butterflies | Easy to Grow

Yes, robins, brown thrashers, purple finches and eastern towhees all love to feed on beautyberry, making it a no-brainer for those who want to transform their yard into a bird sanctuary (and, yes, other wildlife can also eat the fruits).

Better still, beautyberry doesn't need to be fussed over constantly; in fact, it can grow in full sun or partial shade and tolerates a range of soil types as long as drainage is good. It's also relatively free from serious pest and disease problems, making it well worth a second look.

Before rushing out to replace your privet with beautyberry, make sure you bear in mind the fact that this isn't a shrub for a formal hedge. Unless you're prepared to prune it regularly, actually, it can become a bit of a beast, making it much better suited to informal screens and borders.

(Image credit: Nitimongkolchai / Getty Images)

Plant several together, though? Why, you can create a loose screen with a much more natural appearance... and, when fall arrives, you'll get something privet simply can't provide: those incredible clusters of purple fruit.

Privet certainly has its uses, but if you want a shrub to do more than simply create a wall of green, then American beautyberry deserves a place on your shortlist. It brings spectacular late-season color, feeds birds and pollinators, and offers a much wilder, more interesting look than a traditional privet hedge.

And those jewel-like purple berries? Well, they're certainly a more interesting garden conversation starter than another perfectly clipped hedge.

Taking cuttings is one of gardening’s most exciting leaps of faith. Cuttings that start life in little glass jars of water might be the ultimate next-generation lottery. And you know what? I don’t have a hundred percent success rate. I’m constantly drawn to preserve an old favorite or bulk out a collection of living color, but heck, I’ve seen my share of stubborn, root-free stems eventually collecting funk in jars.

Case in point: earlier this year, I nurtured a few cuttings from my prized Kong coleus through late winter, gripped with a desire to enjoy that lush magenta foliage again. Those little water cuttings rooted like troopers on my cozy windowsill, and by early spring, I was looking forward to potting them on. Imagine my dismay when just before potting day, I woke up to find these tender plant cuttings had inexplicably blackened overnight. What made it more galling was seeing the healthy white roots that still supported those lifeless stumps. Those roots were like a lush support act for a main event I would forever be denied.

Yet moments like this don’t dampen my enthusiasm for water-based cuttings. The way I see it, those heartbreaking fails make the windowsill triumphs sweeter. For every lost coleus, I’ve nurtured a stash of new plants using jars and tap water. This simple process removes many of the guessing games of pot propagation, allowing you to watch new life taking shape every day. September is the perfect month to safeguard the future of some of our most well-loved plants. Here’s my trio of personal favorites that can be rooted in water this month to multiply your blooms and fruit for free, including one that might surprise you. So grab your snips and let’s dive in.

Great Cuttings to Root in Water

If spring propagation feels like a bit of a gamble, September water cuttings are a reliable victory lap. By late summer, key plants have spent months basking in the sun, stuffing their stems full of rich plant sugars. Taking semi-ripe cuttings (stems firm at the base but bendy at the top) capitalizes on these energy reserves. Choose the right cuttings, and your stems are packed with fuel and ready to sprout. I’m tackling 3 backyard favorites this month, including one widely believed to rot in water.

Because these stems are past the tender, rot-prone softwood stage of spring, but haven't hardened into dormant wood, they are primed for fast, vigorous root growth. Placing these stems in water allows you to watch the initial white callus tissue transform into robust root networks day by day. Placing them in jars turns your kitchen windowsill into a dynamic lab where you watch new life begin in real time.

(Image credit: Maki Nakamura / Getty Images)

The right cuts do matter. Dull blades will crush delicate tissue, impeding water uptake and inviting bacteria. To really enjoy the benefits of propagation, it’s worth investing in a pair of highly rated Fiskars Micro-Tip Pruning Snips from Amazon for razor-sharp cuts that don’t harm the plant. Clean blades before and after use with isopropyl alcohol or diluted neem. Make a crisp diagonal cut right beneath a leaf node, where growth hormones are concentrated. Strip off lower leaves, though, as a single leaf floating underwater will quickly turn your jar into a swampy mess.

Don't grab stems showing off big blooms or heavy fruit. You want stems that have finished their seasonal display, so all energy goes into pushing out roots instead of feeding fading blooms or crops. For an extra boost, give the freshly cut nodes a quick tap in Garden Safe TakeRoot Rooting Hormone Powder from Lowe’s before they hit the water. This rooting hormone (or a water-soluble rooting liquid) is like giving your stem a double espresso before it starts its rooting marathon. Ready to meet our trio?

1. Hydrangea Cuttings in Water

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If you want an instant propagation win, hydrangeas are a dream to start in water in September. Panicle types (like Limelight) and smooth varieties (such as Annabelle) root like gangbusters in water, and classic bigleaf hydrangea types (like Endless Summer) are equally rewarding. So head out into the yard with your snips or a pair of bypass shears for sturdier stems. If you want the best of the best, Swiss-designed Felco 2 Bypass Pruners from Amazon slice through stems with ease and efficiency.

(Image credit: Natallia Ustsinava / Shutterstock)

Hunt for fresh, non-flowering shoots from this year's growth. You want 4-6 inch (10-15cm) stem tips that are firm at the bottom but still have some give at the top. So no thick, crusty old branches or stems weighed down by fading mopheads! Cut just below a healthy leaf node. The thing that really makes a difference to the speed of hydrangea propagation is leaf reduction. Strip off the lower leaves, and trim the top remaining leaves straight across the middle. It looks a bit silly, but halving the leaves stops the cutting from pumping out moisture faster than its fresh stem can drink.

You can pop your hydrangea stems straight into fresh water without waiting for it to harden first. A simple jar is fine for hydrangea cuttings if you are grouping a few together. However, it’s not a bad idea to split them up into separate chambers to give each root room to grow (and you’d be amazed how fast these babies can root). I like the sturdy wooden propagation stations for hydrangea cuttings. For instance, the Yibot Propagation Station with Wooden Frame, available from Amazon, has generous glass capacity for hearty hydrangea roots without risking stem slippage. Place it on a warm, bright windowsill, but keep it shaded from harsh direct sunlight.

(Image credit: Iryna Kazlova / Getty Images)

You should start seeing little white root nubs popping out of the submerged nodes in just 10-14 days, with a full root system ready by the fourth week. As soon as those root nubs show up, add a tiny drop of Miracle-Gro Liquid Indoor Plant Food from Home Depot into the water for a little gourmet snack ahead of potting. This particular brand is great for narrow glass tubes, thanks to its muss-free pump dispenser. However, it’s wise to swap the water out every 2-3 days to keep it fresh. Watching these future blooming beauties root is genuinely exciting and lovely to watch.

2. Edible Fig Cuttings in Water

(Image credit: Biosphoto / Alamy)

If you’ve ever dreamed of growing your own edible fig tree for free, get ready for an aquatic event that will blow your mind. Propagating edible figs in water is one of late summer’s most rewarding windowsill surprises. Varieties such as 'Brown Turkey' or 'Celeste' can root in plain water with astonishing ease. Look for pencil-thick, 6-8 inch (15-20cm) stems where the wood is just turning from tender green to woody brown.

Make an angled cut just below a node on a semi-ripe stem (where the color is shifting from green to light brown). Make sure each cutting is pencil thick and has at least 2-3 healthy leaf nodes. Avoid old, rigid hardwood, as well as overly soft green tips that lack the structural integrity to support water propagation. However, don't dunk the cutting into water just yet, as figs have a sneaky little quirk to deal with.

(Image credit: Biosphoto / Alamy)

Fresh fig cuts bleed a sticky, milky white latex sap when cut. So if you pop the stem into a jar immediately, that sap will choke off fresh root growth. Instead, let your cut stem rest on a dry paper towel for 15 minutes to let the sap seal over nicely. Once sealed, slide the stem into water, but submerge only the bottom couple of inches (5cm). The stem needs its upper breathing pores exposed so it doesn't suffocate.

Go for jars that have a little extra height and sturdiness, such as Britegleam Tall Mason Jars from Walmart, which offer excellent support for top-heavy stems. If you can find tinted vessels, that’s also ideal for water-based fig cuttings, helping to protect delicate emerging roots from harsh sunlight.

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Place the jar on a warm windowsill to accelerate growth. Figs also crave bottom warmth to trigger quicker root formation. You can buy Vivosun Waterproof Heat Mats from Amazon at 20% off for a limited deal. Placed under the glass jars, these provide ambient bottom heat, accelerating root growth. You may well see those bumpy root nubs in just a couple of weeks, with a lush root web ready for soil by the fifth week.

3. Lavender Cuttings in Water (Yes, Really)

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If you want to ruffle a few traditional gardening feathers, try telling someone you’re rooting lavender cuttings in a jar of water. Conventional wisdom says Mediterranean herbs turn to goop in standing water. And yes, I’ve had my share of soggy stumps in my time, I won’t lie. But you live and learn, and there is a way to harness a secret loophole this month. I’m all about dreaming the impossible dream, and with the right stems and a simple kitchen hack, you can grow lavender from little water cuttings.

(Image credit: Oleksandr Rado / Alamy)

The trick lies in picking the right plant and stem. By choosing semi-ripe stems with a firm, semi-woody base but soft foliage at the top, your cuttings enjoy peak resilience. Hardy English lavender types such as Munstead or Hidcote respond best, whereas tender French or Spanish varieties are more temperamental. Look for non-flowering side shoots 3-4 inches (8-10cm) long. Make sure you strip off the bottom 60% of the leaves. This is a non-negotiable to happy cuttings. A single leaf swimming in water can be a recipe for stem rot, so just leave a tuft at the tip of each lavender cutting.

To suspend these tiny stems without drowning them, here’s a handy freebie hack for you. Grab some foil like Reynolds Wrap Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil from Walmart and secure over the opening of the jar you intend to use (preferably one with a narrow neck). Poke some tiny holes with a pin or needle and slide the bare stems of the cuttings into the jar. Make sure only the bottom inch of each one dips into the water. This holds the stems upright, while keeping every leaf high, dry, and happy.

(Image credit: Deborah Vernon / Alamy)

Patience is vital with lavender cuttings: unlike hydrangea and figgy snippings, they like to take their time. While hydrangeas root in a fortnight, lavender requires 4-6 weeks to push out delicate root threads. So don’t panic if you don’t see much happen for the first month. It’s worth the wait. Keep your jar on a bright windowsill, changing the water every 48 hours without fail to maintain good oxygen levels.

Since the days are getting shorter, a good grow light can help. The gooseneck Sansi Clip-On LED Full Spectrum Grow Light from Amazon is a budget way to enhance 12-hour light cycles without overheating stems. Or for something that caters to cuttings on a shelf or multiple heights, and can be adjusted easily, the Barrina T10 Full Spectrum Standing Grow Light from Amazon is currently on discount. With a few extra cuttings for insurance, this type of propagation has a surprising 60% success rate, so hold your nerve for free plants and you really can be living the dream.

When to Pot On and Plant Out

(Image credit: Alexander Knyazhinsky / Shutterstock)

Follow these water-based plant propagation tips, and you’re well on your way to a stack of new garden beauties. But before you celebrate, remember: getting those water-based cuttings to root is just the beginning, and there are still a few more after-care tips to keep in mind. The transition from water jar to potting medium is where many growers accidentally lose their baby plants (and I’ve learned this lesson the hard way myself).

Roots born in water are soft and fragile. These water roots are quite brittle, they lack fine root hairs, and they are adapted to liquid life. To prevent culture shock when moving them to solids, resist the urge to pot up at the first sign of emerging roots. Wait until those roots develop secondary branching threads 1.5-2 inches (4-5cm) long, before you make your move. When you do, treat those water roots like glass. GIve them a gentle, fluffy, ultra-breathable, well-draining soil mix or potting soil, equal parts potting mix and perlite or coarse sand.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

A great-value, lightweight option is Espoma Organic Potting Mix from The Home Depot, which contains earthworm castings and kelp meal to promote steady, balanced nutrient distribution and gently cushion fragile roots during their transition. Add some Plantonix Perlite Bliss Premium from Walmart to ensure sharp drainage for young lavender and fig cuttings as they settle into pots. This airy well-draining combo gives tiny roots room to breathe and spread without getting crushed.

Once potted up, give each plant the specific TLC it craves. Thirsty hydrangeas need soil consistently moist for the first 10 days while they settle in. Tuck your potted baby figgies into 4-inch (10cm) pots and keep on a bright, sunny, frost-free indoor windowsill to protect them through winter. For container-based lavender, keep the potting soil lean and super-gritty, go easy on the watering, and keep pots indoors until spring. Nurture them through the next few months, and your new free backyard favorites will be ready to go outside come spring.

(Image credit: Oksana Schmidt / Alamy)Shop Propagation Essentials

Water cuttings require remarkably little key equipment. If you can’t find anything else, there’s no shame in using a few jam jars to house your watery recruits. That said, some pretty vessels can make your propagation project a thing of beauty, and a few little extras help to make your new plants stronger and happier. To increase your chances of thriving new plants rather than rotting stems, make a little room for these helpful extras. From crystal-clear vessels to supplemental lighting, these top-rated essentials will help give your fall propagation project the best start.

Water Cutting Trio

Pretty Container

Glasseam Glasseam Mushroom Plant Propagation Station | Glass Plant Terrarium Jar With Wood Stand | Unique Hydroponic Planters

Turn your hydrangea propagation project into a colorful living work of art. These charming glass mushrooms enable you to monitor the rooting process, whilst adding a whimsical flourish to your living space. These vessels come in mixed heights, with the taller mushrooms working perfectly to showcase your eager hydrangeas.

Vertical Grow Light

Barrina Barrina T10 Full Spectrum Standing Grow Light

With a convenient timer and adjustable height, this grow light caters for a range of displays, as well as the specific needs of newly started cuttings. It’s easy to install and move, offering flexibility around the home. The extra light boost is ideal for lavender cuttings in fall.

Friendly Support

Peleg Design Leafriend Plant Propagation Buddy Plant Support for Cuttings

Just like all good friends, these sweet budget-friendly plant pals give much-needed support when things are a bit floppy. They are a lovely (and affordable) way to keep water-based cuttings growing in the right direction. Great support for figgy friends.

Propagating your favorite backyard plants in water is definitely worth a shot this fall. While not every stem will make it across the finish line, the wins far outweigh the losses. Grab your snips, fill a few glass jars, and turn a sunny windowsill into a winter nursery. By next spring, you'll be planting out a fortune in future bloomers and fruity heroes. From fast-rooting hydrangeas to surprising edible figs and a lucky lavender you might never have thought possible, this classic trio is well worth taking a dip for.

Need more ideas for getting the most from your plants, indoors and out, and looking for the best seasonal expert advice delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the free Gardening Know How Newsletter!

September is the ideal time to add a bug hotel to your garden, offering beneficial insects a safe place to escape the winter weather. But don’t just head to the store and buy an insect hotel because it’s so easy to make one yourself, and you can tailor it to suit the exact style and needs of your yard. From sleek towers made from gabion cages to simple log stacks, oh-so-pretty garden sculptures of dried hydrangea blooms to robust back-of-the-border shelters, all the inspiration you need to DIY a dream bug house is right here.

Offering beneficial insects a home helps control pests in your garden, so you'll be well rewarded for your efforts. Insects are a vital part of a garden ecosystem with bugs such as ladybugs hoovering up pests like aphids, and becoming food themselves for other welcome creatures like birds. What’s more, you’ve probably already got most of what you need to DIY a bug hotel stashed in your shed already.

And if you're making one, why not make a few? While insects don’t hibernate, most enter a dormant state called diapause, when their metabolism slows right down. Insects can enter diapause at a variety of life stages from eggs to larvae, pupae or adults, which is why they need such a diverse range of habitats such as dry nooks or leaf litter. It’s estimated that an average garden accommodates over 2,000 different insect species, too, so you can understand why providing these valuable creatures with all sorts of different accommodation options is vital, whether yours is a wildlife garden or not.

Which of these creative DIY bug hotels will suit your garden best?

1. Hydrangea-Flower Hotel

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Dried hydrangea flowers last well over winter and have lots of little nooks and crannies for beneficial insects to hibernate. This bug hotel was created by pushing three sticks into the soil and tying near the top to create a stable tripod, which was stuffed with twigs, teasel stems and hydrangea flowers, all left to dry in place. If you want a wildlife-friendly garden that doesn't compromise a jot on style, this statement bug hotel is the one for you.

2. Highrise Gabion Critter Condos

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

These striking border bug hotels are similarly stylish, made with vertical gabion baskets such as this set of three Gabion Cages from Amazon, usually used to build retaining walls. Look carefully and you’ll see that as well as pinecones and sticks, slate squares have been fitted into the gabions to make the structures more weatherproof.

3. Cute Under-Bench Crib

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

How adorable is this little bug house, created by packing split logs and a little imagination under an existing garden bench? This idea would be so beautiful in a cottage garden and you could easily recreate it in an existing log pile, too, by adding in a wooden frame around the bug house to keep the fuel store functional.

4. Border B&B

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Here’s a neat wildlife-friendly idea that looks great at the back of a border as well as giving critters a safe spot to hibernate. It’s made from an old wooden crate filled with broken pots, seedheads, straw and airbricks, all held in place with a square of ½ inch fencer mesh such as this Steel Hardware Cloth from The Home Depot stapled to the crate walls. Bark and pinecones form a textured roof, and a stake fixed to the back and pushed into the soil keeps the lot stable. Those bright curves of the broken ceramic pot look so stylish!

5. Gabion Bug-Hotel Benches

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Providing both a home for hibernating insects and a perch for tired gardeners in need of a cup of tea, gabion bug hotel benches are easy to DIY. Fill a gabion basket such as this Galvanized Steel Wire Cage from Amazon with reclaimed airbricks, pinecones, sticks and bits of bark. Then fix pressure-treated plywood, available from The Home Depot, treated with an exterior waterproofing wood sealant such as Seal-Once, also available from The Home Depot, to the top.

6. Pretty Critter Crate

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Doubling up as a side table next to a favorite garden seat, this bug hotel is simply put together but all the more appealing for it. It’s made from a sturdy old wooden crate positioned on its side with stacks of old terracotta pots creating sheltered nooks for beneficial bugs. An evergreen fern flourishes in the shady conditions and adds natural beauty. A great fern to use in this spot would be the marginal wood fern Dryopteris marginalis, available from Nature Hills, as it has tough green fronds that stay vibrant in shade, only grows to a manageable 2 feet high, and is hardy in zones 3-8.

7. Stick-Stack Shack

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Surely the simplest of bug hotels to construct, this criss-cross stack of sticks takes moments to make and is a welcome mid-border shelter. This is a super project if you have kids as it's so straightforward to create, and you could add a stick-foraging walk to the fun. Lay a slate or flat stone to the top of the stack and this simple shelter would be even better.

8. Flowery Flats

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Using dried flowers, stems and seedheads within a metal frame, you can create a decorative garden feature that doubles as accommodation for overwintering critters. As long as all the stems are pushed in so they criss-cross in the center to form a strong, durable structure, the dried flowers and seedheads around the outside can be as pretty as you like, and some blooms such as yarrow will even dry in place for an initial burst of bright color.

This bug hotel has an old garden ornament as its frame, but you can recreate the same idea using cheap metal garden spheres such as these on Amazon fixed to a bamboo cane or stake pushed into the ground. A narrow metal obelisk such as this design from Wayfair would also make a robust frame if you wrapped wire tightly around it before pushing in all your garden-grown stems.

9. Reclaimed Brick Bug Resort

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

This low wall makes a textural backdrop for a drought-tolerant border and offers all sorts of safe spaces for insects to shelter. As well as the holes in airbricks, gaps of all shapes and sizes created by broken brick edges accommodate a variety of creatures. Slate chips, available in 5-pound bags from Lowe’s, have been used to plug gaps. Squeezing small balls of moistened soil spiked with creeping thyme seeds, available from Eden Brothers, into the bigger gaps would add nectar-rich flowers for pollinators too.

10. Cozy Critter Cube

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

This insect hotel has been made using offcuts of wood screwed together to create a box with partially open sides and filled with layers of dried leaves, pinecones and dry grass. Additional bamboo canes means it also serves as a bee hotel. A layer of reclaimed roof slates tops the layers, angled so rain runs out from the sides, keeps the critter cube dry.

For a final touch, a shallow wooden tray lined with landscape fabric and planted with low-maintenance sedum forms a living roof to feed pollinators. Using a mat of mixed hardy sedums such as this Landscaping Succulents Tray from Plants for Pets via Amazon gives a pretty mix at a good-value price point.

11. Terracotta Towers

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

A stack of old clay roof tiles and drainage pipes creates an attractive garden feature full of gaps for beneficial garden critters. Because clay is porous, this material will hold moisture, creating damp conditions that toads – who are voracious eaters of slugs and snails – will love, as well as drier nooks for bugs higher up. Find your nearest reclamation yard at the Salvo architectural salvage directory.

12. Modern Critter Castle

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

This statement bug hotel has been made using rolls of thatching reed stacked against a row of Corten steel rods, but you could easily make a smaller version using tied-up bundles of garden stems and cheap metal rebar rods, available from The Home Depot. A plethora of hibernation spots will be created between the stalks, and many stems that you may be clearing from the garden in fall are hollow, such as coneflowers, sunflowers, hydrangea, fennel and raspberry.

13. Dead Hedge Bug Hotel

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

A dead hedge is simply a stack of pruned branches and twigs stacked to form a dense habitat to shelter wildlife. By stacking them between pairs of fenceposts or bigger vertical branches, you create a strong structure that can be extended to form a wildlife-friendly garden boundary.

14. Artful Apartments

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

Create a showstopping garden-feature bug hotel by wrapping flexible stems of willow or hazel into a bowl shape, fixed to a fencepost secured in the ground and filled with smaller wrapped bundles of whatever plant matter you’ve got to hand.

15. Log-Pile Lodgings

(Image credit: Emma Kendell)

There really isn’t an easier way to make a bug hotel than by stacking a bunch of logs in a quiet, sheltered corner of your garden. This log pile sits against a metal shed wall for stability and shelter, and has a few old terracotta pipes mixed in for aesthetics as well as extra accommodation options.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Whatever bug hotel you choose to construct, it will be a welcome addition to your garden and one of the best beautiful but budget-friendly ideas to carry your backyard into fall.

September might be one of the most underrated months in the gardening calendar – almost as underrated as the flowers you've never heard of, quite frankly!

Yes, the worst of summer's heat is beginning to fade, but the soil can still be warm enough to encourage new roots, making early fall a particularly useful time to add hardy perennials to your yard.

And if you're tired of seeing the same coneflowers, daylilies and hydrangeas everywhere, there's another reason to plant now: there are plenty of unusual flowers that can give your garden a completely different look next year.

7 Stunning Flowers You've Never Heard Of

From fluffy blue blooms that attract butterflies to strange-looking spikes that resemble something from a woodland fairy garden, these are seven flowers you've never have heard of before (probably) but will definitely want to know about.

One caveat before we begin, though; September planting isn't suitable for every plant in every part of the US. Your ideal planting window depends on your USDA Hardiness Zone, local temperatures and whether you're planting an established potted perennial or starting from seed.

Now, then, let's dive on in...

1. Blue Mistflower

If you've never come across blue mistflower before, its fluffy blue-purple flowers (as seen at the top of this article) may make you wonder why it isn't more widely planted.

Also known as hardy ageratum, blue mistflower is a North American native perennial that produces clusters of tiny, fuzzy-looking flowers from late summer into fall

It's particularly useful if your garden is looking a little tired by September, because this is when blue mistflower really starts to earn its place. It can bloom from summer into fall, with flowers continuing until frost in suitable conditions... and butterflies, moths and other pollinators love it! More than enough reason to bag yourself a Blue Mistflower from Nature Hills, right?

2. 'Glowstick' Kniphofia

Burpee.com Glowstick Kniphofia - 1 Plant

You've probably seen red-hot poker plants before, but 'Glowstick' kniphofia (available at Burpee) is a particularly striking version, and its electric-looking yellow flower spikes are almost impossible to miss.

Instead of blending quietly into a perennial border, this plant sends up tall, upright flower spikes that look almost like they're glowing in the sunshine. And that's exactly what makes it such a good choice for anyone looking for a flower that feels a little different!

3. Toad Lily

(Image credit: Rusana Fairclough / Shutterstock)

If you want a flower that genuinely makes people stop and ask "What is that?", plant a toad lily. These unusual perennials produce small, orchid-like flowers covered in spots, and they have a distinctly exotic appearance, despite being surprisingly useful in the late-season garden.

With flowering extending into the fall, toad lilies are a great option for a shadier part of the garden; just give them part shade and moist soil. They're particularly useful beneath trees or along woodland-style borders where many sun-loving perennials struggle.

Consider them proof that September doesn't have to mean planting yet another sun-loving flower, I guess!

Shop Toad Lilies:

Carpet Creeping Wonder Toad Lily Flower Seeds

Generic 40 Tricyrtis (toad Lily) Hirta Seeds

Emerald Goddess Gardens Variegated Toad Lily

4. 'Rosy Jane' Gaura

Burpee.com Rosy Jane Gaura - 1 Plant

I know, I know; at first glance, 'Rosy Jane' gaura (available at Burpee) looks almost too delicate to be a tough perennial. Its slender stems carry masses of small white flowers edged in pink, creating the impression of tiny butterflies hovering above the foliage.

It's a particularly good choice if you want something that feels romantic and informal though; just be sure to give it plenty of sunshine and well-drained soil, as it doesn't appreciate sitting in wet conditions, especially through winter.

And don't worry if it looks a little sparse at first. Gaura has a wonderfully airy habit and can become a surprisingly floriferous addition to a sunny border.

5. Rattlesnake Master

(Image credit: bgwalker/Getty Images)

Rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) may have one of the strangest names in the perennial world, but the plant itself is even more unusual. Instead of traditional flower heads, this underrated prairie native produces rounded globes surrounded by spiky foliage.

Now, don't be put off by the name, because those strange little flower heads are packed with tiny blooms, providing pollen and nectar for an impressive range of pollinators, from bees to butterflies to birth month bugs.

What it does offer is unusual form, late-season interest and a native perennial that can bring a completely different texture to the garden. What more can you ask for, eh? Time to bag yourself a Rattlesnake Master from CZ Grain, maybe.

6. Thalictrum

(Image credit: 2235906588/Getty Images)

When it comes to stunning flowers you've never heard of, thalictrum ‘nimbus’ definitely deserves a place on your list.

This unusual meadow rue produces clouds of fluffy flowers, giving it a wonderfully light and airy appearance, and September is a good time to get hardy perennials like this one into the ground (so long as your growing zone gives the plant enough time to establish before winter).

For showy cloudbursts of lavender-pink flowers float above masses of fern-like green leaves, bag yourself some Thalictrum (Meadow Rue) NIMBUS Pink Plant seeds from Burpee and plant them in partial shade. Just be sure not to let it dry out during warm spells, and give it a little shelter from strong winds if possible.

7. Culver's Root

If you prefer your flowers tall and elegant rather than bright and showy, Culver's root is a North American native that produces exactly that; think slender spikes of tiny flowers that look almost candelabra-like!

To help it work its magic, just give it full sun and soil that doesn't dry out too quickly. It can reach several feet tall, too, so be sure to place it toward the back of a border where its height can be appreciated.

It's particularly effective planted among other prairie-style perennials (like the rattlesnake master of earlier), and don't worry, because the flower spikes and seed heads can continue to provide interest after the blooms have faded.

Shop Culver's Root:

Sherwoods Seeds Culver's Root Seeds for Planting

RedCrocus Culver's Root

Everwilde Farms Culver's Root Native Wildflower Seeds

The best thing about these flowers isn't just that they're unusual (although that is always a fun flex!); blue mistflower can extend pollinator-friendly color into fall. Toad lily can bring flowers to shade. And... well, you get the picture; each is as useful as the last.

Honestly, that's exactly why September can be such a good time to experiment. So, instead of filling your garden with the same plants everyone else has, why not use the quieter planting season to add one or two underrated beauties?

Hey, anything that makes visitors ask, "I've never seen that before, what is it?"

Fencing contractors throw away chain-link by the roll. Torn-out panels stack up behind shops and sit rusting along property lines where nobody has gotten around to hauling them off. Ask your local fencing company and you can often walk off with a section for nothing. Then turn that free piece of mesh into one of the most useful tools in your lawn care arsenal.

You can easily turn a piece of old chain-link fence into a drag harrow that makes your lawn care routine easier and your lawn look better than ever. A lawn drag harrow is a common tool of professional groundskeepers. They pull a piece of weighted mesh across the playing fields to clean up after aerating, aid in overseeding, leveling, and topdressing. You can make your own lawn drag that does all the same tasks and keeps your lawn looking like a professionally-manicured field.

Here’s how to turn an old piece of chain-link fencing into a handy tool that helps your lawn thrive.

Benefits of a DIY Lawn Drag

The diamond pattern of the chainlink fence is the secret behind this DIY trick. Where the wires cross, each junction sits slightly proud of the mesh around it. Dragging the panel presents a few hundred blunt knuckles that catch and shear whatever they pass over, like bumps in your lawn.

The fencing flexes over dips and rises instead of scraping them, which is why it spreads material rather than shoving it into a pile ahead of the tool. Galvanized wire holds up outside between uses, though every cut you make exposes bare steel that can rust.

The weight of the drag determines how aggressive the lawn leveling is. Bare mesh skips across the surface and does close to nothing. Wire a length of pipe or an old fence post along the leading edge and it starts to bite into the lawn more. Add a cinder block on top and it bites even harder.

A round edge tends to crumble clods better than a straight edge, since material rolls under it instead of getting shoved along. Start light. You can always pile on more weight as needed.

(Image credit: Miljan Živković / Getty Images)How to Turn Fencing Into a Lawn Drag

A panel of chain-link fencing around 4x6 feet (1.2x1.8 m) covers ground quickly. Anything larger gets awkward at the corners of your lawn. Home Depot's Anvil 24-inch bolt cutters go through chain-link wire without much effort. A cheap pair of cutters is fine here since the fence gauge is soft compared to a padlock shackle. Cut ends of the fencing leave sharp spurs, so bend each one back on itself with pliers or wrap the whole edge in a strip of old garden hose.

Handle the panel carefully so you don’t accidentally poke or scrape yourself. A pair of cowhide palm work gloves from Walmart saves a lot of grief here because fresh-cut galvanized wire catches skin easily. For the tow, run a rope or light chain to two corners and keep the attachment point low.

A high hitch lifts the front of the mat and cuts its contact with the ground. Behind a riding mower it works at a walking pace, though a strong person can pull a smaller panel across a modest lawn by hand.

Use It After Core Aeration

(Image credit: Catherine Ledner / Getty Images)

Core aeration leaves your lawn covered in plugs, each one roughly three-quarters of an inch (2 cm) wide and up to 3 inches (8 cm) long, and a well-aerated lawn carries 20 to 40 holes per square foot.

Plenty of people rake away the plugs or leave them to weather down over the course of a few months. Using your lawn drag to break down aeration plugs returns that soil and organic matter to your lawn, where it belongs. If the underlying soil is decent, there's no real reason to haul away the plugs.

Timing matters more than technique here. Wet plugs smear. Let them dry out until they crumble between your fingers, usually a day or two after aeration depending on weather, then drag in one direction and then perpendicular to the first pass.

The lawn will look scruffy for a few days afterward with a fuzz of loosened stems and old clippings sitting on top, but it will settle. Mow the lawn at a normal height one week later to tidy up whatever the drag left behind.

Use It for Seeding, Topdressing & Leveling

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Broadcast seed has a habit of sitting on top of the grass canopy, where it dries out and feeds birds rather than germinating. A pass with the drag knocks a good share of it down to soil level, and seed-to-soil contact is what a thick overseeding tends to rely on.

Aerate first, if you can, so some of that seed drops into the open holes instead of resting on the soil surface. Early fall is the window for this in most cool-season regions while soil is still warm and once weed pressure has eased off.

Topdressing your lawn with extra soil works the same way, in reverse. Compost goes on thinly, about a quarter inch (0.6 cm) at a time, and the drag spreads it and works it into the soil instead of leaving it in windrows where the shovel dumped it. Resist the urge to topdress any thicker. Burying the crowns of the grass plants to save a second round of topdressing is how people smother the lawn they were trying to improve.

Leveling your lawn follows the same routine. Material settles into the hollows first, so a low corner takes a heavier hand while the drag pulls the surplus off the humps. It is slow going, next to stripping sod and regrading, and a bumpy lawn may require three or four rounds across as many seasons. Nothing dramatic happens in only one round of leveling. The lawn is flatter each fall than the one before.

What This Tool Can’t Do

(Image credit: Tosh Lubek / Getty Images)

A lawn drag is not a dethatcher, so it can't do that. It lifts loose surface debris and stirs up dead material sitting on top, which helps, but true lawn thatch is a dense mat knitted below the green blades of grass. Once that layer passes roughly half an inch (1.3 cm), a power rake or vertical mower is usually the tool for the job. Anything less aggressive just combs the surface.

Skip the whole process on soggy ground, since dragging saturated turf tears the crowns of the grass plants and compacts what you just opened up. If you're not able to find a scrap piece of chain-link fencing for free, Amazon carries a Yard Tuff steel mesh drag mat with a tow rope that does the same job. The homemade version has one clear advantage, though. You won't mind when it gets bent and replacing it only costs a phone call to a fencing company or a trip to the junkyard.

There’s a much-overlooked flower that I always plant in September because it withstands winter and brings blooms through the darkest days of the year. It has rich, velvety petals and vibrant tones. It’s ridiculously easy to grow, and remarkably cheap. What is this wondrous fall flower, I hear you cry? The humble pansy.

There’s a little trick you need to know if you want this hard-working plant to produce abundant flowers in fall and carry on producing pretty petals all through winter and into spring, and that’s to plant it in September. While most folk wait until late fall before putting pansies in the ground to enjoy early spring blooms, by planting them earlier while the soil is still warm enough to encourage strong growth, plants will get busy flowering. They’ll also grow bigger root systems, making them better able to withstand harsh winter conditions. And hey presto, you have hard-working plants that last for months from fall through winter.

While sub-zero temperatures will cause even winter-flowering pansies to temporarily pause blooming, as soon as a milder period of winter weather arrives, they’ll produce plenty more petals, fast. They’ll keep on flowering into spring, too.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Part of the Weekend Wins series, planting pansies is a 10-minute job that brings a big reward, warding off winter blues with months of easy-breezy blooms. So, if you're wondering what to plant in September, start right here.

Which Pansies Survive Winter Best?

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Pansies are shoulder-season plants, preferring cooler spring and fall temperatures to summer heat. If you want pansies that will flower on and off all through winter, too, you need to look for varieties that are particularly cold-hardy.

Cool Wave Pansies

4 Cool Wave Morpho Pansy Plants

Cool Wave pansies have been bred specifically for cold weather, and Morpho's contrasting yellow and purple tones shift as the temperature falls. The purple tones become more intense in the cold, shifting to a lighter blue in warmer periods when the yellow parts of its bicolor blooms become more prominent. Exceptionally hardy in zones 5-9, Cool Wave plants grow fast, reaching a height of 8 inches high and 14 inches wide, so they make a colorful groundcover or will cascade over the sides of windowboxes and hanging baskets.

Plentifall Pansies

4 Plentifall Frost Pansy Plants

Blooming from October to May in zones 5 to 9, Pentifall pansies also grow to 8 inches tall but spread further, making their trailing stems perfect for spilling over the rims of hanging baskets and patio containers. Plentiful Frost brings the longest stems, spreading to 2 feet, with flowers in shades of white and pale purple with striking central markers, known as whiskers to many gardeners.

This tough-cookie series is also available in darker purple Plentifall Lavender Blue from Burpee, and elegant Plentifall White, also from Burpee, with stems trailing to 18 inches.

Delta Pro Pansies

Delta Pro Red With Blotch Pansy Plant

Hardy in zones 4-9, the Delta Pro series was bred for commercial use with bigger, more uniform flowers, strong stems and reliable performance through fall and winter. While plants are a little more expensive, you won’t be disappointed as the colors are intense, in particular the Delta Pro Red with Blotch (it does what it says on the tin!). Though they only grow to 4-6 inches high and spread to 6-8 inches wide, the well-branched stems produce abundant flowers so use these to color-drench porch planters and patio pots.

Delta Pro True Blue pansies, available from Trees (formerly Fast Growing Trees) is indeed a brilliant blue, while Delta Pro Clear Yellow pansies, also available from Trees, are a vivid yellow.

Ocean Breeze Pansies

4 Ocean Breeze Mix Pansy Plants

The series has extra large flowers in a serene palette of lavender, white, soft blues and rich purples, so a mix produces a harmonious drift of cool colors that are a vivid contrast to fiery fall tones and blend for a beautiful winter border.

Ocean Breeze copes in zones 3-8, and is naturally compact, growing in a neat mound, growing to 8 inches high and 10 inches wide. This series handles wild and windy weather particularly well, despite its bigger-than-usual pansy flowers, so its resilient nature alongside its mounding habit make it a great choice for windowboxes and border edges.

How to Plant Pansies in September

(Image credit: Future Publishing Ltd)

Wondering when to plant pansies? The answer is straight away! The sooner you get their roots into soil, the stronger plants will be before the weather turns – so add planting pansies to your list of September gardening jobs, pronto. At this time of year, you'll need to buy young plants, not seeds.

Pansy plants need fertile, well draining soil so use an enriched potting mix for containers such as Miracle-Gro Potting Mix, available from Walmart. In the ground, mix a couple of handfuls of homemade or prepared compost such as Back to the Roots Organic Compost, available from The Home Depot, into the soil before planting.

Give this winter flowering plant full sun or part shade, and remove fading flowers to keep them blooming. Don’t worry if they stop flowering when the temperature dips below zero, they’ll soon bounce back. To keep pots and hanging baskets flowering, it helps to move them to a sheltered spot in prolonged cold snaps.

Creative Ideas with Pansies

(Image credit: Future Publishing Ltd)

These cheery blooms are so easy-going and eager to grow, you can get creative and use them to make all sorts of fun cool-season decor. For a start, trailing pansies make fall hanging baskets full of color and charm. From planting upcycled gardening equipment to creating a cascading flower tower, there are all sorts of other clever ideas to turn cheap plants into unique garden centerpieces. I like to make pansy kokedama, and they survive remarkably well in my exposed garden.

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If you’re filling up planters with beautiful bulbs to plant in fall then add a top layer of pansies so they look good straight away. The bulbs will grow right up between the plants in spring, and the pansies will help stop hungry squirrels from digging up the bulbs. And honestly, whatever quick and clever container gardening ideas you dream up, pansies will fit the bill perfectly.

More Weekend Wins

This feature is part of the Weekend Wins series, packed with quick and easy 10-minute gardening tasks that bring a big reward.

Add lawn bulbs

Plant fast-growing bulbs in your lawn and enjoy drifts of lavender-hued blooms in a few weeks.

Revive Pots

Treat tired flowering plants in pots to some tomato feed and fuel another flush of fresh blooms.

Boost Roses

Remove suckers that are stealing energy from your rose shrubs and enjoy bigger blooms next summer.

Groom Grasses

Use a $4 dog comb to give ornamental grasses a quick groom and save yourself hours weeding in spring.

Trim Lavender

Prune spent lavender stems so your plant has time to grow a duvet of dense foliage to survive winter well.