September Gardening Tips For S. California . . . .

I had been subcontracted to research / write for one of the 'big box' stores on several regions of the US.  Below is one of those posts, prior to editing/publishing.

September 2013 Gardening Tips For Southern California Coastal and Inland Valleys : 

If you are planning to grow vines up a trellis next to the side of a house, install the trellis 1 foot from the structure.  This allows breathing room for both the structure and the vines, plus allows the overhanging roof’s runoff to water the vines.

Continue to tend the compost pile by balancing your additions of green and brown material.  

Fertilize strawberries.

Select edible cover crops.

When planning the fall and winter vegetable garden, heavy feeders should be followed with light feeders. Heavy feeders include beet, broccoli, cabbage, celery, collard, corn cucumber, eggplant, endive, escarole, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, okra, parsley, pumpkin, radish, rhubarb, spinach, squash and tomatoes. More light feeders include carrot, chard, garlic, leek, mustard, onion, parsnip, peppers, potato, rutabaga, shallot, sweet potato, and turnip.

In a narrow side yard, or small courtyard, you’ll find that low growing foundation plants (begonias, coleus and impatiens) don’t take up much space.

Stop feeding roses, and begin pruning.

Trim the foliage fans of bearded iris to about 8 inches from the rhizome. Divide clumps if they have less than an inch of soil space between individual rhizomes or if they didn't bloom well last spring. Discard the old, leafless center sections, trim the roots of the newer ones to 2 inches in length, and plant them just below the soil surface. Don't fertilize or mulch them.  Water them in well after planting and once every other week until the rains take over.

Now is the time to purchase and plant spring bulbs.   Buy what you are interested in when you see them on the shelves at your neighborhood Home Depot.

The fragrance of ‘freesias’ is intoxicating. Especially fragrant cultivars of this bulb include 'Athene', 'Allure', 'Demeter', 'Excelsior', 'Golden Wave', 'Mirabel', 'Pink Westlind', 'Snowdon', and 'Welkin'. Freesias also make great cut flowers.

Additional spring blooming bulbs to consider are amaryllis, anemone, brodiaea, crocus, daffodil, freesia (so fragrant), fritillaria, galanthus, baby gladiolus, glory-of-the-snow, grape and Dutch and wood hyacinth, Dutch iris, ixia, leucojum, lycoris, montbretia, narcissus, paperwhite, ranunculus, scilla, snowdrop, sparaxis, tigridia, triteleia, tritonia, tulip (but count on them as annuals only), dogtooth violet, watsonia, and winter aconite. (I, personally, caution your use of some varieties of allium, as they can be quite invasive, though lovely.)

 

The needles of the mugho pine are a delicacy for the European pine sawfly.  Eating only last year’s needles, they will not kill the tree.  To beat the pests, remove any needles with rows of yellow eggs on them, now through winter.  Their larvae emerge in the spring causing the needles were the eggs were laid to look like curled straw.

Feed citrus trees.