Summer’s almost over and temperatures have started to cool, so it’s time for desert gardeners to venture outside and dress their own landscape with new trees, shrubs and succulents. Vegetables and fruits growing in upper-elevation gardens are ready to be harvested, and bulbs may be planted now for a gorgeous spring display.
Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting
Low Deserts (around 3,000 Trainers)
Add feel with distinctively shaped succulents. The spiky traces of agave contrast beautifully with the rounded shapes of shrubs here, including a distinctive layout twist to the landscape.
Plant a couple of big agave, such as octopus agave (Agave vilmoriniana), smooth leaf agave (Agave desmettiana)or Weber’s agave (Agave weberi). Add three to five flowering ground covers around the base of each agave, such as purple trailing lantana (Lantana montevidensis), verbena (Glandularia spp), blackfoot daisy (Melampodium leucanthum)or prostrate rosemary(Rosmarinus officials ‘Prostratus’).
Shown: Weber’s agave with gopher plant (Euphorbia biglandulosa)
Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting
Fertilize palm trees. Palms should be fertilized throughout the hot months of summer, since they can uptake fertilizer only when the soil is warm. Use a fertilizer specially formulated for palm trees, which will include the significant nutrients and micronutrients that palms need to be healthful. Follow the directions on the fertilizer package water and carefully deeply after applying. When in doubt about how much to use, it is best to apply a little less fertilizer rather than a lot of, which may burn your crops.
Find the Ideal palm to your lawn
Shown: Mediterranean fan palm (Chamaerops humilis)
Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting
Prepare your vegetable garden before planting cool-season edibles. Add a 3-inch layer of compostor manure to existing vegetable garden dirt and lightly rake it in.
Toward the end of September, plant broccoli and cauliflower from seed or transplants.
Shown: Broccoli
Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting
Give citrus trees their last application of fertilizer to the year. Citrus trees have to be fertilized three times each year: in late winter, early summer and late summer. Apply citrus fertilizer around the base of this tree, after the package instructions. Be sure to add fertilizer out to the drip line, which is really where the majority of the origins of citrus trees are situated.
For the best results, water before and after applying fertilizer to allow it to attain the roots.
Shown: Kumquats
Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting
Mid- to High Deserts (3,000 to 6,000 Trainers)
Spice a boring garden with ornamental grasses. There’s a great reason why these grasses are known as cosmetic. They add beauty to the landscape with their gently mounded shapes.
Plumes of varying colours of burgundy to tan look in autumn, based on the species. Plant ornamental grasses in groups of five or three; try gulf muhly(Muhlenbergia capillaris ‘Regal Mist’), deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens)or Mexican feather grass (Stipa tenuissima)for a gorgeous autumn display.
8 Spectacular Grasses to Energize a Fall Garden
Shown: Regal Mist pink muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris ‘Regal Mist’)
Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting
Year-old perennials by breaking them. If your elderly perennials are not flowering just like they used to, it is probably time for them to be divided (that is, dividing the root system of a large plant into at least two sections that may then be replanted). Perennials such as daylily, Shasta daisies, coneflower and iris do best when divided every 3 decades.
You can use a scoop to separate plants to smaller portions and then replant them in your backyard or give some to friends.
Shown: Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum)
Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting
Change outside warm-season annuals for cool-season blossoms. With the approach of fall, it is time to switch out of summer-flowering annuals to people that will thrive in Southwestern winters. Before planting new flowers, amend the soil with compost and a slow-release fertilizer.
Create lovely colour combinations in your favorite container by incorporating three distinct flowering plants. Try planting yellow snapdragons at the center, then add deep purple petunias and finish off with white alyssum round the exterior. Or use bright pink geraniums surrounded by white petunias and gloomy lobelias.
Shown: Snapdragons
Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting
Fertilize your warm-season lawn. Even though summer lawns will shortly go dormant, now’s the very best time of year to fertilize. Fall fertilizing adds vital nutrients which will strengthen the roots and will help the grass to green up earlier in spring.
See more autumn lawn maintenance
Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting
Plant leaf lettuce. Leaf lettuce is very easy to grow from seed or transplants. Anyone who has tasted new homegrown lettuce understands that the flavor of store-bought lettuce simply can not compare to it.
Shown: Leaf lettuce
Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting
Upper Elevations (More than 6,000 Trainers)
Harvest tomatoes before the first frost. September generally attracts the first frost, so head out in the backyard and pick each one your tomatoes — green ones and all. Don’t worry if you’ve got a bunch of green tomatoes; they will ripen indoors.
Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting
Plant spring-blooming bulbs now to ensure a gorgeous show. The blossoms from spring bulbs would be the much-looked-for harbingers of spring. But to appreciate them, you need to plant bulbs now, so they are going to grow roots before the ground freezes.
For maximum color effect, plant crocus, daffodil, hyacinth or tulip bulbs in massive swaths rather than in a single row.
Shown: Blue hyacinth
Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting
Grow your garlic. Plant garlic now for a yummy harvest next summer. Garlic is very easy to grow. Only plant person tsp 2 inches deep in your vegetable garden or in a container. Plant each clove with the pointed end up, 6 inches away from each other in rows which are just 1 foot apart.
Noelle Johnson Landscape Consulting
Preserve the flavors of your summer garden by drying herbs. Herbs can readily be dried by tying them in bunches and hanging them in a dry, dark location. Drying takes. When the herbs are dry, then crumble the dried leaves into small pieces, keep them in sealed jars and use them to flavor your favourite dishes.
Prepare for October. Plants need less water as the temperatures cool, so adjust your irrigation control as needed.