Welcome to Garden Zone, a monthly newsletter for anyone interested in gardening. ​​It's produced by Extension Master Gardener volunteers in Mecklenburg County. View in your browser September Garden Tasks September can be one of the busiest months in the garden. With cooler temperatures headed our way, September typically brings relief to gardens and signals the start of a new season. Tasks to consider for your home garden: PERENNIALS & ANNUALS ✳️ Fertilize annuals: give them one last feeding to keep their blooms coming as long as possible. ✳️ Divide spring- and summer-blooming perennials and keep them well-watered. ✳️ Order bulbs and garlic while the selection is good. Keep them cool until time to plant in October or November, once soil temperatures drop. VEGETABLES ✳️ Plant broccoli, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, mustard greens, onions, radishes and spinach. ✳️ Continue to monitor your garden for pests, including whiteflies and tomato hornworms. TREES & SHRUBS ✳️ Do NOT prune shrubs or trees in late summer or early autumn (September-October). Pruning stimulates new growth that may not have time to harden off before frost. Prune only diseased or dead limbs. ✳️ Water your trees to ensure they don't experience drought issues. Meet a Master Gardener Crys Roeder, a 2022 Master Gardener class graduate, was inspired to become a Master Gardener because it enables her to combine her passions for gardening, teaching, and helping others. She cultivates fruit trees and bushes, seasonal vegetables, culinary herbs, medicinal herbs and flowers interspersed within her gorgeous 2.5-acre landscape. Through self-seeding and a bit of patience, Crys shares that not all gardening has to be expensive, as evidenced by thick rows of native flowers lining her driveway. Crys intends to focus on Speaker Bureau engagements and working in the Freedom Gardens. She is utilizing her graphic design background to develop a site plan of the Freedom Gardens and helping to design the Amay James Gardens. She wants to inspire the public to never stop learning and to try new things. One of Crys’ goals is to teach others to grow edible gardens no matter their space or time constraints, and to inspire neighborhoods to adopt foodscaping. She also hopes to help share her knowledge of food sources and the stresses placed on them with the community. Pictures courtesy of EMG Amy DeAngelis Russell Companion Planting​ Are you looking for a way to improve your garden yield naturally and organically? Companion planting may be something to incorporate into your garden design! Companion planting provides benefits to soil health and insect management (attracting the good and repelling the harmful insects) as well as garden space savings! Other benefits to companion planting include weed and erosion control and plant protection and support. You may even be able to plant a greater number of plants and harvest a greater crop yield! The first step to companion planting is learning what NOT to plant together. Some plants emit growth-stunting chemicals or attract harmful insects that can damage neighboring plants. The second step is to plant space-compatible vegetables, considering both root growth and top growth. The third step is to plant insect-repelling herbs and flowers. By intermixing plants, the predator-prey relationship can be balanced without the use of chemicals! Companion planting charts are a great place to start learning and planning for your future garden. For more information on companion planting, see Grow Your Own Food Made Easy: Nutritious Organic Produce From Your Own Garden: A Step-by-Step Guide by C. Forrest McDowell, PhD and Tricia Clark-McDowell and Companion Planting at https://extension.wvu.edu/lawn-gardening-pests/gardening/garden-management/companion-planting Photos courtesy of EMG Amy DeAngelis Russell Enjoy Not Working in the Garden A Lacavore eats locally grown foods. A Lazivore gardens with the least amount of effort—a cute name for “I’d rather not sweat too much.” Lazivore loosely defined is “I am laz-i.” In the Fall, the Lazivore must be strategic to succeed. Here are some slow and easy moves for cooler weather.  Send soil samples to NCSU Agronomic lab and let them do the work. Get your soil in great shape for a successful growing season (plants do the work when pH and nutrients are balanced).  Decide which weeds offend and which can just be ignored.  Don’t drag heavy bags of leaves to the curb. Blow leaves into your garden beds or pile them into your raised beds. In spring, you will have a weedless garden ready for no-till planting. In a few years, the soil will be a luscious black and filled with hard working organisms.  Plant perennials and bulbs, so you only dig once and enjoy flowers for years to come.  Plant a fall garden when the pesky insects are gone. Choose what you like best: beets, cabbage, carrots, collards, kale, leeks, lettuce, onions, radishes, spinach, Swiss chard, and turnips will grow almost on their own over fall and into winter. Light rains of the season will keep them watered. The hardest task is left: pull up a chair and make some tea. Photo courtesy of EMG Connie Rothwell Hugelkultur Hugelkultur is a gardening concept originating from Germany. “Hugel” translates to hill, and it involves layering organic matter from tree limbs, branches and other green and brown plant matter, compost and soil, forming a 3-5 foot high three-dimensional mound full of rich nutrients for growing vegetables, flowers, etc. The bed should end up being about 8 feet by 4 feet. This is the best time to start such a project, so it has the winter months to start to decompose and settle all of this good stuff together for a spring planting. The benefits of creating such a garden allows all the organic matter to continue to break down over several years with great moisture retention for less labor-intensive gardening, as well as an increase of soil microbes and beneficial insects. You would need a sunny location for best results. One important point is that the garden would break down over a 3-5 year period and then the process would need to be started over again. Here’s a short, somewhat amusing, video to provide the steps and more in-depth information about the process. Like most things in life, it all comes down to planning. Check it out! Additional Resources: Washington State Extension - Hugelkultur: What is it, and should it be used in home gardens? Oklahoma State Extension - Sustainable Landscapes: Creating a Hügelkultur for Gardening with Stormwater Management Benefits Photos courtesy of Bing WANT TO BE A SAVVY GARDENER? What can a gardener do to help their landscape not just survive but thrive during periods of drought? As our summers have become hotter and dryer, many people call our Horticulture Help Desk to ask for advice. Their lawns have gone from lush green to sparse brown, established shrubs and trees withered and died, and flower and vegetable beds were hard to maintain. Looking forward, we need to be prepared. A term that gained some interest a few decades ago has finally come into its own. Xeriscaping is a low-maintenance way to garden by using common-sense techniques to conserve water in our gardens. No, you don’t have to grow cacti! In fact, your yards will be just as beautiful, easier to care for, have fewer problems, and will save both time and money. That is a win-win! If you join our FaceBook page, you will learn the ‘Top Ten Things You Need to Know about Xeriscaping.’ And we will provide several well-researched lists of plants to help you become a Savvy Gardener. We hope you agree that the time has come for all of us to embrace this successful gardening technique. (Join our FaceBook page “Mecklenburg Extension Master Gardener Volunteers”) Photo courtesy of Bing Protecting your soil in the winter With fall rapidly approaching, it’s time to plan for winter. Create a plan to protect your soil now so that you are ready to act on time. Do not leave your soil uncovered this winter. Soil left bare encourages weeds, while leading to erosion, water loss, compaction, and a reduction in organic matter. Before covering, take this opportunity to test your soil. Testing is free through November and will allow you time to develop a plan for nutrient management in the coming year. If tests determine that your soil is low in nitrogen, you may want to lay a nitrogen fixing cover crop like clover, vetch, or winter pea. If nitrogen is not an issue, cover crops like rye, barley, or buckwheat can be planted in the fall and used to improve your soil structure. Please remember that cover crops must be terminated before setting seed and tilled back into your soil. Using compost and mulch provides an alternative option to cover cropping. Simply spread a layer of plain cardboard over your empty beds and then top dress with a layer of compost or mulch. This will prevent winter weeds and increase organic matter improving your soil structure. Soil testing kits maybe picked up at the Extension Office or you may find one at our “Ask a Master Gardener: events at farmers' markets. Photos courtesy of Canva No More Mosquito Sprays! Being steadfast to protecting pollinators does not mean you have to give in to biting mosquitos. There is another way: The Bucket of Doom ! UNC Charlotte Urban Institute recently described a promising solution for your neighborhood yards. Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis is the sure ingredient that kills mosquito larva, but not pollinators. Products, such as “dunks,” (online/local stores) with this ingredient are A-OK to use! The range of mosquitos is the length of a football field. They buzz, bite, and lay eggs in standing water and under leaves. So, even if you are diligently cleaning out gutters and monitoring standing water, a neighbor could be providing the biting bounty. If standing water is the problem, turn it into