September Yard & Garden Tips: Soil Testing, Overseeding, and Garden Cleanup

With cooler mornings and the first hints of fall color beginning to show, September marks a transitional time for lawns and gardens in Laurens County. This is the month to get serious about preparing your landscape for the changing season—whether it’s aerating your fescue, planning next year’s bulbs, or cleaning up vegetable beds to prevent disease carryover.

Clemson Cooperative Extension provides timely guidance for the Upstate on how to care for lawns, trees, vegetables, flowers, and even fishing ponds. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just getting your hands dirty for the first time, their expert advice can help you make the most of the month ahead.

Visit Clemson Extension – Laurens County for more tips, links to resources, and publications referenced in this calendar.

Watch Out For:

Lawns

• Lawn diseases like brown patch and dollar spot can still be active in warm-season grasses.

• Spittlebugs may continue to affect warm-season turf and hollies.

• White grubs are treatable with Bacillus thuringiensis—effective on Japanese beetle grubs only.

Trees and Shrubs

• Webworms may still be present in pecan trees. Focus on controlling the lower third of the canopy with a liquid spray like carbaryl.

Vegetables

• Blossom end rot on late-season tomatoes can indicate calcium deficiency. Use gypsum or foliar sprays and remove affected fruit.

Things To Do:

Flowers

• Spring bulbs like daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths should be purchased now and stored in a cool place until planting time.

• Divide perennials that bloomed in spring and summer.

• Soil testing is recommended now to allow time for amendments before fall planting.

Lawns

• Fertilize fescue and other cool-season grasses this month. Avoid fertilizing warm-season grasses.

• Add iron to St. Augustine grass for color without excessive growth.

• Aerate cool-season lawns like fescue now.

• Overseed with ryegrass mid-month for a green winter lawn.

• Plant fescue between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15 for best results.

• Control henbit and nutsedge while they’re actively growing.

• Adjust irrigation as cooler temperatures reduce watering needs.

Ponds

• Stocking bream and liming pond bottoms can be done from September through January.

Trees and Shrubs

• Compost fallen leaves or till them into vegetable beds.

• Plan ahead for fall tree and shrub planting—research and source your selections now.

• Pecan weevil treatments should continue weekly if you started in August.

Vegetables

• Clean up old tomato plants and any diseased vegetation.

• Take notes on where crops were planted to help with rotation next spring.

• Planting dates for common crops:

  • Spinach: Sept. 15–30

  • Turnips: Sept. 1–15

All publications referenced in this article can be found through Clemson’s Home & Garden Information Center at www.clemson.edu/hgic.

Fall may be just around the corner, but there’s still plenty to do in the garden this September in Laurens County!