Gardening This Weekend: September 25, 2025

I can do 3X the work when temperatures drop in the fall. Here are some things I have on my list for this weekend. See how they match up with your list.

PLANT
• Fall color from pot mums, Mexican bush salvia, Mexican marigolds, celosias, crotons, and other plants that can be used in patio pots and around our doorways. (It’s still too warm to plant pansies.)
• Ryegrass for overseeding and for covering bare ground until you can plant permanent grass in the spring. Do not plant rye if you have applied pre-emergent weedkiller granules.
• Nursery stock as garden centers put on fall sales. Most types will become better established given this early start ahead of next summer. The exception: wait until spring to plant types you know to be cold-sensitive in your part of Texas.
• Dig and divide iris, daylilies, and other spring-blooming perennials over the next 2-3 weeks. Plant into freshly prepared garden soil. Give extras to friends.

PRUNE
• Dead and damaged branches from shrubs and shade trees before the plants lose their leaves.
• Dead stubble from perennial gardens to keep things tidy.
• Do light shapings of shrubs and vines but save major prunings for late winter or spring depending on species and bloom time.

FERTILIZE
• For clay soils, final feeding of turf with all-nitrogen food with 30-40 percent of that N in encapsulated or coated slow-release form. Sandy soils: high-N lawn food with same 30 to 40 percent slow-release component. Water after application.
• Patio pots with water-soluble, high-nitrogen fertilizer to help them give you maximum good looks this fall.
• Fall vegetables with same high-nitrogen fertilizer. Even though we grow most vegetables for flowers and subsequently their fruit, most of our soils have excessive phosphorus already, so the N will keep them growing most vigorously.

ON THE LOOKOUT
• Watch patio pots you intend to bring indoors for visible signs of insects. Control them while they’re still outside.
• Brown patch (now also called “large patch”) in St. Augustine and zoysia. Blades will quickly turn yellow, then brown and pull loose easily from runners. You’ll be able to see presence of the fungus at the base of each blade. Apply fungicide labeled for patch-type funguses and avoid nighttime watering.
• For fall leaf-feeding insects such as fall webworms and others. Learn to ignore them. Any damage they do will not be serious. Pull webworms out of the trees where you can. Tear them open to expose the caterpillars to predatory birds.