Gardening This Weekend: September 24, 2026
The first morning you step out and realize it’s not swelteringly hot is such a great surprise. Good times for gardening are right around the corner. Here are things you’ll want to get done over the next several days.
PLANT
• Mums are on full display in Texas garden centers. Enjoy them in large patio containers or near your front door. Plant them into beds to enjoy this year and for years to come. Trim them back to 2-3 in. after they finish blooming. You’ll see next year’s stems already emerging. They will survive the winter and start growing in spring.
• Other fall color to feature: Alternantheras, Mexican bush salvia, Mexican mint marigolds, crotons, and purple fountaingrass along with all types of pumpkins and gourds.
• Trees and shrubs as nurseries mark down their inventories before winter. Planted now they’ll have stronger root systems established by next summer.
• Ryegrass, either to overseed an established lawn or to cover bare ground temporarily over the winter. Don’t bother to sow in areas where you’ve already applied pre-emergent granules.
• Wildflower seeds for spring bloom. If you’re planting bluebonnets, buy acid-treated (“scarified”) seeds for best germination. Sow into lightly prepared soil where there is no competition from turf. You’re running out of time for planting this year. You’ll need to water them to get their germination started. Follow up with subsequent watering if you don’t get rainfall after the plants start to grow.
PRUNE
• Remove dead branches and entire plants that have been killed by the drought.
• Spent flower stalks and seedheads, damaged foliage from perennial beds. Keep the garden tidy as things wind down.
• Turf to maintain lawn at recommended mowing height. Tall grass invites weed growth.
FERTILIZE
• Lawn with all-nitrogen fertilizer (30-40 percent of that nitrogen in slow-release form) unless soil test instructs otherwise. Product may be labeled as “winterizer,” but it could very likely be the same analysis as your spring and summer food.
• Houseplants on patio or beneath trees for the summer one last time before you bring them inside in a few weeks.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Webworms are prevalent in Texas pecans, walnuts, persimmons, mulberries and other trees currently. They have already done almost all their damage. There is no call to action. Pull them out with a pole pruner, hoe, or some other hook, but don’t bother trying to spray them. They will come tumbling down with the falling leaves in the next few weeks.
• Browned areas (some of them very large) in St. Augustine are probably due to the prolonged hot, dry weather and the effects of chinch bugs on the turf. Many gardeners are going to have major replanting to do come April and May. It’s too late to do so this fall except in Deep South Texas.
• Dead branches within pecan trees are usually due to squirrel damage of gnawing and sharpening their teeth. There is nothing you can legally do to stop their activity. It causes little long-term damage to the trees.