Gardening This Weekend: September 3, 2026
Here’s my list of the things most critical for your landscape and garden as we flip the page and turn the seasons from summer into early fall.
PLANT
• Bermuda sod now or very soon so it can get its roots established while the soil is still warm. Water for 5-10 minutes morning and evening for the first week.
• Wildflower seeds, including acid-scarified bluebonnets for best germination. Plant into dedicated wildflower spaces where you do not have turfgrass. They do not compete well.
• Fall-flowering and foliar perennials as they are sold in nurseries, including Mexican bush sage, Mexican mint marigold, mums, and Gregg’s mistflower.
• Fall-flowering bulbs as you find them in nurseries. List includes spider lilies, fall crocus, oxblood lilies and naked lady lilies.
• Fall annual color from celosias, zinnias, marigolds, pentas, purple fountaingrass, crotons, and others from 1-gal. pots that can be planted directly into large patio pots for instant appeal.
• Nursery stock for fall landscaping. Garden centers are restocking and fall is a great time for planting.
PRUNE
• Stubble from spring and summer perennials to tidy their gardens. Put layer of mulched leaves around the plants to lessen weed growth over winter.
• Keep mowing lawn at recommended height to keep turf low and spreading. That will crowd out weeds that do get started.
• Weeds, especially ragweed, to lessen allergies and spread of seeds. If you happen to have milkweed on a rural Texas property, however, leave it in place for the monarchs. It is their food source as they migrate to Mexico for the winter.
• Dead branches from trees and shrubs. If you have dead branches high up in oaks, pecans and other large shade trees, contract with a certified arborist to have them removed before winter.
FERTILIZE
• Lawns for fall feeding. Call it the “winterizer” if you wish, but it’s so much more. Turf experts will tell you it may be the most important feeding you’ll give your turf all year. Apply high-quality lawn food as prescribed by soil test. For most Texas soils that will mean an all-nitrogen fertilizer with a significant percentage of that nitrogen in slow-release form. Water deeply after application.
• Keep patio pots and hanging baskets vigorous with weekly applications of high-nitrogen, water-soluble plant food in diluted solution.
• Just about last call for iron additive for plants showing chlorosis. Look for yellowed leaves with dark green veins most prominently displayed on newest growth (at ends of branches). Acid-loving plants are most likely to show it: azaleas, gardenias, camellias, dogwoods, waxleaf ligustrums, Carolina jessamines and wisterias. Include a sulfur soil-acidifier with the iron. Keep iron off masonry and painted surfaces to prevent staining.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• CRITICAL TIMING! To control cool-season weeds that plague lawns in late winter and spring, apply pre-emergent herbicides now, just before they start to germinate. For grassy types such as annual ryegrass, rescuegrass, and annual bluegrass (Poa annua), you only get this one chance. Apply Dimension or Pendimethalin granules before night temperatures drop to 60F. See related story this issue.
• Fall webworms are rampant in many parts of Texas currently. Use long-handled pole pruner to clip them out where you can. Pull them down with a rake if they’re low enough to reach. Spraying is impractical unless you have power equipment and the proper knowledge of how to apply insecticides effectively. Otherwise leave them alone. They won’t do serious damage to your trees, and the webs will come down with the falling leaves in the next 6-8 weeks. Other years are probably not going to be as bad.
• If you begin to see small lavender flowers in your lawn, those are roadside asters. They’re most common in parts of the yards where grass doesn’t receive enough water or fertilizer. Step up your maintenance next year and the grass will crowd out most of them. In the meantime, apply a broadleafed weedkiller (containing 2,4-D) according to label directions and you should be able to stop them before they go to seed. (And in case you think they’re too pretty to kill, wait ‘til you see how unsightly they are in the winter. And wait ‘til you trip over their stubble after they die.)