September Vegetable Gardening in Arizona

Arizona Vegetable Garden

September Vegetable Gardening in Arizona, or as I like to call it...the time when we start to have hope for our yards to once again be abundant and our bodies to be able to enjoy the great outdoors.

September in the Valley of the Sun brings with it a wide range in temperatures...the days can still be quite warm, touching the 100 mark during the first few weeks, but the nights gradually start cooling down and the early mornings give the first hint of cooler weather...and by the end of the month, some days will peak in the low 90's, and you will be able to smell the change in the air as well. This change is what makes September an ideal time to get your gardens ready for Fall and Winter!

If you planned ahead, you may have started seedlings indoors in early August. I didn't do that this year...so I will end up purchasing transplants for some of my garden, and that's ok! There's no shame in picking up some ready-to-plant Vegetables and herbs from the garden centers! If you thought about starting seedlings ahead of time, I applaud you. :)

Let's first discuss what steps you might want to take this month to get your gardens up and running and ready for the Season change:

Clean & Prep your Garden Beds. This can mean creating new beds, or if you're like me and you let your Summer beds get wild and unkept, now is the time to clear out old plants, pull up the bermuda that crept in during summertime, dig out those weeds any anything unwanted. Sometimes it seems daunting, but if you just spend a few mornings in the first week of the month tackling this project, it'll be done in no time and

your beds will be ready for the next step.....which is amending the soil.

Assorted Bags from Lowes

• Amend the Soil. This step is important because you want to add in nutrients to give your plants a healthy start. I like to go buy an assortment of inexpensive bags of goodies like mushroom compost, Omni soil, and any other bags that fall under the label 'compost' that are not going to cost me a fortune. Adding in vermiculite, worm castings, bat guano, and of course rotted down manure and home-made compost is great too! I skip the expensive bags because my garden doesn't know difference between marked down torn bags of dirt and $25 bougy dirt. ;)

• Make Repairs to Watering System if Necessary. I've got a drip system layed out in by beds, which I can remove to fluff the soil underneath...and I will take time to check each emitter and make sure none are clogged or needing to be replaced. I will also make sure my timers are working properly, and set new watering schedules if necessary. I try to do this ahead of time, because once I get my plants and seeds in the ground, I don't want to risk them drying out before they're established! (Note: I still often hand water when the plants are new or the seeds are trying to sprout as they require additional, gentle waterings to get a good start)

• Decide what to plant & when to plant it. You can really plant a wide variety of edibles this time of year. Because the days are still warm, you have the ability to grow warm season crops for another couple of months...so if you didn't get your fill of squash, tomatoes, green beans, and cucumbers, you can still plant them and harvest veggies before the weather truly turns cold! I like to do a combo in my garden beds. Some of them will have a few warm-season crops, and some will be left bare until the end of September and beginning of October when I plant the cool season crops.

Planting in my Raised Bed Garden

I have several downloadable .pdf's on my website if you'd like a more extensive garden planting list...but here are some of my favorite Vegetables to plant this time of year...and these can be planting anytime during September:

• Beans

• Edamame

• Cucumbers

• Peppers

• Potatoes

• Shallots (from bulbs)

• Summer Squash

• Tomatoes

While these are technically considered warm season crops, we are also technically still quite warm during the both of September. There is absolutely no frost in sight...so if you want to plant warm season crops, they'll grow for a few more months!

Once the night time temps start dropping, you can start planting these crops:

• Arugula

• Beets

• Bok Choi & all the Cabbage Varieties

• Broccoli

• Brussels Sprouts

• Carrots

• Cauliflower

• Celery

• Collards, Kale, Mustards, Swiss Chard.....all of the "greens"

• Green Onions

• Lettuce and Spinach

• Parsnips

• Peas

• Radishes

• Strawberries

• Turnips

Raised Bed Garden

I like to add flowers into my gardens as well, and of course I plant an entire bed of Herbs for both culinary and medicinal uses.

Flowers that do well when planted during September are:

Marigolds, Geraniums, Calendula, African daisies, Delphinium, Foxglove, Petunias, Snapdragons, Salvia, Verbena, and phlox...just to name a handful!

Some of my favorite Herbs that do well during the cooler months are: Cilantro, Dill, Parsley, Oregano, Sage, Thyme, Chives, and Fennel.

I also like to make lists of what I want to have growing for the next several months, and then I draw out my garden beds on paper, and decide what I want to plant in each bed. I have saved these papers in a 3-ring folder for much of my life, so I will look back and see what my beds looked like in past years. This not only helps with planning, but also in crop-rotating and choosing how many of each plant I truly need vs going overboard and planting too many (or the opposite, wishing I had more growing).

Ultimately...this is a wonderful time of year to get your garden beds prepped and planted. If you have any quesitons please feel free to reach out to me and I will do my best to answer any questions you may have. As you know I offer in-person classes every month at the local plant nursery, and I also have an online Plant Mentorship program available for everyone who wants to learn more about botanical medicine. ~Kim