Month of change
SEPTEMBER. A month of change, in all senses. The beginning of meteorological autumn, the shortening days and lengthening nights. Indeed, it is the month in which the balance tips from day to night, as we pass the equinox. It’s when so many of our summer-visiting birds leave us, gorging on the bounteous wild fruits in our hedgerows, orchards and gardens as they slowly depart, in order to fuel their epic journeys.
In our gardens, much of the riot of high summer will be beginning to wane a little by now, but there can still be plenty of colour and life to enjoy for a few weeks yet. Later-flowering plant species such as dahlias, cosmos, rudbeckias, zinnias and various others will still be in full bloom, many of them also continuing to produce an invaluable source of nectar for pollinating insects still on the wing, including late butterfly species such as Speckled Wood, Small Copper, Painted Lady and Red Admiral, as well as various hoverflies, moths and solitary bees.
This is a month for getting quite a lot of ‘big stuff’ done in the garden, safe in the knowledge that you will be causing relatively little disruption to wildlife. The breeding season of all common garden bird species is truly over by now, so hedges can be safely trimmed, although it still pays to double check for nests before you fire up the strimmer. Try to avoid cutting off too many berries if you can! It’s also a good time of year to start thinking about planting up hedgerow whips and other bare-root trees and shrubs, as well as spring bulbs. Although September is the beginning of the slow descent into the darkness of winter, there’s a lot of hope to be gained from thinking ahead to next year’s growing season and all the new opportunities you can provide for birds, insects and other wildlife in your garden.
Another great thing about this time of year is that you can dig and divide large clumps of perennial plants, meaning you can increase your supply of plants for free! Either give some away to friends, family and neighbours, or perhaps just spread the various clumps to different areas within your own garden.
If you have a meadow area or a patch of rough grass you’ve been cheerfully neglecting through the summer, now is a good time to cut it. A strimmer or even shears will be fine for small areas, but you may want to look at hiring a power scythe if you have quite a large patch to cut. The benefit of these machines (which look rather like a giant beard trimmer on wheels!) is that they cut everything down at the base, making it easier to rake up the trimmings into piles, rather than conventional lawnmowers which mash the cuttings up into a green mulch.
Rake off as much of the arisings as you possibly can, ideally exposing some patches of bare ground in the process. This will present you with the opportunity to introduce more wildflower seed into the sward. If you’ve been rather disappointed with the wildflower to grass ratio this year, think about introducing some Yellow Rattle seed. This attractive little plant with its hooded yellow flowers is hemi-parasitic on grasses, meaning it reduces the vigour or dominant grass species in the sward. Although it can take a little perseverance to get it established, it’s definitely worth the effort as it will help immensely in terms of creating areas of opportunity for other wildflower species to gain a foothold among the otherwise dominant grass species.