Plant cool weather annuals and start Autumn cleanup in September

After the hot, dry summer months, September comes breezing in with welcome changes.

The nights are cooler, the days are still warm but shorter, and there’s a bright crispness to the air. It's the start of a new season and all of nature responds.

That includes people. September is probably the second-busiest gardening month of the year, and not just for raking leaves. Sure, there's cleanup to be done, but there are fun things, too, such as planting cool weather annuals, like as pansies and flowering kale, and getting out the chimenea for marshmellow roasts.

Here's a list to get you started:

• September is cleanup time for spent summer annuals, both in flowerbeds and containers. Pull up plants, shaking off soil from the roots, and discard or add to the compost pile. To save seeds that may have formed, carefully pull up the plant by the central stalk. Shake it gently upside down over a large bowl to collect the seeds, which have developed at the sites of spent flower heads. Sometimes seeks are encased in a husk, which can be opened with the fingers. Save each group in small containers and label.

• Apply compost or fertilizer and soil amendments to the soil in preparation for fall planting or to improve the soil for next spring. Soil amendments can be anything that improves the texture or adds nutrients to the soil. For example, use gypsum to improve the texture of clay soil or lime to lessen its acidity. Also, perlite and vermiculite are materials that improve soil drainage. Purchase an inexpensive soil test kit to determine what chemical amendments would help your garden the most and follow application instructions.

• Replace summer annuals with cool season plants, such as flowering kale and pansies. Plant kale in close bunches for great color. It's usually seen in a deep purple and a green and cream mixture. Kale, often called flowering kale when used in decorative gardening, is an edible vegetable that is lovely in masses. Plant six or eight together in one spot for a pop of color as the fall sets in. Pansies do quite well in the cool weather and will last into early winter in cold zones. They are good companions for fall perennials, such as chrysanthemums.

• If you have a poinsettia that you've been growing outdoors, bring it inside in September and place it in a sunny window. Next month, you will begin putting it in a closet each night, preparing it to bloom again by Christmas!

• Try bringing some annuals indoors. It's more difficult to transfer full-sun plants, such as marigold, indoors, unless you have a greenhouse setup or provide several hours of strong florescent light to these plants daily. One to try, though is petunia, which can be encouraged to over-winter and keep flowering with the right conditions. (Another way to save hybrid petunia stock for next spring is to take some root cuttings and preserve them in sand.) Other annuals requiring less light include asparagus fern, impatiens, coleus, vinca, lantana and geranium. Before brining containers indoors, cut back large stems and inspect plants for bugs. Provide only light feeding once per month and water when the soil feels dry at about an inch depth.