Grass seed planting season has arrived

There is much to do in your yard this month, and rainfall on a regular basis will be helpful. One inch of rain each week is the ideal amount, and September is often a very dry month.

The season for planting grass seed runs through September and ends on Oct. 15. The kind of grass to plant depends on the amounts of sun and shade in your yard, not on the type of soil you have.

Grass grows in any soil, as long as you apply the correct amount of lime and fertilizer.

In sunny areas, the grass to plant is tall fescue. For a thick lawn that can withstand plenty of foot traffic, you could plant a mix of 90 percent tall fescue and 10 percent Kentucky bluegrass.

Grasses for moderate to heavy shade include chewings fescue, hard fescue and creeping red fescue. Unfortunately, some yards are too shady for any kind of grass. They can be allowed to grow up in native plants or covered with a layer of mulch. Shade-loving shrubs and perennial flowers are another attractive option.

Yard plants may need some trimming and pruning at this time of year. This includes cutting back the overgrown stems on hedge plants such as holly, privet and juniper. Dead branches on boxwoods, azaleas and roses are pruned whenever they appear, which hopefully would eliminate whatever disease and insects could be involved.

Clipping off the faded flowers on crape myrtle, rose and other plants will extend the blooming season. This practice, known as deadheading, is good for annuals, perennials and woody plants.

Clumps of iris get crowded as the years go by, and that can cause them to stop blooming. The solution is to divide and transplant them, and this month is the recommended time.

You can use pruning shears to cut the iris’ finger-like rhizomes into small sections, having one or two fans of leaves each. Also, cut back the leaves when dividing your irises, down to a height of 5 inches. Replant your iris divisions in fertile soil, with some lime added to reduce acidity. Iris rhizomes are planted shallow, with their tops exposed.

September is the time to plant vegetables for harvesting in fall and winter. The crops to plant include lettuce, arugula, spinach, kale, collard, mustard, turnip, creasy salad and onion. Your winter squashes are ready to cut from the vine when their rinds are hard and their stems turn brown and woody.

Insects remain active this month, and you can expect yellowjackets to be more aggressive as their sources of flower nectar dry up. Huge grubs known as “land shrimp” often crawl onto driveways and parking lots in September. These are the larvae of green June beetles.

Stinkbugs will be coming around later this month, settling into porches and sunrooms before entering houses to stay for the winter. These are Asian brown marmorated stinkbugs, a particularly smelly variety first seen in Lynchburg in 2006. Now would be the time to seal any cracks, holes and other openings in your house to keep them out. Also, make sure your window screens fit tightly into their frames.

Above all, get your vacuum cleaner ready for stinkbug season. It is your first line of defense.