GARDEN SURROUNINGS: September Garden To-dos And More...

k-england
Sep 1
5 min read

By Francesca Filanc, for Let’s Talk Plants! September 2025.

September Garden To-dos

Summer is winding down and kids are going back to school or are already back in school. There are so many projects one can do in September in one’s garden. The best advice for this, with easy-to-follow directions, can be found in Pat Welsh’s book which you can buy secondhand online. Pat Welsh’s Southern California gardening a month-by-month Guide completely revised and updated. This is the book that my mama, Pat Welsh, says is the best of all the editions of her book.

Just to highlight a couple of ideas:

This is the month in Southern California to plant peas.

“There are three basic kinds to grow; Chinese pea pods (also called Snow Peas), snap peas, and English peas. The first two are the easiest, and you eat them pod and all. English peas are delicious, but you have to shell them, and they take up more space.” -Pat Welsh

This is also the month to plant sweet peas for Christmas bloom.

Just a reminder, sweet peas are poisonous so plant them in a different area than you plant the vegetables.

“Soak seeds in water overnight. Put the seeds in a jar and pour lukewarm water over them. Leave them overnight plant the next day.” -Pat Welsh

(The full directions and so much more for September can be found in mom’s book. Directions for how to plant sweet peas for Christmas bloom are on page 235 and how to grow peas are on page 241.)

Years ago, I had extensive vegetable gardens and loved planting sweet peas for the fragrance and the beauty. Additionally, September is the month to plant wildflowers. We built a Santa Fe style home in 1985 where there was another home on the property that we tore down. We lived in a trailer in the orchard for nine months while building our dream home. We took a family vacation in our Volkswagen van to Santa Fe, New Mexico and fell in love with the architecture and wanted to design a Santa Fe style home in North San Diego County.

The author and her husband by their Kiva fireplace.

We even designed Kiva Fireplaces. They work really well too as well as being beautiful.

After the home was built, I poured through countless books about Santa Fe design and gardens. The hardscape and gardens were to reflect the Santa Fe style home.

The author on her horse, Chief, outside her "secret garden" that is on the other side of her privacy wall. Photo credit: Francesca Filanc.

We built walls that gave us total privacy from the street. We designed stucco walls and had a tall wooden gate that led into the courtyard.

A large Spanish fountain in the center of the patio attracted dozens of songbirds, every variety that flies here for the winter. I sometimes counted eight western bluebirds at a time in the fountain.

Two iconic members of the San Diego Horticultural Society, Evelyn Weidner and Pat Welsh, both past Horticulturist of the Year honorees, enjoying the author's beautiful Santa Fe style garden. Photo credit: Francesca Filanc.

Saltillo tile was the flooring of the courtyard and continued into the house. Pete and I loved the tiles that most people would throw out with paw prints of animals. We designed walls and pergolas. There was a short stucco wall that one could sit on or step over to go up in the area where I would plant a carpet of wildflowers every September. Sitting or standing in front looking out at the garden area was the canvas for growing wildflowers from seed. There was always a little fear that maybe they weren’t going to come up that year...

... and then, it was always so exciting to see them come up! Then, when they were all blooming, it was for such a short period of time that I would have parties or invite people over just so they could see the carpet of wildflowers. This was when the children were young, and I had lots of energy.

Today there are a lot of things that I can’t do in the garden workwise so I’m grateful for the gardeners. The gardeners planted zinnias and many packets of sunflower seeds this summer but alas, even though we take all the precautions; covering with netting and putting cut containers to prevent the plants from getting eaten, we haven’t gotten the profusion of them as we did in past years.

The grandchildren are growing too. The four kids span 18 to 12 in age. It was a thrill for all of us to be together at some points on and off all summer. Sisters traveled individually from the north of Spain and one of my daughters and her kids traveled from northern California down to visit.

As I write this article, my oldest grandchild has landed back in Spain. She went to Outward Bound and then came to visit all of us in California. The young adults were canoeing in the boundary waters of Minnesota, hiking and learning so much about the wilderness. They even each had two solo nights in the wilderness. The kids handed over their cell phones to the counselors as soon as they arrived. One of my other granddaughters went on a week’s backpack trip in the eastern Sierras with a leader and one other girl her age. They also had incredible experiences and learned so much about being in the outdoors. She also left her phone at home. Both girls on their individual trips and adventures painted and sketched at their campsites.