SEPTEMBER FARMING AND GARDENING NOTES

  The waxing moon favors all kinds of planting and transplanting throughout the first half of the month.  Get ready to seed or re-seed for spring pasture and winter wheat.
    Put in winter tomatoes for greenhouse fruit in February.  Prepare cold frames in northern states, and then seed your late-autumn greens for October, November and December salads.  Also as the moon waxes, plant your fall peas.  Put out cabbage, kale and collard sets.  Seed the lawn.  Gather up the squash and pumpkins as their stems dry; store in a cool, dry location.
   Purchase a little rye to plant in the garden now; let it sprout and grow, then spade it under in March or April.  Spinach planted in the fall will overwinter and provide greens for early spring.
   Autumn is an excellent time to plant or divide lilac bushes.  Divide bleeding hearts.  Prune your privet hedges for the last time.  Do that under the dark moon in the first days of the month or in September’s fourth week.
   The dark moon favors vaccinations, surgery, and general livestock maintenance.  Changes in the season bring weather extremes as well as stress, so you will be taking care of routine health care at the most important time of the year.
    September is bulb-planting month in the northern half of the country.  Put in scillas, snowdrops, tulips, daffodils, and crocuses during the last two weeks of the month as the moon wanes.
    After new moon, seed pansies and violas in cold frames for full blooms next March.  Dig the tender gladiolus and dahlia bulbs in the North, and store them for the winter away from frost and moisture.
Peonies and other perennials may be fertilized this month to encourage improved flowering next spring and summer.  This is also a good time to enlarge your day lily and iris collections.
    The full September moon and changes in the weather will have a negative influence on the joints of mammals.  Head off rheumatic ailments with paprika, parsley, comfrey, burdock, chickweed, rosemary, and garlic.
    Watch for pneumonia in livestock after sudden and violent cold spells.
    Does a full autumn moon carry frost?  Often it does.  And when frost hurts root crops, don't feed them to your pregnant ewes and does.  The frost can change the composition of the roots and may contribute to abortions.
    Watch for foot rot to increase in your herd or flock with wet September pastures, especially in the northern states.  Clean infected hooves, and feed your animals kale from the garden, molasses, oats and pulped carrots in order to improve healing.