The Fall Yard Cleanup Tasks You Should Tackle in September

Fall is majestic. Don’t get me wrong, I live in anticipation of summer and the growing season, but fall is the season that never lets me down. In the Pacific Northwest, where I live, fall is marked by a different smell in the air, a return of cloud cover, and pops of color from the pumpkins turning orange on the vine. These are all signals it’s time to really swing into gear with the fall outdoor cleanup. Here’s what to tackle this month.

Save (or sacrifice) the sunflowers:

The sunflowers that have been towering over everything in your yard should be ready to harvest, provided that’s what you choose to do with them. If you like the seeds, it’s worth it to get to them before the squirrels and birds do. If there’s a specimen you particularly like, grab enough seeds to replant next year—but remember, if you don’t save the seeds yourself, the squirrels and birds will do you a favor by spreading them around for you, so next year, flowers will pop up on their own.

Sunflowers are not inexpensive seeds, so I like to harvest the immense Russian sunflower heads that produce twenty foot tall sunflowers, as well as the Teddy Bear varieties. Make sure you brush off the yellow flowers and remove off as much green as you can, because those parts will get moldy before the seeds dry. Once they have, pluck out the seeds and save them for next year. If you prefer to eat them, roast them on the lowest setting in your oven for an hour.

Take down your shelling beans:

You need to be judicious when deciding when to take down your shelling beans. You want to wait long enough to harvest as many beans as possible and allow them beans to dry out, but get them down before wetter fall weather might cause them to mold. If your beans aren’t totally dry after harvesting, lay them flat in front of a fan, in the pod.