With conversations already shifting to football season a new school year, it’s starting to sound like fall – but it still feels like summer. For those hoping to have their outdoor plants and gardens ready for fall, now is a good time to be applying fertilizer. Sheryl Nunnikhoven with Dutch Meadows Garden Center in Pella says she recommends fertilizer be applied now for perennials and planter boxes.

“With all this rain, it really washes away the fertilizer. I don’t recommend that you use a real high-nitrogen fertilizer out in your perennials anymore, but I would put down something to feed the roots a little before fall,” says Nunnikhoven. “On your annual planters, I would just hit those with some Miracle-Gro or some Bloom Booster, something like that.”

Nunnikhoven says the fertilizer boost is necessary because the wet rainy summer has washed away much of the fertilizers that were previously applied, and the soil itself is has also been leached of nutrients.