Gardening Articles
Gardening Tips for November
For Publication November 2018
Gardening Tips For November
"Autumn is marching on: even the scarecrows are wearing dead leaves."
- Otsuyu Nakagawa
November is when the cold usually descends in earnest. There are lots of flowers and vegetables that can be planted now to perk up your yard and provide delicious and nutritious food for your table. Also, there are annual fall tasks to complete.
- It is important to put in spring-blooming annuals now so that they will grow sturdy roots over the winter. Try Iceland poppies, pansy, viola, calendula, primrose, alyssum, columbine, coral bells, cyclamen, dianthus, snapdragon and sweet William. These spring-flowering plants put in during November will outflower transplants of the same plants put in next spring. The difference in intensity and length of display is significant.
- You can get away with another planting of lettuce in the vegetable garden. Continue to plant the winter vegetable garden with cool-season crops such as beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, onions, parsnips, arugula, bok choy, radish, spinach and turnips.
- November is a good month to plant tulips, hyacinths and other spring-blooming blubs such as anemone, crocus, daffodil, Dutch iris, freesia and ranunculus.
- Now is a good time to prepare the soil –before it becomes too rain soaked-- for the planting of bare-root plants (such as roses, fruit trees, and berries) several months from now. Dig, weed, and amend the soil if needed. Bare-root plants are usually available from January through March.
- Stake chrysanthemums so that they do not bend and break under heavy rain. When chrysanthemums finish blooming, cut them back to between four and six inches above ground level so that they will make new growth for cuttings that may be taken in the spring to provide flowers in the fall.
- To prepare for our fierce winter north winds, it is a good idea to prune dense trees to open gaps for the wind to pass through. Stake trees only if needed to protect or support the trunk or anchor the root ball during the first year or so after planting. Do not fasten trunks firmly; they must be allowed to flex some with the wind in order to develop stem strength.
- Monitor the amount of rain reaching the garden. Until the ground is truly soaked with rain, you may need to water. Cooler weather and waning daylight hours make fewer demands on plants, so water less heavily. Newly planted annuals and winter vegetables will still need to be soaked thoroughly. This is a good time to flush your watering system to remove mineral deposits.
- There is still time to divide perennials such as agapanthus daylily, primrose and Shasta daisy.
- Fall cleanup is an essential part of disease and pest control. Continue to rake leaves, pull weeds and pull up dying annuals and vegetables.
- After cleaning up the garden, rinse gardening tools with a solution of one-part bleach to three parts water. Then coat your tools lightly with oil to keep them from rusting.
Submitted by: Donna Moore, UC Master Gardener of Glenn County. For more information, contact the UC Glenn County Master Gardener’s Plant Clinic on Wednesday afternoon from 2 to 4 PM in the UC Cooperative Extension Office. Phone: 530-865-1107. You can also send an email to anrmgglenn@ucanr.edu or submit a question on our website at http://ucanr.edu/sites/glennmg/.
For a pdf version of this article, please click here:Gardening Tips for November
An example of a square foot winter garden built by UC Glenn County Master Gardeners located at the Demonstration and Teaching Garden, 821 E. South St., Orland, CA. Plants include cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, broccoli, bok choi, lettuce, arugula, carrots, radishes, peas and beets. Square foot gardening is a simple method of creating small, orderly, and highly productive kitchen gardens. The garden is open to the public; to learn more, contact the Master Gardener Plant Clinic at 530-865-1107.