November Gardening Check list:
Now’s the time to finish up the last outside garden details before moving your gardening indoors. November is a good time to buy a bunch of flower bulbs and use them for forcing blooms inside. Flowers like tulips, crocus, hyacinth, daffodil, paper whites and amaryllis provide added color over winter.
Here are a few other gardening ideas to keep you busy this month:
- Scoop up any remaining pumpkins, colorful squashes and decorative gourds for decorating the Thanksgiving table. Get the kids involved in making a scarecrow to fill in the vegetable garden.
- Pull carrots, beets, turnips, and other root vegetables after the first killing frost. After vines die, harvest winter squashes and dig up potatoes. Give potatoes time for the skin to harden (cure) in a dark place for a week before storing them for winter.
- Take time to add compost, dry fertilizer, manure and other organic material to the vegetable bed to prepare it for next season. If you’ve always wanted to plant a strawberry patch, now’s the time to get the planting bed ready for spring planting!
- Buy a roll or two of tree wrap and take time to wrap the trunks of young deciduous trees to protect them from harsh winter sun and wind.
- In November and December, when conditions are dry and daytime temperatures are over 40 degrees, it’s a good idea to water your lawn and ground cover areas, pansies, and newly planted trees and shrubs. Remember, most established trees do not need extra water except in very exposed areas.
- Empty clay or ceramic pots that you keep outside or in a cold location during the winter of soil. This soil if left, may freeze and expand and crack the pot. However, keep the soil to use to fill the bottom of large planters next year. That way you won’t need as much soil!
- Refresh weatherproof containers with twisted branches, twigs, leaves, pinecones and other garden remnants to create an attractive seasonal display.
- Shop the garden centers sales for items you know you’ll need next spring. You’ll be glad you stocked up on tools, hoses, fertilizers, and seeds when planting time rolls around again.
And if you are still looking for more chores to do….
- If the ground is not frozen, you can still plant bulbs. (They may bloom a little later than those planted in September or October but they will still bloom)
- Cut back perennials from last year so they will bloom better. It is important to cut back perennials now. If the foliage is diseased, it will not only re-infect the plant next season, but it also could spread the disease to other plants as well. With a sharp pair of pruners, remove dead plant material all the way to the crown. Remove or compost debris.
- Sow seeds of perennials that need cold treatment, such as alliums, gentians, monkshood, primulas, and alpine plants. Sow in flats and move them outside to a shady location, or sow directly in an empty bed outside. Cover with pine boughs.
- Brush heavy snow off tree and shrub limbs to protect them.
- After the holidays, chop the branches off your Christmas tree and lay them over bulb beds and perennial gardens. The added insulation helps protect plants against fluctuating soil temperatures and early warm-up.