If your November garden chores include bulbs, roses, shrubs and woody vines this month, then get your soil ready. Bring in some compost to increase the soil biome. While you’re at it, get some mulch to lay on top of the compost.
- We can mulch them with a mulching lawnmower, returning those nutrients back into the soil.
- Rake them up and out them in a compost bin. Many gardeners call compost “black gold,” because of the rich combinations of plant nutrients and microbiologic organisms it contains.
- Put them in a green waste bag and put them by the curb.
- Burn them.
- Throw them over the fence in your neighbor’s yard.
Bulbs
Now is a great time to plant bulbs for spring blooms. Some include: paperwhites, Spanish bluebells, tulips, yellow spider lilies, Chinese ground orchid, Byzantine gladiolus, Bearded irises, daylilies, oxalis, rain lilies, spider lilies, Louisiana iris, and African iris. You can also put amaryllis in the ground now, because they do not require chilling. I’ve put mine in the ground and they’ve bloomed year after year. You can, if you prefer, plant them indoors for holiday color. If you start them indoors in colorful or imaginative pots, they make great gifts.
Lawns
Lawns are dormant now and don’t need watering, and for most of us on the Gulf Coast, it’s really too late to resod or to aerate. Wait until February to apply pre-emergent herbicide. Find a good organic one. What I suggest people do…those with lawns, that is, is to simply apply 1/4 inch compost to the lawn twice a year (September and March.). St. Augustine is very aggressive. Strong turf growing on good soil, can eliminate weeds.
Roses
November is the absolute best time to plant roses grown in containers. Fall planting gives your roses and a lot of other perennials the head start they need so they can develop strong root systems and store up food. Beauty berry and female yaupon holly (or other holly species) can grow their root systems in the fall and winter and have a great showing in the spring.
Compost
The first two options are great, because either process will return nutrients back into the soil. If you do Number 3, the green waste may be taken to a landfill. Burning returns carbon to the atmosphere. Better to compost or mulch.
Strawberries
Yes, it’s time to plant strawberries (bare root). In cooler climes, early spring is the time to plant them. But here along the Gulf Coast, that would bring the harvest into June or later. At that point, the heat may be so great that the plants will suffer and bear little fruit.
Veggies to Plant Now
Carrots can still be planted . They are a great source of vitamin A, and are a great addition to the table. It’s a little late for beets, but since I did not get mine in, I’ll put them in this weekend and see what happens. Not too late for Swiss chard, lettuce. collards, parsley, radish, spinach and turnip.
