Tips from a local gardener
By Deb Zynomirski
Is November still a good month for gardening? Well although the days are getting shorter, and it’s likely that you have experienced your first frost, the gardening tasks continue. Instead of focusing on our blooms and increasing harvests, we make the shift to maintenance.
Here are my Top 10 November gardening tasks.
1. Plant your spring bulbs
Plan out your colour scheme, the plant heights, and early and late bloomers. The ground is still warm enough to dig deep for bulbs like tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, and crocuses. You will be rewarded for your hard work in early spring when you have had just about enough of the cold weather. Those first green leaves poking through the soil offer the hope we need to persevere through the end of winter, even though it’s still too cold to work the soil.
2. Order seed catalogues
Even if you don’t ever order anything, just perusing the pages filled with bright blooms and bountiful fruits and veggies brightens the cold days of late autumn. However, you may just find something unique and new to try the coming spring!
3. Check your garden for seeds to save
These can be prepared for overwintering, ready to plant in spring. Or you can share them with other gardeners. Many garden clubs organize seed exchanges in February and March. Remember to sort, label, and describe the plant whose seeds you have saved!
In addition, many garden centres don’t like to keep this year’s seed packets for next season and will often sell them at a deep discount.
4. Shop the garden centre for clearance items
It isn’t too late to plant shrubs or fruit trees. A good soaking after you plant them will see them through the winter. And the bonus is that many garden centres are selling their nursery stock at bargain basement prices this month!
5. Trim back herbaceous perennials and mulch
Many perennials could use a good clean up haircut about now. Check on your specific perennial for how much to trim back. A good 3” to 4” layer of mulch will help to protect their roots from bitter cold.
6. Drain hoses and outdoor taps
And don’t forget to shut the water supply off to these outlets. Don’t leave hoses exposed to the elements, bring them indoors to extend their life. It goes without saying that water damage from frozen pipes and spigots or split hoses can really put a damper on your spring garden plans.
7. Collect leaves from your yard (or a kind neighbour’s yard)
Use the leaves as an added layer of protective mulch for your gardens. They will break down over the winter and provide excellent nutrients for your plants.
8. Begin an indoor herb garden
Nothing staves off the winter doldrums like the lush green of an aromatic herb garden in a kitchen window. That blanket of white doesn’t seem so cold as you snip parsley, oregano, or basil for a steaming pot of homemade soup.
9. Maintain your tools
Take the time to do a deep clean of your garden tools to prevent transmitting mould spores and diseases from last year’s problem plants to next year. And while you’re at it, make sure you sharpen your tools well. Investing a bit more into quality garden shears, loppers, trimmers, or shearing knives is totally worth it. Keeping these tools sharp reduces fatigue, protects your plants, and minimizes frustration!
10. Make a plan for next year
Sit down with a hot cup of tea or coffee and make a plan for your spring garden activities. Approaching your garden willy nilly as soon as the snow melts, without a plan, results in mistakes and disappointments. Taking the time now to consider plant heights and widths, bloom times, textures, foliage shades, and more will result in a garden you will enjoy and be proud of.
Finally, as you settle into the chilly days and nights of late autumn and winter, enjoy the break in the action. Whether you view gardening as a rewarding hobby or an essential for providing food for your table, it can be hard work. Enjoy the down time and dream of next year’s beautiful blooms and bountiful harvests!
Join some fellow gardeners with the Dunnville Horticultural Society for our next meeting January 16 at the Dunnville Optimist Hall. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., program begins at 7 p.m. Light refreshments served.
