What To Do In Your Garden In November

November is time for your plants to wind down and take a rest for the winter months. Many plants are going dormant for the season. There are, however, plants that do well in the winter months in the warmer areas of the country. Here in Southern California, pansies and sweet peas are wonderful additions to any winter garden and grow well in our climate.

There are a few things you should do this month:

1. Finish cleaning up your garden. Take out the annuals that have died and put them in your compost bin. They’ll return to your garden in a few months as nutritious mulch and your garden will thank you for it.
2. Keep your container gardens watered. Although the weather has cooled, that does not mean they don’t get very thirsty. Remember, being in containers means they dry out quicker. And just because it’s rained, don’t think you can ignore it for a week or so!
3. Keep your yard looking sharp by raking the leaves that are strewn across it. Put them in the compost bin..
4. If you haven’t already done so, fertilize your lawn and do it now! October is the perfect time to fertilize, so while in November it’s a bit late, it’s not too late. Wait much longer though and you won’t get the full benefit of fertilizing.
5. Identify any plants that a frost could harm and make a plan of action so that when the first frost comes, you’re ready. Be sure to cover them for warmth if need be.

Doing just a few things like this in your November garden will help you to have a healthy, beautiful garden come March and April.

Happy Gardening!

Lauri
Independent Garden Consultant
The Happy Gardener
www.thehappygardener.info
loresgardens@yahoo.com

Newspaper in my Garden

A few years ago I decided to do a planting on a side of the house that was a bit neglected. The planter was full of weeds and I had done nothing with it since we purchased the house a few years before that. (This was about the time my gardening bug really hit) So I got down on hands and knees and worked my butt off to clear out the weeds and all the unwanted “stuff” I found in the weed bed. It was hard work and when I was done, my first thought was “I don’t want to have to do this again and again. Maybe I shouldn’t plant anything nice.” I didn’t want to have to weed every week in this area because I knew I wouldn’t do it and it would all grow over all the nice plants I was planning on planting. So I did a little research. Internet, here I come!

After searching and searching and reading and reading thanks to our friends at Google, I found what I was looking for and made a plan. But I had to hurry before the darn weeds started showing again! So one morning before it got too hot, I went out there with a bunch of newspaper in hand. I tilled the soil a bit by hand to level the ground some so it would look better. Then I planted some Star Jasmine and Azalea. I already had a blue potato tree out there that had such pretty purplish, bluish blossoms on it, I decided to keep it.

Once I had planted everything, I again smoothed the dirt out to level it out. Then I took the newspaper, a few pages at a time, and spread it out all over the dirt areas, keeping a small space open at the base of my plants and tree for watering purposes. After I had covered the area with newspaper, I gave it a mist of water just to weight it down a bit while I continued to work. I had purchased several bags of mulch and spread it all out over the top of the newspapers, a couple of inches thick, leveled it out, made it look pretty, watered my new plants and voila! A beautiful garden in under 2 hours! Believe it or not, it was 3 years before I ever had to worry about weeds in that area! So now, whenever I plant a large area, I first cover it with newspaper to help keep the weeds down. I no longer need to spend a bunch of money on weed control material from the local Home Depot. Newspaper accomplishes the same thing for much less money!

Sadly, while I wanted to post a picture of the area, I cannot. We had a big freeze last winter and I lost everything but the tree. The Star Jasmine is still struggling to come back and I think in the spring I will probably just replant.

There are 2 morals to this story: 1. Use newspaper under your mulch to help control weeds for quite some time. 2. If you want to keep your plants, cover them during a frost! (We Californians don’t know any better!)

Happy Gardening!

Lore

Independent Garden Consultant

The Happy Gardener

www.thehappygardener.info

loresgardens@yahoo.com