November Gardening Plus What’s Going on in My Garden

Wow where has the year gone? Now that the days are getting longer and the weather is warming up it feels like Christmas and the end of the year are approaching fast! I can’t believe that October is behind us and it’s already time to get stuck into the November gardening jobs!

While the daytime temperature here these last few weeks has definitely increased we have still had a few really cold nights. Just when we think that we have used our wood heater for the last time the overnight temperature drops again and we have to start it up again. It’s hard at this time of year because it is too hot for a fire during the day but it still gets cold some nights. We even had frost forecast a couple of nights ago but thankfully that didn’t eventuate!

Despite the changeable temperature I really love this time of year because it won’t be much longer and it will be too hot to be out in the garden during the day. Our summers can be really hot which means that often the gardening has to be done early in the morning or in the evenings. It is great to be able to work in the garden all day during spring!

There seems to be so much that is happening in the garden as the weather warms up. I find it hard to get my inside jobs done because it is really great being out in the garden at this time of year!

Here are the November gardening jobs that I will be doing in the weeks ahead:

My November Gardening Jobs

monitor vegetable patch daily and water as required
mulch around newly planted vegetables
stake tomato plants as they continue to grow
deadhead roses to encourage fresh blooms
control aphids on roses using natural control methods
monitor drip irrigation system for leaks and blockages
clear leaf litter and twigs from gutters and around garden to prepare for upcoming bushfire season
protect fruit tree from birds as fruit develops
move pots of spring flowering bulbs that have finished to a cool shady area to die back before lifting

One part of the garden that is not hard to get obsessed by during spring is the vegetable patch. Once you plant out some seeds it is so much fun to check on them every day and see if any have sprouted! During the last couple of weeks we have planted beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, and watermelons. We have been watering the seeds and new seedlings everyday so that they are kept damp but our other more advanced vegetables are surviving quite well with a good soak every three or four days.

A new vegetable in our garden that I am really excited about is our zucchinis! I love zucchini so I can’t wait to harvest some home grown ones. We only have three zucchini plants, but I believe that they are very productive so that will probably be enough for us 🙂

We have been enjoying harvesting lots of our own vegetables over the last few weeks. I was very pleased with my crop of three nice big cauliflowers and we have also had a good harvest of silver beet, parsnips, and onions. A couple of days ago we even dug up some of our own potatoes and had them for dinner – and they were delicious! We planted quite a few so we won’t have to buy potatoes for a while!

Our fruit trees are also loaded with fruit at the moment. Since we have not had a lot of rain over the last couple of months we have been giving them extra water so that the trees don’t get stressed. Even though the fruit is still very green we will soon have to start thinking about protecting the fruit from the birds. Only the other day we noticed that the birds have ‘taste tested’ a couple of the apricots!

Our fruit trees end up looking a bit silly in the lead up to Christmas and through January because we hang lots of shiny objects up to try and scare the birds. We have a stack of old CDs and aluminium trays that catch the light quite well and seem to spin and flap around in the breeze. I don’t know what our neighbours think!

Our lemon tree has also been flowering away over the last few weeks. We find that we get lots of lemons if we make sure the tree is well watered while it is flowering. It is only a small Meyer lemon in a pot but it provides quite a few lemons if we keep it well watered!

Now that we are really utilizing our vegetable patch we have decided to incorporate some flowering plants to help attract the bees. We grow most of our vegetables during the spring and summer so we have tried to add some plants into the veggie garden that will flower over the warmer months. There is a happy wanderer creeper in our garden that has been there for years but it flowers at the end of the winter which is a bit early for most of our vegetable plants.

The salvia plants that grow in our front garden seem to flower for months and months so we now have one growing in a big pot in the vegetable garden. They can spread a bit so we thought that having it in a pot would be the best option.

We have added a patch of alstroemeria to the back of our vegetable patch and it seems to really like the full sun position. We plan to put in a couple more different coloured alstroemeria plants because they also make a great cut flower for arrangements.

The alstroemerias that are already in the vegie garden are already attracting the bees. Just the other day I saw a bee moving between the alstroemeria flowers and the tomato flowers!

Well I can’t wait to get out into the garden and get stuck into my jobs for November! If you want more November gardening inspiration check out the following links: