4 Most Important Gardening Tasks in November

The gardening season ends in November, and the first frosts make their presence known. You should start planning gardening tasks in november for winter protection now and taking the necessary precautions to prevent unpleasant surprises. Additionally, late autumn is a good time to prune the kitchen garden and to plant woody plants from scratch. In this article, we will tell you the four most important gardening tasks in november.

Care for your Crops in November

The first of the gardening tasks in november is crop care. When the first fall frost is predicted by the weather and the radio, fall garden maintenance can start. Organic gardening needs a little more preparation and labor. This procedure should ideally start in the fall before spring planting¹.

Therefore, your top priority should be harvesting all ripe, tender crops. Summer squash, melons, eggplant, cucumbers, peppers, and okra are a few of the crops that should be picked right away because they cannot withstand frost. The vegetables should be kept in a location where they can be kept until being used for processing or for eating. Cover delicate plants like tomatoes that have a lot of immature fruit if the frost warning is mild (predicting a low of no lower than 30°F)².

On the other side, there is still one possibility to grow tomatoes in winter. Greenhouse methods. We have prepared an article about growing tomatoes in greenhouses. Maybe this is also one of the gardening tasks in november.

Safeguard delicate Plants

Secondly, protecting sensitive plants is part of the gardening tasks in november. The majority of garden plants are hardy, and they only need a thin layer of mulch or fall foliage to survive the winter. Some species, however, demand more effort. After the first few light night frosts, delicate bulbous and tuberous plants, like dahlias, are dug up and overwintered frost-free. Dig up the tubers, then place them in boxes with a layer of sand.

To do this, cut all stems a hand’s width above the ground. A room that is dark, dry, and about five degrees Celsius (41°F) in temperature makes for the ideal winter accommodations. Pampas grass is one of the more delicate ornamental grasses; to safeguard it from winter dampness, tie the leaves in a crested pattern on a dry autumn day, working up from the bottom.

Woody plants and perennials that are not entirely frost-hardy should also be shielded from extreme cold and sunlight to be on the safe side. Apply a coat of white paint to the trunks of young fruit trees to prevent frost cracking:

The light shade reflects sunlight and keeps the bark from overheating. For roses, the grafting site needs to be protected in particular. To do this, fill the root zone with soil and cover it with brushwood so that it is 15 to 20 centimeters high. Wrap the crown with fleece or jute fabric for roses with high trunks.

Gardening Tasks in November: Pruning fruit trees

Autumn raspberries like “Himbo Top” or “Aroma Queen,” which produce fruit on both new canes and wood older than a year, are becoming more and more popular. Cut off all of the canes close to the ground right away as one of your next gardening tasks in November after harvesting to reduce the risk of cane disease. Our advice is to leave a few cut canes in the bed for beneficial insects to colonize.

To ensure that older blueberry bushes continue to produce a lot of flavorful fruit, they should be pruned in fall. Take out any side shoots that touch or rub against one another, as well as any branches that extend into the bush’s interior. Elderberries in gardens should also be thinned out right away. It has been found to be beneficial to remove all harvested branches in the fall and to leave only about ten young canes per shrub for the following year in order to ensure a good fruit yield.

Planting Shrubs for Decoration and Hedging

November is still a good time to plant hardy, bare-root, and ballarded ornamental shrubs like scented jasmine or forsythia as long as the temperature isn’t piercingly below freezing. Therefore, the next gardening tasks in November are planting shrubs for decorating and hedging. The woody plants can begin the new season with a head start on growth if there are mild temperatures and enough precipitation. Many nurseries now offer deciduous hedge plants like hornbeam or copper beech in addition to deciduous flowering shrubs, bare-root roses, and small trees. After planting, prune back all shoots firmly to ensure that the hedge quickly becomes dense. Additionally, this month is the time to plant bulbs for the upcoming spring.

If you want to know how you can plant bulbs in fall, have a look at:

I hope we could help you planning for gardening tasks in november to save your garden through the cold season. Follow our tips and instructions and your plants will rock the winter! Please, feel free to ask questions or even talk about other gardening tasks in november!

References

1. Pugliese, P. J. (2010). Organic gardening 101.
2. Relf, D. (1991). Fall vegetable gardening.