NOVEMBER CHECKLIST

November brings stormy weather and falling orange, red, and brown leaves, as our attention tends to focus indoors toward the snuggly days of winter. Plants too start preparing for winter, dropping leaves, slowing down growth, and hardening up for the upcoming freezes. We can help winterize our gardens by cleaning up, feeding our plants less, and protecting our more tender plants with covers. That said, you can and should still plant if the ground is not frozen. And there's still a lot of great fall color to add to your containers.

Here's a checklist:

Around the home

• Clean up - Cut back perennials that have gone dormant. Mark where they are in your garden bed and mulch over the area.
• Fertilize - Apply a high phosphorus soil amendment to flowering shrubs, such as lilacs, camellias, and hydrangeas. Good sources include bone meal from Down to Earth or EB Stone, Hi-Yield Super Phosphate, and Soil Science Bloom Driver. Give your fruit trees this treatment too.
• Add fresh colors and textures to your containers - Pop in some fresh fall color to perk up your containers. Pansies, grasses, camellias, heaths, and groundcovers are classic choices.
• Add fall colors to your landscape - Japanese Maples are putting on their late season show, and many trees have visual fall interest.
• Winterize and protect - Adding several inches of compost in the fall is the best way to maintain a healthy soil environment for your plants and protects your plant's roots from freezes.
• As you clean up... - As you clean up after windstorms, think wreaths! Mossy branches, pinecones, and shrub cuttings can make unique additions to hand-crafted wreaths. We'll show you how.
• Plant amaryllis - and paperwhite narcissus for flowers indoors. Amaryllis take 4 to 6 weeks to bloom. Paperwhites fill the room with their sweet perfume in about 3 weeks and can be grown without soil.

Edible gardening

• You can still plant garlic - Garlic bulbs are here. If you haven't tried growing garlic before, this might be a good year to start. You'll need a well-draining area, perhaps a raised bed. Here is an old article about this (note that the varieties mentioned may not reflect what we currently have in stock. We'll update that article soon. Garlic Article
• Cover your veggie beds - To extend the season for your veggies, cover them with a cold frame, cloch, or remay.

Lawn care

• Lawn Care - A lot of people like to fertilize their lawn on last time before winter starts.

Indoor plants

• Slow down on fertilizing - Pull back or even stop fertilizing your houseplants as growth slows down due to less light and cooler temperatures. Start fertilizing again in March.