Eleven Gardening Tasks
On Veteran’s Day, I want to thank my dad and all of the Veterans who have worked to keep our country safe. Thanks a lot!
Eleven seems to be the magic number today. I’m celebrating 11/11/11 by providing the top 11 gardening chores for November. Here’s what I’ve been working on this past week, and hope to complete in the next few days:
1. Planting bulbs. I’ve added 100 tulips, 50 daffodils, and 100 crocus bulbs. This is the time to plant garlic, too. Here’s how to plant garlic. You can continue planting bulbs right up until the ground freezes.
2. Moving plants. This is a great time to re-arrange plants to make more pleasing combinations and relieve crowding. I must do this now, while my ideas are fresh in my mind!
3. Creating walkways. All gardens need paths for the gardener to enter to cut flowers, pick vegetables, collect seed or do other maintenance chores. Some of my paths are single stepping stones that are hidden once the plants grow up in summer. . .
While others are more definite.
4. Removing faded annuals. I cut off their tops at the soil line. I usually chop up the tops and leave them in the bed, too – unless they are too full of seeds. The roots and tops decompose over the winter to enrich the soil.
5. Cutting back perennial plants. Just those whose tops have turned brown and crisp. But I try to leave some intact if they have seed heads to feed the birds. Here is more information on cutting back perennials.
6, 7, 8. Weeding, Edging, Mulching. I’m going through each landscape and flower and vegetable bed, giving them this cleanup treatment. It is very satisfying to see the beds all cleaned up and mulched with wood chips or chopped up leaves – or both. Here are some pointers on edging your beds.
9. Fertilizing the lawn. Apply the last “winterizer” fertilizer application some time during the next few weeks.
10. Composting. I set up a pile just off my patio, to use for kitchen waste when the ground is too snowy or muddy to tromp out to the composting area behind the shed. (See above – I’m using the Compost Sak) I have also started several bins of just shredded leaves, for covering the food scraps in my winter piles, and to make soil-improving leaf mold or mulch. Here is a post on how to get started with composting.
11. Citter control. For deer and rabbit control, I’m using a combination of repellant sprays and wireless deer fence. Learn more about deer control. For moles, voles and field mice, I set out mousetraps, baited with peanut butter. These are set in activity areas, at the end of tunnels, underneath an overturned bucket or flower pot. I’m using a castor oil mole repellent. Also, wire mesh tree guards protect tree trunks from rodent damage.
For more November Gardening Activities, see the handy gardening calendar at the Trusty Gardener website.
Happy Gardening, and Happy Veteran’s Day!
Sue
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