NOVEMBER in the garden

Robertson Garden Club
Oct 29, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Feb 3

written by Kathy Finnigan

Break out the hose!

There has been minimal rain over the last couple of months so gardens will be drying

out. In preparation for summer and to prevent water stress, soak the ground around

your plants and then mulch to around 10 cm to help retain the moisture. If you find

the water is not soaking in apply wetta soil or some other kind of wetting agent to

help retain the water.

Try to water in the mornings so plants have sufficient moisture all day to grow.

Watering in the evening during the warmer months can encourage fungal and mould

growth so not a good idea.

IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN

Your spring and summer planting should be in full swing with the only restraint being leaving enough room for ongoing planting for the rest of the season.

Plant seedlings:

Tomato
Capsicum
Chilli
Eggplants
Silverbeet
Leeks
Celery.

Direct sow:

Beetroots
Carrots
Beans
Cucumber
Lettuce and other salad greens
Pumpkins
Sweet corn
Zucchini

Succession sow:

Continue to plant small amounts of potatoes to give you continual cropping into late

summer and autumn.

Pest protection:

Try and leave a bit of room to plant some flowering plants such as alyssum,

nasturtium and marigolds to attract pollinators and other beneficial insects.

IN THE HERB GARDEN

If you have not already done so now is a great time to trim and fertilise all perennial herbs such as rosemary and thyme.

I like to have plenty of sage for Christmas if you are the same trim and fertilise it now. Replant it if it has succumbed to cold wet feet over the winter and died. Try planting into a pot using a well-drained potting mix or add some coarse sand to your favourite mix. Sage detests wet feet.

Continue to successively plant summer herbs like dill, chervil, coriander, basil and parsley.

IN THE ORCHARD

Keep an eye out for leaf curl on your peaches and nectarines and woolly aphid on your apples. Woolly aphid can cause considerable damage to your trees if not controlled. I find it more prevalent on vigorously growing trees so limit or don’t fertilise your apple, pear and nashi pear trees. Mostly it is controlled by a parasitic wasp, but infections need to be controlled either by removing (and burning) of

infected branches or several application of pest oil.

It is also time to think about how you are going to protect your crop. A simple structure with netting is always successful, though I find the bower birds can still eat through the netting which is annoying.

Here is a link to a blog post on how to build these.