November 2021
Download our November tips here.
Time to plant melons, pumpkin and corn, beans and salad greens.
It’s also time to stake up tomatoes, cucumbers and beans and add some summer colour by planting flowers into your garden and in hanging baskets.
Spring harvests
Harvest spinach, spring onions, lettuce and broccoli. Strawberries are ripening too so keep an eye on those. Use bird netting to make sure you eat them before the birds do!
The fruit and vegetable garden
If there’s room, sow corn and plant out melons and pumpkins in well composted soil. Plant a climbing bean at the base of each corn plant, the plant acts as support for the beans and they grow happily together. Try planting pumpkins in the same area as a ground cover.
It’s time to sow French or runner beans – if you don’t have a large frame for them to climb on get dwarf varieties and grow on bamboo hoops or small teepees.
Plant basil beneath tomato plants – it’s a gardening marriage made in heaven. Putting in a few marigolds alongside helps keep pests at bay too.
Keep a regime of liquid feeding and watering going during this growth period. Placing pea straw around plants in the vegetable garden helps limit evaporation
Stake, tie up or train climbing plants along wires. Tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and zucchini can be grown like this, and it aids production in a small space.
Keep those summer salads going by planting salad greens such as lettuce, mesclun, radish and spring onions frequently.
The ornamental garden
Hanging baskets are easy: place a plastic saucer in the base of the basket to help hold water, fill with good potting mix and pop in the summer flowering plants. Liquid feed after planting and hang in a sheltered, sunny spot, watering and feeding regularly.
Plant hostas, astilbes, clivias, renga renga lilies and pulmonarias in shady areas of the garden, to brighten dark areas. Keep the slug bait around them while they establish.
After flowering keep an eye on the foliage of kowhai trees – this is the time when the voracious kowhai caterpillar starts munching. Spraying with a control (organic or chemical) will help keep the leaves in place.
Drought proof plants for pots – Geraniums, pelargoniums and succulents need very little watering to survive, perhaps once a week at most. Just plenty of sun.
Petunias are star performers for summer colour. Plant in a sunny position in the garden or grow in pots or hanging baskets.
Project for November
Drought-proofing gardens.
Central Landscapes has a wide range of great mulches (all from recycled products or by-products of timber processing), that will lock in moisture at the roots of plants. Apply blood and bone before spreading mulch to give a nitrogen boost to the soil.
To view all of our mulch options visit www.centrallandscapes.co.nz