What to do in the Garden in November

Maintenance and Clean Up

·  Save your leaves – they can decompose in place if they aren’t where they will cause dead spots in your lawn.  You can rake them up and use them as mulch or make a pile and allow them to become leaf mold (compost) which makes a lovely dark mulch in the spring.

·  This is a great time of year to add mulch or compost to your flower beds, vegetable garden, or shrub borders.

·  Winter vegetables can be protected with garden fleece or cold frames. 

·  Cover favorite tender plants to protect from frosts with bags, overturned pots, or thick mulch. 

·  Don’t apply chemical fertilizers as they will be  leached away by rain and can pollute downstream areas.

Planting and Propagation

·  Great time to plant trees and shrubs! Consider ones that supply food and shelter for birds and other native wildlife. cascara, elderberry, red flowering currant, aronia, service berry, Oregon grape, vine maple

Blue Elderberry, Sambucus caerulea

·  Plant spring-flowering bulbs.

·  Plant garlic.

Fava beans planted as a nitrogen fixing cover crop.  They are just broadcast over the soil and kept damp until their roots get well into the soil.  Usually our fall rain is sufficient for this.

Last chance to plant cover crops for soil building. You can also use a 3 inch or thicker layer of leaves, spread over the garden plot, to eliminate winter weeds, suppress early spring weeds and prevent soil compaction by rain.

Take hardwood cuttings from shrubs.

Propagate begonias from leaf cuttings.

2 small pots with the cut edge of Rex Begonia leaves buried slightly in regular potting mix and kept damp will likely sprout new roots in a couple of months.

 

What to do in the Garden in November

Maintenance and Clean Up

·  Save your leaves – they can decompose in place if they aren’t where they will cause dead spots in your lawn.  You can rake them up and use them as mulch or make a pile and allow them to become leaf mold (compost) which makes a lovely dark mulch in the spring.

·  This is a great time of year to add mulch or compost to your flower beds, vegetable garden, or shrub borders.

·  Winter vegetables can be protected with heavy weight floating row cover (garden fleece in Britain) or cold frames. 

·  Cover favorite tender plants to protect from frosts with bags, overturned pots, or thick mulch. 

·  Don’t apply chemical fertilizers as they will be  leached away by rain and can pollute downstream areas.

Planting and Propagation

·  Great time to plant trees and shrubs! Consider ones that supply food and shelter for birds and other native wildlife. cascara, elderberry, red flowering currant, aronia, service berry, Oregon grape, vine maple

·  Plant spring-flowering bulbs.

·  Plant garlic.

Fava beans in Svetlana's garden

Last chance to plant cover crops for soil building. You can also use a 3 inch or thicker layer of leaves, spread over the garden plot, to eliminate winter weeds, suppress early spring weeds and prevent soil compaction by rain.

Take cuttings from shrubs; propagate begonias from leaf cuttings.

Click here for more information on taking cuttings.

Begonia leaf cutting

Bee-gin Planning for Next Year’s Garden

November is a month to look back to this year’s garden harvest and give thanks that so many things went well.

The weather cooperated this year so the vegetables grew abundantly.  Your millions of soil workers (micro-organisms) were busy underground supplying food to your vegetables’ roots.  If you were lucky, not too many critters decided that your garden was their supermarket! 

November is also a month to start planning what you

want to do differently next year.  Your vegetables need lots of different kind of pollinators to visit your garden through the season – bees, butterflies, even wasps.  Have you considered adding native flowers to attract native beesto your garden? They love to pollinate your vegetable flowers as well as native flowers.

Now is the time to plant the natives that they love so that the rains will naturally water the seeds in.  Consider planting the following:  Globe Gillia, Common Madia, Douglas’ Aster, California Poppy, Goldenrod, Varied-Leaf Phacelia, and Farewell-to-Spring.  You can also plant them in early spring, but why wait?

Share your Harvest

(list continued 

from last month)

Philomath Food Bank

360 S. 9th St., Philomathhttp://www.philomathcommunityservices.org

541-929-2499 ext. 4 

Philomath Community Gleaners

360 S. 9th St., Philomath  http://www.philomathcommunityservices.org/outreach-programs/gleaners/

541-929-2499 

St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry

501 NW 25th St., Corvallis.  Call ahead to donate 541-286-4193, please leave message 

South Corvallis Food Bank

1798 SW 3rd Street (behind Corvallis Furniture)

http://www.southcorvallisfoodbank.org

541-753-4263 

Stone Soup Corvallis

Weekdays, drop off at St. Mary’s Church

501 NW 25th St. 

Weekends, drop off at First Christian Church, 

602 SW Madison St.  http://www.stonesoupcorvallis.org/contact.html
Susan Dunham • 541-757-9725 

What to do in the Garden in November

Maintenance and Clean Up

·  Check potatoes in storage and remove any going bad.

·  Place a portable cold frame over rows of winter vegetables.

·  Place mulch around berries and other plants for winter protection.

·  Cover rhubarb and asparagus beds with compost and straw or leaf mulch.

·  Rake leaves and use as mulch to suppress weeds, define beds, and enrich soil.

·  Drain and store hoses carefully to avoid damage from freezing.

·  Last chance to plant cover crops for soil building. 

·  Cover favorite tender plants to protect from frosts.

·  Chemical fertilizers applied now will be largely leached away by rain and can pollute downstream areas.

Bioswales and rain gardens can be very simply shallow depressions in your yard that can hold a little extra rainwater until it has time to soak in.  Or you can have a lot of fun with planting and arranging stone; even build a bridge.  

Click here for the Oregon Rain Garden Guide

Planting and Propagation

·  Take cuttings from shrubs; propagate begonias from leaf cuttings.

Rosemary cuttings

This is slow green magic!  If you've never tried striking cuttings, you've got to experience the magic for yourself.  And don't worry - you can do it!  The magic is in the plants already, you just have to keep them moist and protected from too much sun or wind.  Try several cuttings of several plants to hedge your bets and see what happens.  The link below will give you some tips for improving your chances.

Click here for more information on taking cuttings

·  Plant window garden of lettuce, chives, parsley.

·  Good time to plant trees and shrubs. Consider ones that supply food and shelter for birds (Cascara, elderberry, currant, aronia, service berry).

·  Plant spring-flowering bulbs.

·  Plant garlic.

What to do in the Garden in

~ November ~

Maintenance and Clean Up

·  Check potatoes in storage and remove any going bad.

·  Place a portable cold frame over rows of winter vegetables.

·  Place mulch around berries for winter protection.

·  Cover rhubarb and asparagus beds with compost and straw or leaf mulch.

·  Rake leaves and use as mulch to suppress weeds, define beds, and enrich soil.

·  Drain and store hoses carefully to avoid damage from freezing.

·  Last chance to plant cover crops for soil building.

·  Prune roses (tea and floribunda, but NOT climbers and ramblers) to around 3 feet in height to prevent winter damage. 

        ·  Use a tarp to move leaves easily.

Planting and Propagation

·  Take cuttings of rhododendrons and camellias for propagation; propagate begonias from leaf cuttings.

·  Plant window garden of lettuce, chives, parsley.

·  Good time to plant trees and shrubs. Consider ones that supply food and shelter for birds (sumac, elderberry, flowering currant, and mock orange).

·  Plant spring-flowering bulbs.

·  Plant garlic.

Pest Management 

     ·  Use slug traps or phosphate baits.