Garden tasks for November 2014

2379

by Vivienne Bailey

Flower garden

Mulch your perennials, trees and shrubs to help conserve moisture, using compost, bark and peat.

Complete dahlia and chrysanthemum planting, and stake those planted previously.

Tie up your herbaceous perennials.

Prune flowering shrubs, such as lilacs, philadelphus, and deutzias, as soon as blooming is over.

Keep sweet peas well watered, feed with liquid manure and remove faded flowers.

Take cuttings of pinks and rock plants.

November is a good month to plant new seasons hibiscus plants.

Plant your new roses, using plenty of compost. Water all roses thoroughly at least once a week.

Side dress roses with rose fertiliser and apply mulch to retain soil moisture over the summer months.

Plant your water lilies and other pond plants.

Plant out summer flowering annuals such as cosmos, petunias, lobelia, impatiens, marigolds, phlox, verbena, larkspur, alyssum, portulaca – and heaps more!

Sow seeds of flowering annuals directly into the garden: alyssum, Californian poppy, marigolds, cosmos, nasturtium, and sunflowers.

Sow in trays for transplanting later: carnations, dahlia, livingstone daisy, petunia, salvia, gerberas, celosia, phlox and geranium.Sowing

Fruit and vegetable garden

Continue planting main crop potatoes.

Mound up and stake peas, water if weather is dry.

Tomatoes will be growing quickly and need lots of water and feeding. Regular deep watering is best.

Dust cabbages and cauliflowers with derris dust to prevent white butterfly caterpillar.

Pinch out tips of early marrow and cucumber plants.

Most warm weather veggies can be planted now. Plant out herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums, eggplant, lettuce, sweetcorn, gherkins, spinach, spring onions, beetroot, celery and cabbage, using generous amounts of compost.

Sow seeds directly into the garden: beans, peas, pumpkin, courgettes, carrots, beetroot, parsnip, radish and sweetcorn.

Sow in trays for later transplanting: lettuce, cabbage, capsicum, eggplant, leeks, and spring onions. For continuous harvesting make sowings at three weekly intervals of lettuce, beans and sweetcorn.

Feed all citrus trees with citrus fertiliser, and feed other fruit trees with general garden fertiliser.

Hang codlin moth traps in apple trees to trap moths and prevent larvae entering fruit – also spray with lime sulphur and fungicide for black spot and ripe rot.

Plant out cape gooseberries.

  Lawns

Apply lawn fertiliser when rain is due or water in.

Spray with Turfix for broad leaf weeds and Prickle Weedkiller to control Onehunga weed and stop summer prickles.

Second thoughts

Repot orchids after flowering.

Increase watering of houseplants as weather warms up.