Gardening Calendar

November

• Any unused, finished compost is best tilled under to improve garden soils.

• To prevent insects or diseases from over-wintering in the garden, remove and compost all plant debris.

• Fall tilling the vegetable garden exposes many insect pests to winter cold, reducing their numbers in next year’s garden.

• Keep mulches pulled back several inches from the base of fruit trees to prevent bark injury from hungry mice and other rodents.

• Continue watering evergreens until the ground freezes. Soils must not be dry when winter arrives.

• Remove the spent flowers and foliage of perennials after they are damaged by frost.

• Now is a good time to collect soil samples to test for pH and nutritional levels.

• Roll up and store garden hoses on a warm, sunny day. It’s hard to get a cold hose to coil into a tight loop.

• A final fall application of fertilizer can be applied to bluegrass and fescue lawns now.

• Rake up and collect fallen leaves. These can be plowed under directly to enrich garden soils or allowed to slowly decay in large piles.

• Set up bird feeders. Birds appreciate a source of unfrozen drinking water during the winter.