November Gardening In The Low Desert 1998

Shorter days and cooler temperatures make November one of the best months for gardening, a 'second spring'. Nurseries will still have bulbs, cool season flowers, vegetables, shrubs and trees to plant now. Vegetables that are very cold hardy include collars, kale, leek, lettuce, mustard, onion, peas, potatoes, radishes, spinach and turnips and the flowers that are very cold hardy include cornflower, ornamental cabbage, pansy primrose, and violet. Frost tolerant vegetables include beets broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, cabbage, carrots cauliflower, celery, parsnip, winter squash and sweet potatoes and frost tolerant flowers include Bells of Ireland, calendula, coreopsis, rudbeckia, snapdragon, stock, and sweet peas.

For your own enjoyment, and for lovely gifts, force bulbs of crocus, daffodils, Dutch iris, hyacinths and tulips. See the article on gardening in the desert 1997 for details.

Collect materials from your yard and garden for crafts, such as dried flowers, grapevines, attractive branches and twigs. These can be used for decorating in various ways, especially during the holidays. Spray paint is the crafters' friend in transforming these things. Also remember, just a few flowers and a lot of greenery such as lemon leaves makes a nice floral arrangement. And you can always add candles. Create your Thanksgiving centerpiece and other arrangements from things from your garden.

During the summer, hanging baskets require so much moisture that it's hardly worth the effort but now, with cooler temperatures, hanging baskets planted with flowers or even tiny tomatoes are easy to care for. Try any cool weather flower such as sweet peas, petunias, pansies, impatiens, etc. And speaking of sweet peas, this is the time to plant them, they will provide fragrant blooms all winter. Grow up a trellis, fence, palm trees or grow the low-growing kind that don't climb. For citrus and other fruit tree care, see my article on gardening in the desert 1997.

Lightly prune roses to remove dead or crossed canes and weak stems or twigs. Feed with about 4 oz. of a good 10-10-10 rose fertilizer. Water deeply and regularly and remove spent blooms for best bloom.

Trim other plants that are still growing, if necessary, and look for those from which you can take cuttings for new plants. Fall in the desert is a good time to make cuttings of shrubs and plants. See the rooting database of the Environmental Horticulture Department of the University of California

Look at your garden carefully and pull out all dead plants and except for diseased ones, put in compost pile. Fall is a great time for starting a new compost pile, there are leaves and left-over grass, and all the stuff we have pulled out of our gardens. Good sites for learning about composting are The Master Composter and The Science and Engineering of Composting. A note about desert soils - most are very alkaline and lacking in organic matter, which makes having a compost pile very practical.

Go To Page: 1 2