November

These suggestions for your garden are intended for central Texas.  However, if you are not in central Texas these suggestions may still be helpful but may need to be done earlier or later in the season depending on your location.

 

November is the time to plant bulbs such as daffodils, narcissus (paper-whites), hyacinths, and tulips. Now is time to divide your iris, cannas, and amaryllis already in your yard. Choose a sunny and well drained area when planting or dividing bulbs. Prepare the soil with compost and/or peat moss, then add a little bone meal under each bulb as you plant it. This will insure bigger and better blooms.

 

This is the time to prepare your potted plant and hanging baskets to be brought in for the winter. Inspect the soil and plants for insects. These you will want to spray while the plants are still outside. Do any shaping and trimming as needed. Check to see if the plants need to be repotted at this time. Use a good quality potting soil, you will be glad you did.

 

There is still plenty of time to plant your pansies, snapdragons, stock, flowering kale, cyclamen, and dianthus.  These will give you lots of color through May.

 

In your vegetable garden onions, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower are good fall crops.

 

In the lawn, fall fertilizing your lawn is important to help the lawn recover from the summer and to give it a good start next spring. Cool-season grasses can be planted now, rye and fescue.  Over-seeding existing lawns with rye will keep the winter weeds out and insulate the yard in a cold winter. Applying a pre-emerge herbicide now can save you a lot of weeding next spring. There are several fall fertilizers that have the pre-emerge herbicides mixed into them. Keep an eye out for fungus in St. Augustine yards. This is treatable and is usually caused by over watering in cool weather.

 

Mark S. Ney   

Certified Texas Nursery Professional #4749