Garden Notes for the Family Vegetable Garden in November.

November

Get planting!

November is a great month in the backyard vege patch. The soil will be warming nicely and all the work you put into your beds over winter and spring will be well much appreciated by your seedling plants. Just about everything can go in now that it has warmed up.

Beans can go in this month. If you are a new gardener, then dwarf beans are a good option. Get a packet of dwarf butter beans and dwarf green beens and sow a couple of rows. They are easy to harvest with a long picking season if you keep picking them. And the mix of yellow and green on the plate is very pretty. If you sow a row every couple of weeks then you can extend the season out.

Tomatoes, courgettes, capsicums, pumpkins, - all the heat loving veges can go out this month. Here in the south it is always a good idea to make sure they go in the warmest spot in the garden or even in a plastic house if you have one.  For the children especially, plant a patch of sweetcorn and a patch of sunflowers. Sweetcorn does best in groups rather than rows as this helps with wind pollination. Sunflowers – aside from looking stunning in the garden and all the seed they provide – are a valuable carbon building crop.  In autumn chop the stalks up and dig into the garden.

The hedgerows are starting to flower now with elderflower – the perfect summer drink. It’s easy to make a batch of elderflower champagne for Christmas and I have the recipe on my blog for those who don’t have it. Rhubarb is also coming into its own. Keep any seed heads pulled off and keep picking. You can make a nice drink from rhubarb too!

Jobs for this Month

Sow:  All leafy green salad veges such as lettuces plus winter veges such as cabbage, cauli, broccoli etc. Beans can be sown direct 15 cm apart and 5 cm deep. Sow beetroot seed about 1 cm deep. Carrots. Sweet corn 15cm apart groups to aid wind pollination. Main crop potatoes.

Plant: Plant out seedlings you have been growing indoors in pots as weather warms and days get longer. Onions, pumpkins, tomatoes, capsicums, courgettes, celery.

Cultivate: Keep weeds at bay by hoeing or hand weeding. Mulch. If your early potatoes are up you can mound up now and mulch with straw.

Harvest: Broad beans, asparagus, lettuces, silverbeet and lots more.

Fertilise: Keep the liquid fertilizer up to your garlic bulbs as they will be putting on some size underground now.