Some might regard November as the beginning of the dormant season, with little or nothing for gardeners to do until spring. Not true!
Beginning now, we can pursue selected gardening projects will pay off later in the year. Still, the garden does not demand intensive work and daily dedication by the gardener during this season. It’s quite all right to take time off to celebrate the holidays, avoid nasty weather, and otherwise enjoy life’s many pleasures out of the garden.
There are many good gardening projects to do now in the garden; let’s consider three projects that are worth attention during November.
Plant Cool-season Ornamentals and Edibles
Visit your local nursery for cool-season flowers, e.g., pansies, calendula, candytuft, foxgloves, snapdragons, stock, sweet peas, and sweet alyssum.
Plant seedlings of cool season vegetable such as broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, chard, lettuces and greens, cabbage, potatoes, radishes, peas, bunching onions, and spinach.
Look for six-packs of seedlings at garden centers or farmer’s markets.
Plant Pacific Coast Irises
Several beardless iris species are native to the Pacific coast. Because they cross with each other freely, they are often referred to either as PCIs or Pacific Coast Hybrids (PCHs). Most common locally is the Douglas Iris (I. Douglasiana), named for David Douglas (1799-1834), who was the first botanist to describe this plant as it grew in the Monterey Bay area.
PCIs can be grown from seed, but more often from divisions. After listing a mature PCI clump, pull the stalks apart and store them in water for a few days as they develop white roots at least a half-inch long. Then, plant the divisions and keep them moist until four new leaves appear. Seasonal rains could be sufficient to establish the divisions.
Move Perennials and Shrubs
Plants vary in their ability to tolerate relocation. Roses and hydrangeas, for example, adapt quickly and easily to being moved, although they appreciate careful handling: lifted without being damaged, moved to a hospitable location (full sun for roses; morning sun and afternoon shade for hydrangeas), and watered in.
Generally, it is easy to move plants that tolerate rejuvenation pruning, e.g., abelia, dogwood, honeysuckle, hydrangea, lilac, mallow, penstemon, rose, Rose-of-Sharon, salvia, spirea and many others.
Shrubs with fine root systems, e.g., azaleas and rhododendrons, do not respond well to being moved.
For information on specific plants, search the Internet using the plant’s common or botanical name. Visit ongardening.com for successful search methods.
At this time of the year, plants are dormant, but not gardeners!
More
The Yerba Buena Nursery website has a helpful pruning calendar for California native plants.
The National Gardening Association has brief but solid advice on dividing perennials.
SF Gate has suggestions for adding edible perennials to your garden. Right now is a good time. Some recommended plants might be unfamiliar: tree kale, yacon, ground cherries, chayote and banana passionfruit (Passiflora mollissima). Still, they might be turn out to be welcome new “friends.”
Master Gardener Marie Iannotti, writing on Ask.com, offers a good overview of pruning for several categories of garden plants.
To find information about specific plants in your garden, start by learning their botanical names. (Search ongardening.com for more information on botanical names.)
Then, using Google or another search engine search for the botanical name of the plant, plus “cultivate” or a more specific verb representing want you want to know. Include the variety name, when you know it. Examples:
Rosa minutifolia transplant
Hydrangea paniculata divide
Salvia greggii ‘Heatwave Glimmer’ prune