There’s no reason to shut down your garden in November.
Gardening is therapeutic. Organically grown food is wholesome and delicious, and the bright colors of flowers gladden the heart on dreary winter days when sunshine is scarce.
So, even if you live where winters are long and icy, keep gardening! We’re here to help with some gardening advice on how to keep your plants thriving in November.
Feed the bees and brighten the room with an indoor herb and flower garden.
Many species of bees and wasps hibernate during the cold months… but honeybees keep up the good work all year round. Food is sadly lacking during this time of the year, when it’s too cold for many plants to grow outdoors. Help conserve your local ecosystem by planting fodder for honeybees in the cozy shelter of your house! Read our post on planting a pollinator garden to find out which plants provide ample servings of tasty nectar for pollinators like the honeybee.
Happily, loads of herbs feed the bees, too. Cold weather soups, stews and roasts will become that much more irresistible when they’re fragrant with herbs freshly picked from your own indoor herb garden.
You can also grow vegetables indoors. We recommend sowing smaller plants like tomatoes, peppers and lettuce. Just stock up on some garden pots like these biodegradable peat pots or large terracotta or ceramic pots, and go wild.
Build a greenhouse or cold frame this year.
These garden powerhouses give your flowers and veg shelter when the weather gets icy. Cold frames are smaller than greenhouses, but are easier to construct. Once you have a structure for sheltering your plants, you can sow any fall and winter plant varieties in it.
Greenhouses with heating can grow summer plants too, but we don’t recommend this as it’s not eco-friendly… the extra energy going into that heating does nothing to reduce your carbon footprint.
Cold season vegetables to sow in your greenhouse or cold frame:
· Beetroot
· Broccoli
· Cabbage
· Carrot
· Celery
· Kale
· Spinach
· Onion
· Pak choi
· Potato
· Radish
· Rocket
· Snow peas
· Shallots
· Swedes
· Spring onion
· Turnip
You can also sow any cold weather blossoms.
You can still sow some plants outdoors.
If you live in a warmer part of the continent and are still enjoying some sunshine at the end of a mild fall, you can sow any of the plants listed above in your outdoor garden.
And wherever you are, this is the perfect time to bury some bulbs for a delightful spring show – as long as your ground hasn’t frozen yet.
Written by Rifke Hill
About the Author
Rifke Hill was raised on the sort of farm your grandparents told tales about – milking cows, gathering eggs, hoeing the soil, and building fires to heat water. She now spends part of her time copywriting online as a freelancer. The rest of it is spent nurturing and teaching her four energetic children, growing vegetables, baking bread, reading voraciously, having coffee with the neighbors, and enjoying the sunny slopes of the smallholding where she lives, in the Garden Route, South Africa.
