Fall is really here…at least for a while. The weather forecast still shows a few 90F days this month, but it will be a moderate month by and large.
Get your soil ready if you plan to put in roses, shrubs, and woody vines this month. Bring in some compost to increase the soil biome. While you’re at it, get some mulch to lay on top of the compost.
Bulbs
Now is a great time to plant bulbs for spring blooms. Some include paperwhites, Spanish bluebells, tulips, yellow spider lilies, Chinese ground orchid, Byzantine gladiolus, Bearded irises, daylilies, oxalis, rain lilies, spider lilies, Louisiana iris, and African iris.
You can also put amaryllis in the ground now. These bulbs do not require chilling. I’ve put mine in the ground, and they’ve bloomed year after year. You can, if you prefer, plant them indoors for holiday color. If you start them indoors in colorful or imaginative pots, they make great gifts.
Lawns
Lawns are dormant now and don’t need watering. And for most of us in Montgomery County, it’s really too late to resod.
Roses
November is the absolute best time to plant roses grown in containers. Fall planting gives your roses and a lot of other perennials a head start they need.
Shrubs
Beautyberry and female yaupon holly (or other holly species) can grow their root systems in the fall and winter and have a great showing in the spring.
Compost
Much of a plant’s nutrients are in its leaves. When those leaves fall to the ground in November, we can do one of several things.
- We can mulch them with a mulching lawnmower, returning those nutrients back into the soil.
- Rake them up and put them in a compost bin. Many gardeners call compost “black gold” because of the rich combinations of plant nutrients and microbiologic organisms it contains.
- Put them in a green waste bag and put them by the curb.
- Burn them.
The first two options are great because either process will return nutrients back into the soil.