November gardening tips: Down Came the Rain

Vegetation continues to spring up everywhere this fall

By Linda Keese

Hasn't the rain been great? It has been so hot and dry for so long everyone was ready to gravel out the lawn, but before anyone could muster up the strength to haul both gravel and wheelbarrow, here came the rain.

It is predicted to hang around for a while and lead into a cooler winter. In the meantime just enjoy at all the vegetation springing up! Try a greens salad or two. Dandelion greens are nutritious and tasty, too.

Wildflower and weed seeds that have been dormant for the past two years, germinated and sprouted whether it was the right season or not...here they came. All sorts of dandelions and horse herb weeds, plus spring and fall wildflowers began growing together with wild abandon as if Monet himself was furiously painting another garden scene. My crabapple tree bloomed and leafed out again in the space of one week. Maybe we will be able to enjoy the finished piece of art before the first frost hits. So in the meantime, if you have the chance, get out and enjoy some of the landscaping in town.

San Pedro Cemetery is especially nice this time of year with red Eutin roses and yellow Mexican Mint Marigold in full bloom, along with a soft carpet of lush horse herb. San Pedro Cemetery is located on the corner of Posey Road and Old Bastrop Hwy (21) and will celebrate its 100th anniversary on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 2 to 4 p.m. More information about the cemetery can be found at www.txstate.edu/anthropology/centers/Cemetery/San-Pedro.

Dry cold fronts, some bringing colder air than some, are known as “Blue Northers,” which are usually accompanied with high winds and low humidity and can dry moisture out of plant leaves, leading to freezer burn. Texans know to always keep a “weather eye” this time of year as the temperature can drop 50 degrees in an afternoon with the arrival of these fronts and cover tender vegetation.

There will be a lot of vegetation to cut down when nighttime temperatures plummet, freezing the tops of tender perennials and annual plants back. Allow tender perennials like Beebalm, Lion's Tail, Mexican Marigold, Lemon Grass, Lemon Verbena and Pineapple Sage to freeze and turn brown before cutting them back, close to the base and mulching. Echinacea, germander, mint and oregano freeze back, leaving a rosette or crown at soil level. Cut them back just above the rosette and mulch only when you see some green growth. Those wildflowers you seeded should be germinating and forming rosettes as well. Don't mulch them; they need sunlight to grow.

On those cold, raw days when you have had just about all the football you can take and can't get out in the garden, check out gardening sites on the Internet like www.gardengatemagazine.com or www.birdsandblooms.com.

Each has great construction ideas and online videos for rock and water garden features, plus wildlife gardening and more. You have to run Adobe flash in order to see the videos, but if you have to install the program, it's worth it.

Cut that grass one more time and edge. It is a good idea to drain the gasoline from all power equipment before storing for the winter. However, since gasoline is such a precious commodity these days just drain the lines and top off the tanks to prevent moisture buildup from condensation.

Now is a great time to plant those larger items like container grown trees and shrubs. Now is also a good time to plant vines as well. Plant pansy, calendula, candytuff, petunia, snapdragon and delphinium any time this month. Deadhead old blossoms to keep plants thriving. Cut perennial plants back to 4 or 6 inches high except ornamental grasses and actively growing plants like Iris.

It is still not too late to plant those spring-blooming bulbs if you find some on sale. If they are an early blooming variety, they may not bloom for you next spring, but they certainly will the following year and they will have had a chance to multiply as well, so you will get double the pleasure for your patience and effort. Buy Dutch tulips at the first of the month and refrigerate. Put them in with the vegetables. By the end on the month they can be planted in the ground and treated like a spring annual or pot them up to bloom and be saved for the following year.

Plant carrots with lettuce, chives and onions; plant mustard, radishes with peas, nasturtiums, chervil, lettuce and cucumbers. Spinach can be planted, interspersed with anything, but it really likes strawberries. Turnips love to be planted with peas. By planting vegetables with their companion plants, the total effect is beneficial to taste, growth and pest determent.

Sounds like it is going to be a great season for chamomile, cilantro, dill, burnet, chervil, fennel, parsley, rue, santolina, winter savory, sorrel and thyme, which will thrive during the cooler weather.

Newly planted herbs will need extra TLC until their root system is established, but established cool weather herbs will not need much attention except for water once a week if it hasn't rained.

Even if you don't like to eat fennel or dill, grow them for the butterflies. The bronze variety of fennel is gorgeous either in the ground or a pot on the patio. Speaking of pots, pot up a clump of your lemon grass and move it indoors for use in cooking during cold spells.

Harvest pecans and store them at 36-40 degrees or freeze the shelled nutmeat. But keep stored nutmeats away from onions and oranges. For those of you who have orange slices and chopped onions in plastic baggies stored in the refrigerator, don't try to save space by stacking bags of nutmeats on top of bags of onions. I know you probably wouldn't think of doing that, but you might stack orange slices with nuts. Don't.

Harvest green tomatoes before the first frost and store at room temperature until fully ripe. Harvest broccoli or cauliflower before a freeze if the heads are showing.

Cover marginally hardy plants with burlap, leaves, hay or plastic containers with the bottom cut out if a freeze is predicted. Plastic sheeting is not a good idea, particularly if the plastic touches plant leaves, as they will freeze at the contact points. Instead, use a frost blanket, a lightweight, white fabric available at garden centers or hardware stores. An old electric blanket works really well if you have just one specimen plant.

I have one plugged into an outside outlet with a long extension cord that I throw over a Florida Key Lime tree when the temperature drops. Electric blankets are great to use because the coils are insulated against moisture and the low setting is a perfect heat temperature.

After the first killing frost, remove dead plants and over seed bare vegetable garden area soil with a fast growing crop such as cereal rye to provide green manure and decrease the nematode population.

Remove debris from flowerbeds and gardens to help control insects and diseases next year. Control winter weeds and grasses with mulch and compost in the beds you haven't seeded for wildflowers.

If you have the urge to sprinkle chrysanthemum flowers in your Thanksgiving salad or use them to brighten any food dish, make sure you pick up a package of them in the produce section, not the floral section of your grocery store. The packaged edible flowers have not been treated with any pesticides or harmful fertilizers. The flowers in the floral section have been treated with pesticides.

If you are finished with your garden chores and looking for an outing or just want a change, check the times and location in the Calendar of Events in the Daily Record newspaper for places to visit. Check out an area vineyard and taste some great local wines. Driftwood Vineyards and Mandolas in Hays County are two great places to visit for eat and drink. And when was the last time you visited Aquarena Center? Well, that's been too long. Get out and enjoy these beautiful fall days.

Have a great Thanksgiving. Eat healthy and often. Work off those extra calories by gardening or taking a walk on the wild side.

• lindakeese@

grandecom.net