Tips on taking care of your garden

This article is contributed by UC Master Gardeners of Monterey and Santa Cruz 

Rain! What a excellent gift! Prior to you end watering your plants, establish if a plant desires h2o working with your finger (or a chopstick) to carefully dig down to see how soaked the soil is, preventing hurt to the roots.

If you have mulch, dig beneath the mulch into the soil. If the soil is dry, your plant demands watering. With our cooler times and wet temperature, you may perhaps need to have to adjust your watering program.

November is one more occupied thirty day period in the garden for individuals gardeners wanting plant California natives, grow winter crops, thoroughly clean up the backyard garden and develop soil in preparing for spring.

Maintenance

• Even though we gardeners celebrate the to start with rains of the season, weeds are positive to observe! If you uncover on your own dashing to the garden to weed between showers, consider treatment not to compact damp soil.
• For parts you intend to leave fallow, you can suppress weeds though amending your soil by adding compost and mulch to help retain humidity, and/or sheet mulch. Preserve mulch at minimum 6 inches absent from tree trunks and plant stems. Read UCANR publication Mulching for Landscapes and this manual to implementing mulch.
• In addition to making soil health and fitness, go over crops are a reduced-work way support suppress weeds whilst making soil fertility.
• Slide is a good time to start a straw bale garden mattress.
• Continue on to very clear any plant substance and debris which could harbor disease or pests in excess of winter season. Add only balanced plant content to your compost.
• Plant California natives, shrubs and trees.
• Divide perennials with clean up, sharp instruments. Indication up for our Instrument TLC courseif you want to know how to retain your instruments in idea leading condition.
• Anxious about frost? Go through about frost defense for citrus and other subtropicals.

Bouquets

• Amazing year annual bouquets, these kinds of as pansies. nasturtiums, foxgloves, California wildflowers, and poppies, can be planted now, but consider treatment to set them out on a cooler working day.
• This is a fantastic time to distribute wildflower seeds. Get ready the internet site by clearing weeds, then generously unfold seed before a rain. Check out our Wildflower Not Weeds class, which will include a sheet mulching demonstration.
• A lot of spring blooming bulbs are planted in the slide by the close of the year, these kinds of as daffodils, irises and hyacinth.
• Plant sweet pea seeds now into December for a floriferous spring. You can plant seeds in late winter season, but they won’t be as sturdy.

Fruit trees

• A fruit tree upkeep plan is available in the Means section of this e-newsletter.
• Pick moldy or ruined fruit on and under the tree and toss absent diseased leaves to limit the prospect of pests and ailments overwintering in your yard, which can have an affect on next year’s harvest.
• To create soil fertility over the winter, contemplate planting a address crop beneath fruit trees.
• Preview: Once all the leaves have fallen off the tree, use a dormant oil spray.

Food gardening

• Planting schedules by county are stated in Methods. Observe that you might will need timing changes irrespective of whether your microclimate experiences hotter temperatures, or cooler temperatures (if you live closer to the coastline, for illustration).
• Shorter days mean your crops will take for a longer period to experienced and might have lessen yield than they will in the spring. Ease up on fertilizing when growth slows.
  • Take into account planting garlic, shallots and bulbing onions, this kind of as Walla Walla. Rule of thumb is to plant garlic in the floor before Thanksgiving.
  • Artichokes are perennial crops in our spot. Plant artichoke transplants through the conclude of the calendar year.
  • Plant Mediterranean herbs, these kinds of as rosemary, thyme and oregano.
  • Plant awesome year vegetables, which include cabbage, kale, broccoli, arugula, Swiss chard, Asian greens, cauliflower as effectively as root crops these kinds of as radishes, beets and carrots.
  • Plant interesting year herbs, these as dill and cilantro, which ordinarily bolt in very hot temperature.

Pests

• Running pests: We encourage Built-in Pest Administration, ongoing tactics to take care of pest injury. Direct, common observation is a excellent observe. Thoroughly check out kale, cabbages and broccoli for aphids or caterpillar exercise. Take a flashlight tour of your yard at night time to capture slugs, snails and other critters you may not see normally!

Evergreen Strategies

• If you will need to use a pesticide, read Quick Recommendations: A lot less Poisonous Pesticides.
• Reusing planting containers? Wash with delicate cleaning soap and h2o to clear. Disinfect planting containers with a 10{ae4c731f0fa9ef51314dbd8cd1b5a49e21f1d642b228e620476f3e076dd7c050} bleach alternative, which means 1 part bleach to 9 pieces water.
• Remove diseased plant materials (or discard in your eco-friendly squander can) to keep your back garden as disorder free of charge as achievable. Do not incorporate diseased plant substance to your household compost or go away them in your backyard garden beds. Some pests and conditions can overwinter.
• Make repairs and seasonal adjustments to your irrigation process.
• If you need to have help identifying how to offer with pests or illness, you can post a ask for with photographs, if doable, with our help line in theMeans section of this e-newsletter.