Move-ember, for Plants

This November started off hot and ended up wet. The rainy season’s sudden, dramatic arrival extinguished the lingering heat, leaving clear, crisp skies in its wake. It was what I’ve come to recognize and appreciate as a classic Bay Area autumn.

Wherever you are (in the Northern Hemisphere), the days are getting shorter, and you might feel like tucking yourself indoors for the winter already. But don’t sleep on gardening in November! It’s a great time to rearrange, edit, and clean up your garden in preparation for winter and spring. 

If you need a little push, read on for November gardening tasks. And for those embracing an energetic winding down, which is only natural this time of year, scroll down for things you don’t have to do this month.

Move-ember: Before the Rain

In most climates, fall is considered a good time to move plants, though here in Oakland some moves are best completed before the rain, others after.

When it’s still dry, re-pot cacti and succulents. Their roots are susceptible to rotting if watered after being disturbed. Plant them into a nice, gritty cactus mix and leave them alone for at least a week. If they’re normally in an unprotected spot that gets rained on, consider storing them under cover over the winter, or indoors, if you like. They can mostly tolerate cold, but not wet.

Last month, I finally visited the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, which boasts gorgeous dry landscaping and an amazing collection of drought-tolerant plants. They sell their own cactus mix, so I decided to give it a try on my cacti and succulents that needed re-potting. It’s lovely stuff! 

Move-ember: After the Rain

Perennial flowers, herbs, shrubs, and trees will benefit from cooler temps and moisture after the stress of being moved. Because of my balcony’s ceiling, very few of my plants actually get a good soaking when it rains, but at least they’re no longer baking under the scorching afternoon sun.

If you took cuttings of perennials in the early spring, pot them up into bigger containers. It’s also a good time to buy and plant small perennial starts. I planted a medium-large container with rosemary and sage cuttings and a new thyme. These might not do much over the winter, but the idea is for them to establish strong roots that will support a growth spurt come spring.

Same goes for the contents of my railing planters, including cuttings of salvia and agastache and volunteer aquilegia seedlings. Now the planters can receive hyacinth bulbs, which are currently chilling in the fridge. I’ve cut back and will soon divide a leggy erigeron I bought at a nursery, with the aim of adding them to the railing planters in the summer after the hyacinths have finished.

As you can see, I’m doing a lot of plotting and planter tetris – all with spring and summer in mind!

Pamper Pansies

Keep showering attention on cool-season annuals like pansies and violas. If you sowed them indoors in early fall, be sure to harden off the seedlings gradually so they adjust to the cold nights; start by bringing them out for just a few hours, then leaving them out until after sundown, and eventually stop bringing them inside altogether. 

Once they have a set of true leaves, pot them up into rich soil. If you bought starts, plant them out where they will flourish. Feed them lightly every couple of weeks to counteract the diminishing sunlight; I’m using a very diluted liquid fish fertilizer on my miniature pansy farm.

My goal is to top my daffodil pots with pansies when I plant the bulbs in a couple of weeks (they, too, are currently in the refrigerator). We’ll see . . . right now they’re still tiny. This is my first time growing pansies from seed, and it might be a total fail, but experiments keep me from getting bored!

Winter Prep

Here in the East Bay, we rarely get frost, plus my protected balcony has its own toasty microclimate, so I don’t worry too much about bundling up my plants. I refresh old mulch with compost and/or straw, and if the weather really gets bad, I’ll bring fragile cuttings or seedlings into my kitchen-window greenhouse.

But if you’re in a cooler zone, you could wrap your pots in fleece or invest in a small portable greenhouse to protect tender plants. You can also bring plants indoors, but it can be challenging to provide adequate light, moisture, and fresh air inside your home, especially in the wintertime with the heater running.

Another approach is to use the season as an excuse to ruthlessly de-clutter. Clear out all tender plants, scrub the pots clean and stack them neatly, sweep away debris, and enjoy a fresh start in the spring. As much as I love the riotous greenery and abundance of the spring and summer garden, there is something soothing about spare minimalism in winter.

November Don’ts

Other than pansies, I’m not fertilizing anything in November or December. Plants need rest just like we do, and a period of dormancy restores their energy for the growing season.

I’m also not pruning my evergreen bay and lemon trees. That would encourage new growth, sapping precious energy that the trees need to weather the winter. Pruning can wait until January or early February, when longer and warmer days will support the new shoots. 

Lastly, don’t stress. If you’re not feeling these tasks in November, just put them off until December! The point is to embrace these darker, slower months as a time to take stock, plan, and stay connected to nature. Winter’s arrival always makes me a little sad, but my garden reminds me that every season has a purpose.