![]() Mulch your tender perennials. Those tropical plants that die to the ground in the winter will survive until spring as long as their roots don’t die. It’s better to grow garlic from gardening sources, but if you try supermarket garlic, make sure it is organic. If you don’t have room for a devoted space for them, grow bags are great, or tuck them into corners you can leave undisturbed even if you turn over other parts of the bed since you won’t harvest them until late Spring, in late May, or early June. Garlic and shallots can be planted this month. I tuck these guys directly into my flowerbeds, they are so stunning. ![]() Flowering kales and cabbages come in all kinds of colors, so mix up the varieties to get the most gorgeous outcome. They really add that seasonal interest you can only get in this window of our growing season. I also love to add ornamental kales to the garden via transplants. Shearing it in this way also keeps the snowy blanket of blooms coming in again and again. Allysum is welcome anywhere in my garden, so if there are seeds in the mulch, I don’t worry about it. After it blooms and the flowers start to wither, I like to shear it off and use it as mulch in other areas. Sweet Allysum can be used as a cover crop or a green mulch. This is when I like to go back to garden centers and flowers and herbs to tuck into the gaps in the garden– snapdragons, pansies, marigolds, calendula, chives– these flowers are all edible and add beauty and companion planting benefits to your crops. Even if your seeds are still in the ground or your carrots are the smallest seedlings, you can imagine what it will be like when the crops are larger. By November, your garden plan should be on its way to full realization. If you planted saffron back in September, you should be seeing shoots pop up by the first week and flowers toward the end of the month. Your true fall crops, the Brassicas, and garlic especially, will taste better if exposed to a real frost or two. A hard freeze is different, when temps get into the 20s you’ll need real frost blankets, bed sheets won’t do. You can also use old bed sheets and pillowcases in a pinch. I like to buy something like this long row cover and then just cut to the sizes I need for different planting areas. If frost is in the forecast, protect them with frost blankets tucked in at the soil level or I’ve found that an overturned bucket or felt grow bag will do the trick. Keep new seedlings well watered but not drenched. That frost is what you should be wary of for some of your tender perennials and a few of your newly planted fall crops (I’m looking at you nasturtiums). Use an online tool to find the date for your planting zone. Here are the dates of the first freeze over the last five years (source KXAN Weather): Average first frost dates for Austin is November 27th-December 6th! Fun science lesson: The hydrogen bonds in water molecules that form as water freezes actually produce energy that warms the plant! This doesn’t work for long, cold winters, but for our occasional cold snaps, it makes a big difference. In the 2021 Texas Freeze, it was the unwatered shrubs and trees that I thought would be fine that didn’t make it. That water will stay above freezing in our mild frosts and the plants will have more time to absorb it before the temps drop. ![]() Water when the temps are above 40º if possible, as early in the day as you can. It seems counter-intuitive, but plumping up their cells with hydration gives them more insulation from freezing temps. ![]()
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