Now the Melbourne Cup is over, it’s time to get your frost-tender veggies planted out. These include beans, potatoes, pumpkin, squash, marrow, cucumber and tomatoes. Also sow beetroot, carrots, parsnip, silverbeet and sweet corn, and continue successive sowings of lettuce and radishes.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Protect young seedlings from snails and slugs with a saucer of beer they can easily access. Whatever brand of beer you like best, they will also enjoy – before they drown in it!
Also protect leafy greens from birds, especially the sparrows. Use strands of black thread strung back and forth above the plants.
Hailstorms
Recent storms have dropped large amounts of hail in some parts of the region and wreaked havoc with gardens and crops.
As these storms have hit early in the season, there’s still time to replant annuals and for trees, shrubs and perennials to recover for the summer.
After a storm, clean up the shredded leaves and twigs. Then remove broken tree branches, or call an arborist to do it for you, especially if they are high up. Prune all plants to get rid of bare or broken stems, pruning back to a healthy bud. Trim herbs and annuals down to the last healthy set of leaves.
Plants will recover more quickly if they are healthy, so keep the garden watered and lightly fertilise perennials and annuals. Annuals and vegies can be replanted – there’s still time to grow them. In a couple of weeks, most of the plants in the garden will have bounced back.
Other tasks
Continue to prune spring-flowering shrubs that have finished flowering.
Lawns benefit from fertilising at this time of year when they are being mown fairly constantly. Use a fertiliser specifically for lawns.
The next meeting of the Armidale Garden Club is the Christmas barbecue at the Uniting Church Hall on Thursday, November 23, starting at 6.30pm. RSVP to Ray Cantrell (phone 6772 2993 or Raymond.Cantrell@bigpond.com) by November 20.