November Grower’s Calendar

Preparation

- Start digging well rotted compost or manure into cleared veg beds
- Cover beds in manure and cover down with black plastic
- Necessity to double dig is high priority for new veg areas.  Buy a Stainless Steel fork and spade.
- Preparing new ground for spring.  Method 1 - Cut back grass then cover the area with old carpet. Method 2 - cover the area with about five layers of newspaper and then a layer of compost. Next Spring you should be able to dig straight into this new patch and prepare it for planting.
- Start investigating seed catalogues for next year - e.g. Organic Centre, Seed Savers

Sowing Seeds

- Sow broad beans for next year's crop (NB over-winter variety such as Aquadulce)
- To avoid broad beans seeds rotting before germination, make small newspaper cups and germinate indoors.
- In mild garden, sow peas and keep under cloches (’Feltham First’)
- The polytunnel has it's own microclimate - continue to sow carrots, red cabbage, rocket, mixed salad leaves, lambs lettuce, perpetual spinach

Planting Out

- Garlic does best if planted before Christmas - outdoors in well prepared soil in sunny spot (Fruithill Farm - 027 50710).  Ready next summer.
- Onion seeds and sets (variety “Shakespeare” recommended for seeds) - they overwinter and can be harvested in early to midsummer (chose open site with well drained soil and lay bulbs 2-4 inch apart - press bulb in to soil pointed end up.  Leave tip showing).
- Pot up strawberry runners

Harvesting

- Continue harvesting: some lettuces, perpetual spinach, pumpkins, marrows and squashes, chard, leeks and fennel, mint, sage, thyme and chive, beetroots
- Continue harvesting in the tunnel: pepper, chilli-pepper, aubergine
- Start harvesting: leeks, winter cabbage, kale, sprouts, artichokes
- Lift: carrots, turnips etc
- Runner Beans - if you forgot to harvest, pop the individual beans out of the pods and use them like broad beans.
- Purple sprouting broccoli is just beginning
- The last of the tomatoes - sob. (hang upside down in tunnel to ripen greens).

Processing

- ''Posh up'' old favourites such as beetroots and perpetual spinach - bake beetroots and serve with goats cheese, give spinach an Asian twist by adding sesame oil/seeds in cooking.  Yum Yum.
- Store apples in a bin
- Blanch and freeze celery and peppers - handy!
- Green Tomato chutney/sour
- Pumpkin soup/pie

Routine Care

- Remove remains of crops
- Earth up Cabbage, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts to prevent wind/storm damage
- Divide rhubarb if required and cover with a thick mulch of manure.
- Cut back fennel seeds before they begin to rot on their stems
- Move tender perennial herbs to sheltered spot
- Continue to weed ground dug over since a crop has been removed - “one years seeding is seven years a weeding”

Other Tasks

- Start a compost bin - a good time to begin given the amount of material from the garden
- Leave some seed ripen on runner and French beans and save as seed for next year.
- Prune apple trees, aim for a goblet shaped open tree.  Prune crossed & damaged branches, and those that are growing into the centre.  Don’t over prune as this will mean much leafy growth next year and little fruit.
- Cut down raspberries and apply a mulch of compost. Mulch loganberry and tayberry plants.
- Take cuttings of red, white, blackcurrant bushes from current season's wood.  Cutting should be 10” long. Plant in trench 9” apart, fill in up to 3/4 buds.
- Tie Brussels sprouts and sprouting broccoli to canes and apply mulch

Tips/Suggestions

- Garlic varieties - Themidrome and Printanor - the latter produces smaller bulbs but stores for longer.
- Check out the Organic Gardening Catalogue at www.OrganicCatalogue.com for lots of organic seeds and other gardening products.
- Old wire clothes hangers can be cut into wire pins 15-20cm long & bent - to be used to secure ground covers like plastic etc.
- Plastic supermarket containers can be used as seed trays - punch drainage hole in with skewer.  Use shower caps to cover containers!
- Freezing Honey to stop it crystalising
- Website of the Month: www.gardening.ie

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