Home Gardening

North Mississippi Gardening Tips
November/December, 2003

November/December Notes

By November gardeners in north Mississippi are looking at a garden that is in the last throes of the growing season. It is likely that our cold tender plants have been zonked by the first killing frost. Vegetable gardeners, however, are still enjoying the cool season vegetables like mustard greens, turnips, collards, cabbage and others. The garden in winter can be an attractive place with the plumes of ornamental grasses swaying in the wind, lush evergreens, berries, nuts and cones decorating our landscapes. To set the stage for the winter garden dshow, it is time to clean up the mess, assess the garden and you can even begin making plans for next spring! You thought I was going to say take a rest, didn't you? Hah! Fooled you, didn't I? After you remove all the old, unattractive, dead plants that were killed by freezing weather, you can really tell where the holes are and see the "structure of the landscape." Cleaning up the landscape now serves several purposes besides the one just mentioned. It also rids the garden of diseased or insect infested foliage that can harbor these pests over the winter to re-infest your garden next spring. Working in the garden now or anytime is a healthy endeavor for the body, mind and spirit and keeps you off the couch, off the road, and out of mischief. Also, if you're out piddling in the yard looking busy your loving other half cannot ask you to clean the gutters, wash the car, or do some other mundane task!

Annual/Perennial Flowers

Hardy perennials like astilbe, hosta, rudbeckia, foxglove and others can be planted now. Dormant perennial roots, such as daylily, peony, and others, can be dug, separated and transplanted during the dormant season. Perennial and annual flowerbeds could probably use a topdressing of compost or other organic matter now. Gently work this into the soil working around the crowns of your perennials. When transplanting perennials be sure and space them with plenty of room to spread next growing season. These plants will grow rapidly and fill in quickly next spring--so, allow room. Applying mulch after the ground cools is a good way to prevent winter weeds and makes the garden look tidy. Be sure not to cover the crowns of your dormant perennials or get the mulch too close to the trunks of your trees and shrubs.

Bulbs, Corms, Roots and Rhizomes

Right now as I am writing this, it is early October and the spider lilies are one of the few things in my garden that are in full bloom. These spidery, red blooms look wonderful in front of my purple asters and white boltonias. By the time you read this, you probably have already purchased the spring flowered bulbs--daffodils, crocus, tulips and others that are planted in the fall. I don't do much good with anything other than daffodils, because I am plagued with little bulb-eating varmints. Crocus, hyacinths, and tulips that I have planted in the past just wind up in the gut of a squirrel, vole or other nasty little critter. I vow every fall that I am going to try growing these tasty bulbs in a big pot or tub that I can easily cover with wire mesh to keep out the thieving varmints. This fall I'm going to do it. I have a book that shows eye-popping pots brimming with tulips, crocus, hyacinths and other fancy spring flowering bulbs. The author suggests you use large pots (16 to 18" in diameter) and plant the different bulbs at varying depths for a succession of bloom. For example, plant yellow crocus very shallowly (2" deep) around the outer rim of the pot. Then plant the center of the pot in purple crocus, but plant them deeply (4-6"). If the pot was wide enough you could even plant in the center of the purple crocus some white daffodils, such as "Mount Hood." Supposedly the result of this would be a succession of bloom from the outer edge of the pot to the center. Doesn't that sound pretty and just think, if it works you can move the pot around to where ever you need a cheerful, splash of early color next spring--and, if it doesn't work you can just as easily hide the booger behind the garden shed.

Plants in Pots

During the winter months, places in our gardens and landscapes can look rather bare. You know what? It is really simple to fix this without digging a hole and planting something. Use containers or groups of containers to add interest and create winter focal points in the garden. First, go in the house and look out the windows. Where does your eye fall? If it's on the garbage cans, woodpile, or dog house, you need some serious landscape design help. Hide or move that stuff to somewhere else out of view. Now, create vignettes (I'm not going to tell you what that means, just like my teacher told me--look it up in the dictionary!). You don't even have to use living plant material in the pots. One of the prettiest vignettes I created was a grouping of various sized pots stuffed with white pine boughs, berry-laden branches of possum haw, clusters of sumac berries, persimmon branches, all surrounded by an assortment of gourds and pumpkins and watched over by a scarecrow my boys made. This stuff can stay pretty for months unless your bohemian children sic the dogs on the scarecrow like mine did! They get that kind of behavior from their daddy's side of the family. Small evergreen shrubs also look good in pots. If you try the "bulbs in the pot thing" that I mentioned in the previous section, your garden would have some ready made pretties to make your neighbors envious next spring.

Fruit and Nuts

If you can find them in the nurseries, fall and early winter is a good time to plant fruit trees and bush or semi-bush fruit like blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. Plant Chinese chestnut, pecan, walnut, and other nut trees. Always plant two or three Chinese chestnuts so they can cross-pollinate. Otherwise, you will not have a good nut harvest. Plant strawberries as early in November as possible. They need as much time as possible to develop good roots before heavy hard freezes arrive. Grape vines can also be planted now. If you can't find what you need this time of year in the nurseries, you can wait until January or February when these plants typically arrive in the stores. Or you could try mail-ordering your fruit and nut plants.

Lawns and Groundcovers

Thank the Lord, my warm season grass doesn't need mowing any more and the only thing I use the riding mower for is to "mow" the fall leaves, or ride to the mailbox to get the mail. Those of you who have a cool season grass are going to have a little more work, but you get to enjoy a green lawn during the winter months. Fall is the time to take a soil test to help you plan your fertilization program for next summer. If your soil test indicates lime is needed, fall is the best time to apply it.

Trees and Shrubs

Fall is for planting trees and shrubs! How many times have you heard that, well, it is true. Plant evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs during fall and they have all winter to establish a good root system--the better to withstand the neglect and abuse that may come their way during their first growing season. I know you, as a conscientious gardener, would never mistreat your plants, but there are those out there who might forget to water, fertilize, or otherwise provide proper care during the crucial first year of these new plants. The better the root system, the better the plant can withstand brief periods of stress. You can look at fall planting as a good way to protect your investment in time and money.

Vegetables and Herbs

I don't know about you, but there is nothing that beats a meal consisting of a big pot of sallet greens (seasoned with fatback or bacon grease, please), baked sweet potatoes, pork roast and cornbread when the weather cools. Man alive, that is good eating! Having a sallet patch for fresh pickings in the fall was a must when I was growing up. Sallet to us wasn't just mustard greens, but could include a mixture of turnip greens, rape or kale. Sometimes, the sallet patch would provide a mess of greens until Christmas or later, sometimes not, depending on how far down the mercury dropped. If you missed out on sowing your own patch of greens, I bet your neighbor wouldn't mind you picking some of his, if you offered to pick him a mess in the process. If you didn't grow a crop of fall cool season vegetables, there is not much going on in your vegetable patch right now. If you haven't removed all the old warm season plants from the garden yet, you need to do so to remove the pests that could over winter and attach your garden next spring. Cleaning up also gives you the opportunity to amend the soil with compost, fall leaves or other organic matter. Our town composts all the bagged leaves and anyone can come and get a pickup truck load of this compost any time--you have to load it, but its free for the taking. If your city or town has this service, my advice is to find you some restless, unemployed and broke teenagers, entice them with a little money and get them to load you up with some of this black gold. Their parents and your soil will thank you. All boy or all girl crews work best--it doesn't pay to mix them up if you expect any work out of them.

Lelia Scott Kelly, Ph.D., writes North Mississippi Gardening Tips monthly and is a Horticulture Specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is in the North Mississippi Research & Extension Center, Verona.