November Vegetable Gardening To Do List
- Continue to look out for freezing temperatures and insulate plants as necessary: The first frost date is predicted between October 15-November 15 throughout Zone 7
- Dig up potatoes and other root crops and store in a cool, dry, dark location
- Clean up the asparagus bed by cutting off the tops of the plants to about 3-4 inches above the soil level; layer with compost or aged manure
- Plant herbs that like cooler temperatures, such as dill, sage, thyme, cilantro, fennel, and parsley, for next Spring using a cold frame or low tunnel (or a cloche for individual plants)
- Top-dress crops with mulch or shredded leaves, and add wind breaks in garden for additional protection from colder temperatures
- Vent cold frames on sunny days and/or air out season extenders periodically
- Continue to water winter crops when soil is dry; if freezing temperatures are predicted, water plants the day before and use row covers
- Take root cuttings of cold-season perennial herbs and grow inside, in case you need to replace some plants lost overwinter
- Add any fallen leaves to your compost pile and use as mulch in garden beds
- Test your soil; add lime if needed
Now is the Time for Winter Gardening
If you are working with a winter vegetable garden, some general maintenance is required.
Check the soil moisture of your garden regularly and water when necessary. Water helps insulate plants against a frost or freeze. In freezing weather, water plants early in the day and avoid getting the foliage wet. Also try filling plastic jugs with water and place them around your plants inside your season extenders – whether cold frames, low tunnel, or under floating row covers – to moderate temperatures inside the structure and to further protect plants.
Make use of portable containers to be able to bring some plants insider in the case of a deep freeze. The VCE publication “Season Extenders” provides additional information on the use of various season extenders and how to grow vegetables in winter.
Take the time now to tackle one of the last year-end garden tasks – caring for your garden tools and equipment. Most gardeners don’t take the time to properly care for their tools throughout the season. Now is the time to extend the life of your tools and equipment to improve their usability with some simple end-of-season maintenance.
All hand tools should be cleaned, sharpened, oiled, repaired, and properly stored in a dry place to be ready for next year. You may enjoy reading the MGNV article Winter Tool Care by Extension Master Gardeners Elaine Mills, Mary Resnick and Anne Reed for some expert advice on how to tune up and care for your garden tools.
Sharpening Garden Tools from Oregon State University Extension Service provides more information on how to sharpen your garden tools. Don’t forget also to empty and store all garden hoses and sprinkler heads, and securely turn off outdoor water outlets. Also empty any rain barrels you might have, and keep the outlet spigots open, so that the barrel does not warp overwinter during a freeze.
The MGNV/VCE video, Putting Your Garden to Bed, updated in 2024, with EMGs Joan McIntyre and Molly Newling, has an entire section on garden tool maintenance here.
Take advantage of any end-of-season sales on gardening tools and equipment for next year. And check out MGNV’s Extension Master Gardeners’ list of favorite garden tools!
Planning to Prevent Insect Pests & Grow Healthier Plants in Next Year’s Garden
by retired VCE Agent Kirsten Conrad
Melissa Joskow
The information here was originally published in a monthly column on pest control in Between the Rows – A Guide to Vegetable Gardening published by VCE in collaboration with MGNV.
Most of the planning you can do to create happy healthy gardens and prevent insect and disease problems in next year’s gardens starts with what you do in the fall after your garden for this year is done. Your garden’s best defense against plant pests is to have healthy plants! Healthy plants fight insects in several ways: They outgrow insect pests and outlast the life cycles of the pests, they produce enzymes that discourage insect attack, and they partner with companions in combinations that repel the bad guys and in some cases attract the good beneficial insects. Here are some fall and winter cultural controls that any gardener can do to maintain healthy plants; these are well known, but we take them for granted.
Build Soil: The addition of organic matter and other nutrient rich soil improvements will enhance nutrient availability, help build soil structure, and improve drainage and water-holding capacity resulting in healthier, more robust, and better performing plants. In some cases, improving soil health will also help the plants fight off insect pests.
Sanitation: Cleaning up dead leaves removes overwintering eggs that are laid on stems and leaves that die and, if left in the garden, serve to protect the early life stages of pests like spider mites and aphids. Another form of sanitation that we rarely think about is the need to remove adjacent weeds that harbor overwintering insects. Virginia Tech’s Pest Management Guide contains many pest-specific examples of cultural controls. Likewise, if you are willing to monitor them over the winter, you can use trap plants like horseradish or kale to collect populations of harlequin bugs, which can be killed or removed with the plants as they become infested.
Plan Your Crop Selection: Choose your variety with an eye to reducing pest populations. Choose hybrids that are selected for pest resistance. Study seed catalog descriptions. Purple kale has fewer pests than green kale. Butternut squash is most resistant to squash vine borer than other winter squashes. Choose crops like asparagus, beets, or onions that have few pest problems.
Plan for Companion Plants: Combining pungent herbs and flowers with your veggies will not only attract pollinators but will repel some insects and mammals too! Combining multiple kinds of vegetables will sometimes confuse predator bugs. Here are some tables that might help with your planning.
Plan for Crop Rotation: Don’t plant the same plant in the same place year after year. Put squash where your tomatoes were last year. Grow greens where your cucumbers were last year. It confuses the pests and pays dividends in managing crop fertility needs if you alternate crops of corn or onions that need a lot of fertilizer inputs with crops like peppers or beans that have lower needs in the following year.
Finally, experienced gardeners know that optimizing growing conditions will result in healthier plants and healthier plants usually have fewer pests.
Plan for Right Plant Right Place: Do you have an area that stays wetter than the rest of your garden? Put your rhubarb or your asparagus there. There is also an Asian vegetable called skirret carrot if you want to try something new. Do you have an area that stays dryer than the rest of your garden? Choose legumes of all kinds, mustard greens, sweet potato, peppers, and, yes, watermelon to name just a few.
Plan to Reduce Competition: Having to fight for both light and water takes energy that a plant can put into fighting insect pests. If this is a problem for you, consider installing a root barrier around your garden area.