What to Sow and Grow in NOVEMBER
Things are slowing down a bit in our garden. The first frost appeared in October, which caused things like our fig trees to go to sleep earlier this year. Daylight is shortening rapidly, but there is still lots to do in the garden in November. Plenty of fruit, vegetables, and edible flowers can still be sown and planted now for harvest throughout winter. If you have not done it, think about your Spring and Summer planting. It is time to buy some onion sets and garlic before they are gone. We buy ours from Fruit Hill Farm and grow some onions from seed as well. We always save the best garlic from this year's harvest to sow for next year. There is always temptation to use it all, but always glad we don’t when we are harvesting the following year.
While we are still busy harvesting the last of the tomatoes and chillies and saving seeds for next year, we are clearing beds, turning compost, washing pots, and clearing fallen leaves. We are also expanding the garden here, planting more wild roses and building a small pond, which will help with biodiversity.
One of our favourite things about November is picking Medlars to make jelly. They love a bit of cold weather to start the bletting process before harvesting. Bletting is the ripening process until overripe and almost fermenting, which gives Medlars a wonderful flavour. Bletting happens naturally after a couple of frosts, though the fruits are often picked underripe. They can also be left in a box indoors, though the process may take a little longer. Some people place them in the fridge. There is an art to making the jelly as some medlars need to be underripe to get the jelly to set right.
Here is what is our list for November:
Clearing the polytunnel of the last of tomatoes
Making green tomato chutney
Mulching any unused beds for the winter with compost
Bringing in pots of herbs into the polytunnel for the winter like tarragon, mint and parsley
Saving seeds like asaparagus, edible flowers
Sowing some more Winter and Spring greens like chard, kale, watercress and cornsalad
Sowing broad beans, peas and sweet pea
Sowing garlic and onion sets - we grow our own and buy more from Fruit Hill Farm
Sowing spring bulbs which brighten up our garden in the Spring time
Cleaning pots
Gathering leaves and twigs as they fall. A little time here and there makes the task easier
Looking back at the year and see what grew well and most of all, tasted great.
Planning for the year ahead. Looking at our crop rotation diary and figuring out where things might go next year