November Gardening Checklist: Essential Tips for a Healthy Spring Start

As autumn transitions to early winter, it’s an ideal time to prepare your home garden and outdoor spaces for the coming months. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, this guide provides practical tips on essential tasks to keep your garden, lawn, and pond thriving. From planting spring-flowering bulbs and soil testing to winterizing your lawn and maintaining fruit trees, these recommendations will ensure a healthier, more vibrant outdoor space come spring. Dive into the list below for detailed advice, resources, and timely actions to make the most of your November gardening efforts.

Things to do:

Flowers

• Bulbs: It’s time to plant those spring-flowering bulbs you purchased in September, such as daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, and crocus. For more details, see Spring-Flowering Bulbs.
• Soil Test: Now is the time to test the soil in your planned beds for plant nutrients. Soil tests usually take 10 days, so test now to have the results ready when you plant bulbs and beds. It’s important to till in any needed lime for faster soil pH adjustment. You can also sample your vegetable garden now if no more fertilizer is planned for late crops. Refer to How to Collect a Soil Sample for sampling instructions.

Fruits

• Fruit Sanitation: Begin inspecting your fruit trees. Remove any mummified fruits and rake up old leaves and branches that may harbor diseases over the winter.

Lawns

• Fertilizer: Apply the third round of fertilizer for fescue and other cool-season grass lawns. Follow the soil test report recommendations. Do not fertilize warm-season grass lawns late in the fall. See Fertilizing Lawns for more details.
• Trampweed: If you noticed this fluffy-looking weed last summer or fall, now is the time to treat your warm-season lawn to prevent its return. For cool-season lawns, wait until February. See Annual Trampweed for guidance.
• Wild Garlic and Wild Onion: November is the right time for the first herbicide application to manage these issues. Consult Wild Garlic and Wild Onion for herbicide recommendations and rates.
• Annual Bluegrass: Control this soft, grassy weed this month. See Grassy Weeds for management tips.
• Irrigation: Prepare to winterize your irrigation system. For more information, refer to Winter Irrigation and Winterizing.

Trees and Shrubs

• Leaves: Continue collecting fallen leaves. Composting is a great option, or you can till them into fallow beds or the vegetable garden. Check Composting for further details.

Ponds

• Pond Stocking: The period from September to January is suitable for stocking bream in fishing ponds. For additional information, see Stocking & Harvesting Recreational Fish Ponds.
• Pond Liming: September through January is also a good time to lime pond bottoms if needed. Consult Liming Recreational Ponds for instructions on sampling and lime application.

Vegetables

• Garden Clean-up: Finish cleaning and tilling your vegetable garden to prevent disease from overwintering on old plant debris. Consider planting a cover crop such as crimson clover or vetch.

All pamphlets referenced in this calendar are available online at Clemson University HGIC or Clemson CAFLSFactsheets.

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