November Gardening Guide

As we head into summer the weather is heating up and there are more daylight hours to spend in the garden! Plant summer-loving crops for a continuous supply of delicious homegrown veges, pick and plant more berries, and keep planting a variety of vibrant flowers for a beautifully bright garden over the summer months.

In the vegetable garden

• Plant summer-loving crops including tomatoes, chillies, courgettes, capsicums and sweetcorn as the weather warms.
• Regularly plant salad greens such as lettuce, mesclun, radish and spring onions for summer salads.
• If you are growing from seed, sow beans, beetroot, capsicums, carrots, celery, courgettes, cucumbers, eggplants, lettuce, mesclun, parsnips, radish, rocket, silverbeet, spinach, sweetcorn and tomatoes.
• Soak seedlings in Tui Organic Seaweed Plant Tonic before planting to prevent transplant shock, and apply every 2-4 weeks to promote strong root growth and keep your garden thriving.
• Harvest asparagus, broad beans, broccoli, cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuces, mizuna, rocket, silverbeet, spinach, spring onions.
• As you count down to new potatoes for the Christmas table, continue mounding with Tui Vegetable Mix as shoots grow, until they are approximately 300mm tall. This will encourage a bigger harvest and protect the crop from the sun and wind.
• Sprinkle Tui Vegetable Food on the soil at planting time and apply every four weeks during key growth periods.

In the fruit garden

• In the warmest areas of the country the first berry crops are ready to be harvested and it’s a great time to plant more strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries, boysenberries, and blackberries for continued harvests over the summer season. Click here for our Strawberry Growing Guide and see our Berry Growing Guide here.
• Fertilise strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, boysenberries, gooseberries, blackberries and currants planted in the garden with Tui Strawberry Food.
• As the citrus harvest ends, prune your citrus trees to open up the framework of the plant to allow more light into the centre of the plant. Fertilise with Tui Citrus Food around the drip line after pruning.
• Plant passionfruit - as a climbing fruit, passionfruit needs something to climb up and support all its tendrils.
• Keep orchards and the areas around fruit trees weed free.
• Add a layer of Tui Mulch & Feed around the base of fruit trees, to help retain moisture over the warmer months.

In the flower garden

• Pot up pots with summer colour, blending in herbs or strawberries for some edible options.
• Popular spring flowers to plant include lobelia, chrysanthemum, dahlia, geranium, gerbera, marigold, petunia, nasturtium, Queen Anne’s Lace, salvia, snapdragon, sunflower, and sweetpea.
• Sow wild flower seeds, sprinkle seeds over weed free areas and water in. Plants will appear within a number of weeks.
• Feed flowers with Tui NovaTec Premium fertiliser for a boost for the upcoming season.
• Pick roses, iris, peony roses, geums, delphiniums, Queen Annes Lace, stock, snapdragons, lavender, chrysanthemum, gerbera, sweet pea, poppies, anemones, freesias.
• Apply Tui Bulb Food to spring bulbs as they finish flowering for best flowering for next year, and apply to Christmas lilies and gladiolus to ensure good flower bud development for summer displays.

Add Debco SaturAid to your garden and pots to help plants hold onto more moisture.

Blend in compost and Tui Sheep Pellets to garden beds before planting.

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