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November doesn’t have to mean the end of the garden: start now and you could enjoy earlier crops, fresh winter greens, and stronger spring flowers. This practical gardening guide covers eight November planting ideas, from hardy broad beans and peas that can get a head start outdoors to dividing an established rhubarb crown and planting garlic in containers.
It also explores easy indoor growing: crunchy mung bean sprouts made in a jar, plus basil on a warm, sunny windowsill. For spring color, learn about planting narcissus bulbs and starting sweet peas in a cool, sheltered spot. Along the way, get advice on drainage, cold protection, mice, and choosing crops suited to your winter. Find November gardening tips, winter planting advice, beginner vegetable gardening ideas, and ways to grow food and flowers through the colder months.
It also explores easy indoor growing: crunchy mung bean sprouts made in a jar, plus basil on a warm, sunny windowsill. For spring color, learn about planting narcissus bulbs and starting sweet peas in a cool, sheltered spot. Along the way, get advice on drainage, cold protection, mice, and choosing crops suited to your winter. Find November gardening tips, winter planting advice, beginner vegetable gardening ideas, and ways to grow food and flowers through the colder months.
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00:00Most folk hang up their tools in November, and give the garden over for dead till spring.
00:05They think the sowing season is done, the ground is cold, there is nothing left to put in.
00:11And they are wrong, and it costs them.
00:15For there are things you can start this very month, in the cold and the dark,
00:20that will give you earlier crops, free plants, and fresh green on your table all winter,
00:26and some of them do not even want soil, nor sun, nor a garden at all.
00:32I am going to give you eight of them today.
00:35Eight things to start in November, while your neighbors have quit for the year,
00:40and by the time they are only just thinking about seeds come March, you will be eating.
00:46Stay with me, for one of them grows in the pitch dark of a kitchen cupboard,
00:51no soil, and no sun at all, and it is ready to eat in days.
00:58Here is the thing to understand first.
01:00The garden is not dead in winter, it is only slowed.
01:05There is a whole set of hardy, patient crops that either want the cold,
01:11or sit quiet through it to leap ahead in spring,
01:14or do not care a whit about the weather because you grow them indoors.
01:19The man who sows only in the warm spring uses half his year.
01:25The man who knows the winter sowings gardens all twelve months,
01:30and gets earlier and richer for it.
01:33So let us go through the eight.
01:35I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
01:40The book is the long version.
01:42If you want it, it is there.
01:44I will not mention it again.
01:46The first is the broad bean, what many call the fava bean,
01:52and it is the great workhorse of the autumn sowing, my own favorite of them all.
01:57Sow it now, in November, and it does a patient and wonderful thing.
02:03It sits quiet through the whole winter, growing slow and tough,
02:08and then, the moment spring stirs, it explodes into life,
02:13and gives you the very earliest beans of the year,
02:16weeks ahead of anything your neighbor sows in the spring.
02:20And being a legume, it leaves your soil richer than it found it,
02:24for it pulls goodness down into the ground as it grows,
02:28feeding the earth even as it feeds you.
02:32Now there is a trick to it, and this is the heart of the matter.
02:36You must sow a variety bred for this cold autumn sowing,
02:41the hardy, tough old sorts that laugh at frost,
02:45not the tender spring kinds.
02:47And the soil matters more than the cold does.
02:51A broad bean will take the cold,
02:53but what kills it is wet, heavy, waterlogged ground sitting sodden all winter.
03:00So give it a well-drained spot.
03:03Set the big chunky seeds a couple of inches deep and a good hand apart,
03:08and they will mind themselves till spring.
03:11But I owe you two honest words on the broad bean.
03:15First, if you are in a truly bitter cold country,
03:19where the winter plunges well below freezing and stays there,
03:23the autumn sowing is not for you,
03:25and you are better to wait for spring,
03:28for even the hardy sorts have their limit.
03:31Know your own winter.
03:34Second, the mouse, who loves a fat planted bean above near anything,
03:39and will dig your whole row out over the winter.
03:43So, where there are mice, and most of us have them,
03:46do not sow in the ground.
03:49Sow into deep pots kept up off the ground and under cover,
03:53and set the grown seedlings out in late winter
03:56when they are too big for the mouse to bother.
03:59A little guarding now saves the whole crop.
04:02The second is not a sowing at all,
04:05but a way to get whole new plants for free,
04:08the dividing of the rhubarb.
04:10Now is the time, once the plant has died back
04:14and left only its old, soggy leaves.
04:17If your rhubarb crown is five years old or more,
04:21or its stems have gone thin and spindly,
04:24it is tired and crowded and wants dividing,
04:27which makes it young and vigorous again,
04:30and gives you free plants besides.
04:33Dig the whole crown up, which takes a bit of muscle,
04:36and you will see it plain.
04:38The outside is fat, healthy buds with good roots,
04:42and the middle is old and woody and dead,
04:46like cardboard.
04:47Throw that dead middle on the compost,
04:50and cut the living outside into several pieces,
04:53each with a fat bud or two and good roots.
04:57One old crown gives four or five new plants.
05:01Replant them in rich, well-drained soil
05:03with a bucket of compost, a part shaded spot,
05:07a yard apart, each at the depth that grew before,
05:10the buds just at the surface.
05:12And here is the patience it asks.
05:15Do not pick the first year, let it build up.
05:19Take a few the second.
05:20The third year, pull all you like.
05:23A little wait for years of free rhubarb is a fine bargain.
05:28The third is the mighty garlic,
05:30and November is a grand time to get it in,
05:33and I will show you the way of it in a container,
05:36which suits many a body better than the open ground,
05:39for three reasons.
05:40It saves space if you are short of ground,
05:43it drains better if your soil is the wet, heavy kind
05:47that rots a bulb,
05:48and it keeps your garlic clear of a soil disease
05:51called white rot,
05:53a wicked thing that lingers in the ground for years
05:56once it takes hold.
05:57Use a deep container, eight inches or more,
06:01with a free draining mix,
06:02and choose your garlic wisely,
06:05not a grocery store bulb,
06:07which may carry disease and may not suit your climate,
06:10but seed garlic, bulbs sold for planting.
06:14Split the bulb into cloves,
06:16pick the biggest, fattest ones,
06:18for the biggest clove makes the biggest bulb,
06:21and set each pointy end up,
06:24a couple of inches under and a hand apart.
06:27Garlic wants a spell of cold to form a good bulb,
06:31so set the pot outside in a sheltered spot,
06:34under cover only if the weather turns to endless torrents,
06:37for it is the sodden wet, not the cold,
06:40that is its enemy.
06:42Water sparingly through winter, feed in spring,
06:45and harvest in summer when the lower leaves go yellow.
06:49Now the fourth, the one I promised you,
06:52the one that needs no soil, no sun, no garden,
06:56and no windowsill even, and is ready to eat in days.
07:00The bean sprout, the fresh, crunchy kind you get in a stir fry
07:05or a noodle soup, grown right in a jar on your counter
07:09in the dead of winter.
07:10You need only some dried mung beans from the health food store,
07:14and a jar.
07:16Put a couple of spoonfuls in the jar,
07:18cover them with lukewarm water,
07:20and let them soak overnight to wake them up,
07:23and you will see them swell and split.
07:26Then pour off the water,
07:28and from there it is the simplest routine there is.
07:32Twice a day, morning and night,
07:34fill the jar with water, swirl it,
07:37and pour it right back out, draining it well,
07:40for the secret is to keep the beans moist,
07:43but never sitting in a pool of water,
07:45which would rot them.
07:47A jar with a bit of cheesecloth banded over the mouth
07:50strains them fine if you have no fancy sprouting lid.
07:55Keep them at ordinary room warmth,
07:57and here is the curious part,
07:59keep them in the dark, in a cupboard,
08:01for the dark gives you the whitest,
08:04crunchiest, most tender sprouts of all.
08:06In four or five days,
08:09you have a jar full of fresh sprouts,
08:11a couple of inches long,
08:13grown in a cupboard in winter,
08:15from a spoonful of dried beans.
08:17Give them a last rinse,
08:19and keep them in the cold.
08:21And one plain safety word on the sprouts,
08:24for I always give you the honest care of a thing.
08:27Sprouts are grown warm and moist,
08:30and that same warmth can grow things
08:32you do not want along with them,
08:34so it is wisest to cook them lightly,
08:37rather than eat them raw,
08:38above all for the little children,
08:41the old, or anyone poorly or weak,
08:44for their stomachs are the tenderest.
08:46A quick toss in a hot pan is all it takes,
08:50and then they are both safe and good.
08:52The fifth is a real surprise for the season,
08:55a taste of summer in the deep of winter,
08:57and that is basil.
08:59Not an obvious November sowing,
09:02I grant you,
09:02but sow it now in a pot
09:04and keep it on your warmest, sunniest windowsill,
09:08and you can pick fresh basil
09:10all through the cold months
09:11when such a thing seems impossible.
09:14Basil is a creature of warmth and sun,
09:17so give it the brightest, warmest sill in the house,
09:20for the winter light is thin.
09:23Fill a pot with a fine, sieved mix,
09:25scatter the small seed thin,
09:28and barely cover it.
09:30It wants warmth and damp to sprout,
09:32so a bit of clear plastic over the pot,
09:35like a little glass house,
09:36helps in a warm room.
09:39Once the seedlings are up,
09:41thin to a few strong ones
09:42and set them in the sun.
09:44The secrets are two.
09:46Do not overwater it,
09:47for it hates to sit cold and wet,
09:50and keep it off the icy glass on a frosty night,
09:53not trapped behind a closed curtain
09:55where the cold gathers.
09:58Pick by pinching the top
10:00just above a pair of leaves,
10:01and it will bush out and give you more.
10:04And the sixth,
10:06for the garden is not only the belly but the heart,
10:09is the spring bulb,
10:11and I would have you plant some narcissus now
10:13against the dark.
10:15Here at the edge of winter,
10:17with the first frost near,
10:18is just the time to put in the bulbs
10:21that give the first flowers of spring,
10:23and the first forage for the hungry early bees besides.
10:28Choose the open-flowered old species kinds if you can,
10:32for their open cups are easy for a bee to get into.
10:36Plant them along a path in a loose scattered way,
10:39not stiff rows,
10:41so they come up as though they chose the spot themselves.
10:44Set each bulb a good few inches down,
10:47the old rule being to cover it
10:49with about twice its own height of soil,
10:52pointy and up.
10:54A small bit of work now, in the cold,
10:56for a great lift of the heart comes spring.
11:00A man should plant something for his belly
11:02and something for his eye,
11:05and November is the time for both at once.
11:08The seventh is the pea, the hardy sort,
11:12which works on the very same patient plan as the broad bean,
11:15so the two make fine partners for an autumn sowing.
11:19There are tough old round-seeded peas,
11:22bred to be sown now and sit out the winter,
11:25and like the bean, they give the earliest pickings of all,
11:29pods on the vine,
11:31while the spring-sown peas are barely up.
11:33Treat them just as the bean,
11:36the same well-drained spot
11:38and the same guarding against the mouse,
11:40who loves a planted pea every bit as much.
11:44Start them in a length of guttering under cover
11:46where mice are bad,
11:48and slide the roe into the ground in late winter.
11:51In the bitterest country, wait for spring.
11:55But where the winter is kind,
11:57a roe sown now is sweet peas a month early.
12:02The eighth, the other one for the eye and the heart,
12:05is the sweet pea, the climbing flower,
12:08and here is a thing many a gardener never learns.
12:12Sown now, in the autumn,
12:14it makes a far stronger plant than one sown in spring,
12:18for it spends the winter growing a deep, tough root
12:22while the top sits small and patient.
12:25And that deep root throws up a bigger, earlier,
12:28more generous show of sweet-smelling flowers
12:31than any spring sowing can match.
12:34Sow a few seeds to a deep pot,
12:37for it likes a long root run.
12:40Barely cover them,
12:41and keep the pot in a cold frame
12:43or a sheltered cold corner,
12:45not the warm house,
12:47for this flower wants to be cool and tough,
12:50not coddled.
12:52Pinch out the tip when it has a few pairs of leaves,
12:55and it will branch into a bushy thing
12:57that climbs and blooms all the harder.
13:01Set them out in spring at the foot of a few twiggy sticks,
13:04and you will have fragrant flowers for cutting early,
13:08and a scent by the door
13:09worth the whole winter's small trouble.
13:13My grandfather never once quit the garden for the winter,
13:16and I thought it strange as a boy
13:18that he was out setting broad beans and garlic
13:21in the cold November ground
13:23when every other thing was being put to bed.
13:26I asked him why he did not just wait for spring
13:29like sensible folk.
13:31He said,
13:32Boy, the man who waits for spring to start
13:35is already behind,
13:36for the earth does half its work in the dark while he sleeps,
13:40if only he gives it something to work on.
13:43These beans sit all winter doing their quiet growing,
13:47and come spring are a month ahead of anything
13:50that fool down the road plants when the weather warms.
13:54The winter is not empty, he said,
13:57it is a head start,
13:58and only the man who knows it takes it.
14:01I did not understand him then.
14:04I understand him now,
14:05for every November I am out setting beans,
14:08and he was right.
14:10I am always a month ahead.
14:12So let me say plainly who gains
14:15by you believing the garden is dead
14:17from October to April.
14:19The seed companies and the garden stores gain,
14:22in a quiet way,
14:24for a gardener who thinks winter is empty
14:26buys all his plants and his earliest crops
14:30in a rush come spring,
14:32instead of growing them himself
14:34for pennies through the winter.
14:36It is not that anyone schemed it so.
14:39It is only that a busy spring rush of buying
14:42is good business,
14:44and a gardener quietly sowing beans
14:46and sprouting jars for next to nothing is not.
14:50So the idea took hold that winter is a dead time,
14:54and the old knowing of the winter sowings got let slip.
14:58But the winter was never dead.
15:01It was always a head start for the one who knew how to take it.
15:05Now tell me this in the comments.
15:08Which of these eight will you try first?
15:11The broad beans or the hardy peas for an early crop?
15:15The free rhubarb?
15:17The garlic?
15:18The cupboard sprouts?
15:20The windowsill basil?
15:22The bulbs?
15:23Or the sweet peas for spring?
15:25And tell me as well how hard your winter runs on its worst nights,
15:30your lowest cold.
15:32For that decides whether you can sow those broad beans outdoors now,
15:36or had best wait for spring.
15:39And I would know which of you has the mild country,
15:42and which the bitter.
15:44Next time I will show you how to take those broad beans,
15:47and, come spring, pinch out their tender tops at just the right moment,
15:53both to turn away the black aphid that loves that soft new growth,
15:58and to drive the plant to put its strength into pods instead.
16:02For there is an art to the finish of a bean as much as the start of it.
16:07But for now, do not hang up your tools and give the garden over for dead.
16:13There is sowing to be done this very month.
16:16The people who built this country with their hands knew that,
16:19and we are only just starting to remember it.
16:22That's a great point.
16:22The school has got a lot of my program.