It is time to finish the Christmas shopping early (as per promise made to self last Christmas Eve!) and hang the hammock, ready to just lie back in the restful oasis you have created in your garden and admire the fruits of your labour over the past 12 months.

Late November jobs

Hopefully you have all been under rain-bearing clouds recently and your gardens have been refreshed.

Check that rain has penetrated heavily-mulched areas as light rain can sometimes be deceiving, wetting only the top of the mulch or the top 2-3cm of soil.

Be sure to keep newly planted trees and shrubs well-watered, especially those you planted as bare-rooted, including your roses.

If grape vines or fruit trees are dropping their fruit prematurely, give them a long, slow, thorough watering.

Deadhead any flowers that have finished, especially roses, to encourage further flowering.

Fertilise and mulch summer flowering shrubs.

Plant out seedlings of summer annuals such as asters, marigolds, nasturtiums, petunias, phlox, portulaca, coleus, mesembryanthemum, verbena, gaillardia, rudbeckia, cockscomb, gazanias, cosmos, amaranthus, zinnias, etc.

Feed indoor plants and mist foliage regularly.

In the vegie garden

Try to water often enough to keep soil moisture fairly constant. If plants go dry-then wet-then dry, it will cause them to grow in stops and starts and they may wilt, drop their blossoms or leaves, or the fruits may not form properly.

Under-watered vegetables can taste bitter or be woody, while over-watered ones can be just plain tasteless.

It’s late to be planting eggplant and capsicum from seed, but seedlings are readily available from the nurseries. Planting eggplant, capsicum and also tomato, bean and curcurbit seedlings so the root ball and part of the stem is 2 or 3cm below soil level will get the roots deeper and less at risk of drying out and the stems that are covered can also grow additional roots.

Plant peas, leeks, celery, carrots, silver beet, cabbages, beetroot, radishes and lettuce, rocket and other salad leaves.

Stake tall-growing tomatoes and thin out the side shoots that grow between the main stem and the leaf as these will produce unproductive leafy growth.

The Armidale Garden Club’s final meeting for 2018, including our Christmas celebration barbecue, is on Thursday, November 22, starting at 6.30pm in the Uniting Church Youth Club Hall.

Read more from Dar Brookes: 

Making the most of watering

Make time to smell the roses this spring

Keeping on top of those weeds