Gardening in November? Stick with it!
November is rarely the most encouraging time for gardening for the obvious reasons of shorter, colder, wetter days. Nonetheless it is important not to lose touch completely with the green elements of our lives. I would still encourage people to try and get some daylight every day, if possible in a green and pleasant space. It is the very fact of lower light levels in November that make this important: it is well understood that daylight on our faces, particularly in the morning, can help to counteract the seasonal low mood that many people experience, and of course supports our vitamin D level. Taking advantage at the same time of a calm and pleasant green space can help to empty our stress bucket, boost our serotonin levels and help maintain that vital connection to the natural world. Gardening hits many of those buttons at the same time as well as providing activity, fulfilment and a sense of achievement. Plants too slow down as the days get shorter and temperatures drop so there is genuinely less work to do outside. So how to keep gardening and keep contact with green? Well, the answer is fairly straightforward, and that is to turn to gardening indoors, perhaps after your daily dose of daylight. And by that I mean house plants as November is a very good time to tend to your indoor plants. Although being in the house protects them from lower temperatures to an extent, they will still be growing more slowly in winter. This Is a good moment for repotting because there will be less stress on the plants as they re-establish.
You can also spread the plant love around by dividing plants and creating a few extra Christmas presents. So here are a few tips on repotting and dividing house plants indoors without making a huge mess. Firstly, let the plants become a little bit dry, not so much that they are wilting and stressed, but just so that the compost does not drip brown water when you tip the root ball out of the pot. It is always best to work on a potting tray or similar plastic tray to protect the surface. At the other end of the process it is wise to put the newly potted plants back into their pot covers or onto saucers before you do any watering. That again will prevent water from leaking straight out the bottom of the new pot and all over the table. Watering will settle the compost down into the pot so it is quite likely that you will have to add a little more dry compost to top up and make sure that the roots at the base of the plant are not exposed.
If your house plants are already potted on every two to three years, then a peat free multi-purpose compost which is 100% organic matter is absolutely fine. If you have larger plants that will stay in the same pot for much longer then I would advise a soil based compost or a mix of soil and multi-purpose, the same as for growing plants more or less permanently in pots outside. That is because the soil helps maintain the air and water spaces and the structure whereas over a few years the organic multi-purpose compost will continue to disintegrate and becomes solid. Either way after a few months of growth you will need to feed the plants and so if you pot them in November be prepared to feed in late spring. Do check the nutrient content of your house plant food as it is often aimed at leafy green plants and is therefore quite high in nitrogen in relation to the other major nutrients. If you are growing flowering plants then look for either something specialist, for example orchids have specially formulated plant food, or a more balanced fertiliser or even tomato fertiliser, which in higher in potassium and therefore encourages flowering.
Whether or not your house plants need repotting or dividing you can always spend a few minutes with a damp cloth or tissue gently wiping the dust off the leaves on both sides and communing with your plants. That will keep you connected to nature even in the depths of the darkest, dreariest November.
Happy Gardening from Alison