Vegetables
Peas can still be sown and dwarf varieties, such as Novella, will produce plump pods in nine to 11 weeks. Greenfeast takes 11 to 13 weeks.
Peas do best in trenches filled with rich soil and compost topped with ordinary soil. Add 50g of superphosphate for every metre of the row and keep the top of the filled-in trench a little below ground level. This will help keep the pea roots moist longer after watering if conditions become dry.
If the trench method is not used, they can be grown in any rich, moist soil.
Like peas, celery and leeks can be planted in heavily fertilised trenches topped with soil.
Brussels sprouts plants put in now will give an early crop for late autumn. Another planting at New Year will mature over winter and through to early spring.
Late-season potatoes should go in as soon as possible.
Rua is one of the best for long-term storage; Moonlight has heavy yields; Red Rascal stores reasonably well; Heather is a purple-skinned all-rounder; and yellow-fleshed Agria is excellent for roasting and mashing.
Choose a sunny, moist (not wet) spot with plenty of compost. Animal manure that has not rotted completely will give potatoes scabby-looking skins.
Main-crop carrot and beetroot seed can be sown. For something different in carrot colour, try White Belgian, Lubyana (yellow), Purple Dragon or Purple Haze. The taste is the same. Touchon, Nantes Scarlet, Egmont Gold, Manchester Table and Topweight are reliable orange carrots. Cylindra is a proven beetroot. Water dry soil liberally the day before sowing carrot or beetroot seed.
Cucumbers and pumpkins can be planted now throughout the South. These plants demand extremely rich soils and warm situations.
Late November is usually the last chance to sow sweet corn, French and butter beans to get reasonable crops.
Lettuce, radishes, mustard streaks, mizuna, miner’s lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata), mesclun mixes and other salad crops can be sown now, as well as Asian greens such as pak choi, tatsoi and hon tsai tai, kohlrabi and spinach.
Swedes should be sown where they are to mature. Swedes, beetroot and kohlrabi can be transplanted fairly successfully to fill gaps, but carrots, white or golden turnips or parsnips seldom survive.
Flowers
Violas and pansies will flower over a longer period and the quality of the blooms will be better if deadheaded regularly. This also prevents hundreds of seedlings later, often of so-so colour. When the flowers start losing their quality, cutting the plants back a few centimetres above ground level can prompt new growth and more flowers in a surprisingly short time.
Wallflowers, forget-me-nots and other spring-blooming plants that have finished flowering can be pulled up and space made for summer annuals.
Eschscholzia (Californian poppy) produces single or double blooms in shades of cream, crimson, yellow and orange and is a useful plant for poor soil that gets lots of sun. Calendula, nasturtium, cosmos and cornflower plants also do well in poor, dry soils as long as they get plenty of sun.
Hyacinths, tulips and narcissi can be lifted now and, keeping the yellowing foliage intact, planted in pots to ripen off. When the foliage has completely died, bulbs can be lifted, cleaned and stored.
Fruit
Outdoor tomatoes should be making strong growth. Keep side shoots pinched out, stake as required and do not overwater at this stage.
Russian Red, Black from Tula and Purple Russian are cold-tolerant tomatoes that can be grown without protection, although they do best if sheltered from cold winds.
When the fruit begins to swell, mulch the ground under the tomato plants with straw to keep the soil warm overnight.
Apple trees sometimes have a fluffy white growth, American blight. It is an excrescence produced by a type of aphid (Schizoneura lanigera) to protect itself and can be spread by strong winds.
Methylated spirits or kerosene rubbed on the fluff kills the bugs. Because the aphids often drop to the ground, keep the soil clear for birds to do their work or, alternatively, rake in a soil fumigant.
