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The Beginner's Garden with Jill McSheehy

447 - November Garden Checklist: Protecting Cold-Sensitive Crops, Planting Onions for Spring, and Making the Most of the Final Garden Days

The Beginner's Garden with Jill McSheehy

Jill McSheehy

How To, Education, Home & Garden, Leisure

4.7 • 830 Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When November arrives, it can feel like the garden season is winding down—but there's still so much happening if you know where to look. In this episode, Jill takes you on a walk through her own November garden to show what she's harvesting, planting, and protecting right now. You'll learn how she uses this in-between season to prepare for a strong start next spring while still enjoying small harvests and fresh herbs from the fall garden.

Free Download: 5-Day Garden Audit

Take time to reflect before you plan next year's garden! The free 5-Day Garden Audit helps you assess what worked, what didn't, and what you want to do differently next season. https://journeywithjill.net/audit

Key Takeaways

  • 10 tasks Jill's doing in her Zone 8A garden this November.

  • How short-day onions fit perfectly after summer crops.

  • What "growing degree days" mean and why they matter.

  • Simple ways to protect crops before the first frost.

  • Why now's the best time to plan your spring garden.

Chapters

00:00 – Intro: why November gardening still matters
01:10 – Protecting crops ahead of the first frost
04:30 – Moving the lemon tree and basil to shelter
06:00 – Planting short-day onions after peppers
09:30 – Understanding growing-degree days
14:30 – Interplanting lettuce and testing cold-hardy greens
17:00 – Harvesting and fermenting fall cabbage
19:00 – Small-batch beet pickling tips
20:20 – Overwintering and harvesting herbs
22:30 – Volunteer cilantro and fall collard greens
25:45 – Garlic planting reminders
27:00 – Checking stored onions, potatoes, and garlic
28:10 – Topping off beds with compost for spring

Resource Links

Soft Mention:
🗓 Plan your best season yet with the 2026 Complete Garden Planner – a printable system for planning, tracking, and staying inspired.
https://shop.journeywithjill.net

Disclaimer:
Gardening advice shared in this podcast is based on my own experience in Zone 8a (Arkansas) and feedback from gardeners in other regions. Your results may vary depending on your climate and growing conditions. Always consult local extension resources for region-specific guidance. Some links may be affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey there and welcome to the Beginners Garden podcast and welcome to November. You know this time of year

0:06.7

when it feels like the garden is done for the year, but maybe if you're like me, you still catch

0:12.7

yourself wandering out in the garden just to see what's hanging on. That's what I did just this

0:18.6

weekend. And of course, I'm noticing that things are slowing down,

0:22.7

but there's still a lot happening and there's a lot going on if you know where to look.

0:28.4

From protecting tender crops to dreaming about what you're planting for next season,

0:33.8

any gardener knows that this is the time of year where we're thinking and bubbling with lots of different ideas.

0:41.2

Today I'm going to take you through my November garden to show you exactly what I'm doing right now.

0:47.4

What I am protecting because the frost will have started to arrive.

0:52.0

What I'm planting.

0:53.3

And yes, I'm still planting. I've got the last

0:56.0

crop of the year, and it's not garlic, and I'll tell you what that is, and how I'm setting myself up for a

1:02.4

strong start next spring. And by the way, if you didn't have a chance to do the free five-day

1:07.4

garden audit last week, it is still available available you can go to journey withjill

1:11.7

dot net slash audit this is a great way to reflect on this season especially as you're

1:17.1

walking out of your garden and you're taking note of what worked and what didn't and that

1:21.6

way you can get a good start for next year but today we're going to be talking about 10

1:27.1

things that I listed out that I'm doing

1:29.7

in my garden in November. And number one is actually coming upon me this weekend. I'm

1:35.9

recording this a week in advance. So by the time you hear it, I've probably already started to do

1:39.9

this because we potentially could get a frost this weekend, which is actually right on

1:45.6

target.

...

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