November, south of the equator

November is early summer and the last month in which a summer garden can still be started. The heat is arriving, the storms have begun inland, and everything planted now needs to grow quickly to establish before the hottest weeks.

In the garden

Plant the fast maturing annuals: portulaca, salvia, marigold, cosmos, nasturtium, ageratum and zinnia, along with petunias and bedding dahlias raised from seed. Plant amaryllis bulbs now for flowers at Christmas, and keep feeding the summer bulbs that are already up, which is canna, dahlia, lilium and gladiolus.

Sow and plant the summer vegetables: eggplant, sweet peppers, chillies, tomatoes, beetroot, carrots, cucumbers, sweet corn, pumpkin, squash, Swiss chard and lettuce. Okra and sweet potatoes do well from now. Sow the herbs, which is basil, coriander, dill, parsley, chives, thyme, oregano, marjoram, mint, tarragon, sage, rocket and fennel.

Take softwood cuttings of arctotis, fuchsia, rosemary, lavender, hebe, marguerite daisies and trailing daisies, which all root quickly in this warmth. Mulch everything, and check that the watering reaches the root zone rather than the surface.

Heat, and what it does to a young plant

Everything planted this month is racing the temperature. A seedling that goes in with a good root system and a thick mulch will cope with the first hot week; one planted into dry bare soil the day before a heatwave will not, however much water follows it. Plant in the evening rather than the morning, water the hole before the plant goes in as well as after, and shade anything small for its first few days with a branch or a piece of shade cloth.

The same is true of anything bought in flower from a nursery. It has been raised under shade cloth with irrigation, and a border in full November sun is a different world. Give it a week of partial shade before it takes the full day.

In the house

The plants are working at their hardest. Water on the shortest interval of the year and feed fortnightly. Anything in a pot outside will need checking daily once the temperature climbs.

Watch the light. The sun is high and strong, and glass concentrates it, so a plant that was fine on a windowsill in September can burn in November. Move plants back or filter the light with a net curtain.

Keep an eye on humidity indoors, because air conditioning dries a room out as thoroughly as a heater does, and red spider mite arrives in exactly those conditions.

What not to do yet

Do not repot in the hottest weeks unless a plant is genuinely suffering. Do not plant a tree or a shrub now if you can wait for winter. And do not start a new bed you will not be able to water through December and January.