November is planting-out month in Christchurch gardens

November is when the summer garden goes in around Christchurch. The frosts are usually over by early November, so it’s time to plant out tomatoes, capsicums, courgettes, pumpkins and the rest of the warm-season crops you’ve been raising in pots.

These dates are for Christchurch and the Canterbury Plains, with an average last frost around 28 October. Inland and higher gardens, towards the foothills, are a week or two later. Gardens further north, around Auckland, will have done all this in October.

Plant out now

Harden plants off for a week first, then plant out from early to mid-November:

• Tomatoes, capsicums, chillies and eggplant. Into the warmest, most sheltered bed. Stake tomatoes when you plant them.
• Courgettes, cucumbers and pumpkins. In rich soil with plenty of compost. Courgettes and pumpkins need about a metre each way.
• Sweetcorn. In a block of short rows, not one long row, so the wind can pollinate it.
• Beans. Runner and dwarf beans raised in pots.
• Basil. Next to the tomatoes.
• Leeks and celery. Leek seedlings go in deep, 15 cm or so, so the stems blanch.
• Brassicas. Cabbage, broccoli, kale and cauliflower for autumn, though net them against white butterfly.

Sow outside now

By mid-November the soil is warm enough to sow summer crops straight into the ground:

Crop	Notes
Dwarf and climbing beans	Sow 4 cm deep. A second sowing in December keeps them coming.
Sweetcorn	Sow in a block, two seeds per spot.
Courgettes, cucumbers, pumpkins	Two seeds per spot, thin to one.
Carrots and parsnips	Keep the row damp until they come up.
Beetroot and silverbeet	Sow every few weeks.
Lettuce and salad leaves	Sow little and often, in light shade as it heats up.
Spring onions, radishes, rocket	Quick crops for gaps.

Peas can still go in early in the month, but they struggle in a hot, dry December. Swap to beans as the weather warms.

Watch out for

• The nor’wester. Hot, dry gusts that scorch young plants. Shelter new plantings with windbreak cloth, and water deeply.
• Dry soil. Mulch once the soil has warmed. It keeps moisture in through the summer.
• Slugs and snails. They’re at their worst on newly planted seedlings. Go out at dusk and check.
• White butterfly. Its caterpillars strip brassicas from now until autumn. Cover them with insect mesh.
• Psyllids. Tomato potato psyllid arrives as the weather warms. Check under tomato and potato leaves.

Garden jobs

• Earth up potatoes as they grow.
• Pick broad beans and peas regularly so they keep cropping.
• Stop cutting asparagus by early December and let the ferns grow.
• Set up drip lines or soaker hoses before the dry weather.

For tomatoes in particular, see tomatoes in Christchurch. To see any crop’s full calendar, choose Christchurch on the sowing calendar.