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13 Gardening Tasks to Complete in November

killingsworth-november-gardening

Don’t Forget to Complete These 13 November Gardening Tasks This Winter

Winter is on its way to the Carolinas — is your lawn and garden ready? While you may think your gardening tasks are done for the year, we’re sorry to inform you they’re not, especially if you want a beautiful spring garden next year! Winter garden care is crucial to the health of your plants, fruits and vegetables. Which is why we wanted to make sure your November gardening to-do list covers all of the care your garden will need this season. Below, we have the 13 specific tasks you’ll need to complete in your garden this November. It’s going to take some hard work, but come springtime, you’ll be thankful you put in the extra effort!

November Gardening Checklist

In your garden, you’ll need to:

1. Prune Dead or Fallen Leaves

Tend to your plants and bushes and remove any fallen or dead leaves. You can use these for compost along with other twigs, cuttings and weeds from your lawn and garden.  If you have rose bushes, pay special attention to the leaves at the base that are showing signs of blackspot or rust. Remove them now to reduce the chance of reinfection next year. 

2. Start Forcing Bulbs

Spring bulbs can be forced into flowering in the winter. While not all bulbs require a chilling period, many need cold temperatures to stimulate growth and flower production.  Forcing flowering bulbs requires a bit of work, but it’s relatively easy. All you really need is a pot, some soil, water, straw and patience! Flowers like paperwhites, hyacinth, amaryllis and tulips are ideal flowering plants to choose. Read more about forcing bulbs here.  Pro Tip: Use colored markers to not only identify where you plant spring bulbs, but also their specific colors. Golf tees will work!

3. Continue Weeding

As plants begin to die, it becomes much easier to spot annual green weeds. Continue removing weeds from your garden throughout winter. This will help to reduce the chance of weeds in the spring and make the weeds that do emerge more manageable. 

4. Keep Watering

Until the ground freezes, continue watering your plants, trees and shrubs. 

5. Plant or Relocate Shrubs

Now is the perfect time to plant or relocate trees and shrubs. During the summer and fall, it can be too hot out to tackle this task. November is just cold enough to make planting and relocation bearable! Be sure to water the trees or shrubs after planting as well. 

6. Divide Perennials

Divide your favorite perennials for a fuller winter garden. Plants like mums, asters, black-eyed Susans and beard tongues are ideal. To divide your perennials, use a shovel or trowel to lift a clump of each plant from the ground. Then, divide the plant into smaller clumps and replant each clump at the same depth as the original plant. 

7. Save Seeds

Why waste money on seeds in the spring when you could collect and save seeds from your favorite plants now? Grab a glass jar to hold seeds from your favorite plant, fruit or vegetable and store it in a dry, cool place.   Pro Tip: Speaking of saving, go ahead and cut off a few stems from your holly bushes to store for holiday decorations before birds start eating the berries.

8. Insulate Container Gardens

Remember last month when you assembled your fall container garden? Now is the time to protect those plants you worked so hard for!  Insulate your container gardens with bubble wrap or hessian to protect them from potential frosts. Hold your insulation in place with garden twine. 

9. Grow Cover Crops

Ryegrass and crimson clover are ideal cover crops to protect your garden from weeds and erosion, as well as condition the soil once they die back in winter.  Cover crops also attract beneficial insects, which we all know do wonders for your garden — especially when it comes to pest control. 

10. Protect Perennials

Lastly, protect your perennials from freezing winter weather by covering them with straw. 

November Lawn Checklist

Once your garden is taken care of, check these three lawn care items off your list:

1. Rake Leaves

Rake leaves, twigs, branches and more out of your lawn and set them aside for compost. 

2. Apply a Winterizer

In November, you’ll want to apply a winterizer to prepare your lawn for winter weather and spring growth. A winterizer will help your lawn store the nutrients it needs to grow in the spring. 

3. Control Poa Annua

Poa Annua is an annual weedy grass that is known to overtake weaker lawns. So, to protect the hard-earned integrity of your lawn, you need to overseed and protect against Poa Annua. Overseeding should occur in early autumn, while Poa Annua control should begin in November and continue into the winter months.  This will be especially helpful if your lawn was aerated in September and October!

Need Professional Care? We Can Help!

If November gardening and lawn maintenance are too much to handle on top of holiday preparation, family trips and guest visits, we get it. Let our team of experts take care of it for you! It’s easy to forget that your lawn and garden need specific care throughout every season. Skipping one season can cause detrimental effects to the growth and health of your plants and lawn for the seasons to come. At Killingsworth, we offer a year-long lawn care package that covers every season of the year and caters to the specific needs of your lawn. We promise to treat your home, lawn and garden like its our own, giving you more time to enjoy this season with your family. 

If you need help from our lawn care experts, schedule a service with us today!

13 Gardening Tasks to Complete in November

Bedbug inspection

How to Know if Your Hotel Has Bedbugs

Upon entering a hotel room, do you typically reach for the tiny toiletries, take a leap onto the bed, or perhaps start by inspecting for bed bugs? Knowing what to look for is essential. Anticimex Carolinas Service Manager Christian Tweed has shared valuable insights on identifying bed bugs in your hotel room and preventing them from hitching a ride back home with you. And if bed bugs do become an unexpected part of your vacation, remember that Clark’s Pest Control is here to assist!



Q&A with a Pest Professional


How do bed bugs get inside hotels?


Bed bugs are primarily hitchhiking insects as opposed to foraging ones, meaning that they get carried around on people’s clothes and belongings. Someone with an active infestation in their home can easily bring bed bugs to their hotel, but they can also be picked up during travel (airplanes, taxis, and rideshare services) and brought to a hotel room.


What do people misunderstand about bed bugs in hotels?


From a probability standpoint, all hotels will deal with bed bugs at some point in time. If you think about a bed bug’s method of travel, there’s literally nothing a hotel can do to stop them from being carried in. What I have realized is that luxury hotels are more likely to have an aggressive response to dealing with a bed bug case once it’s identified as they tend to have a higher quality of service and a reputation to protect. While this isn’t always the case, it has been my experience more often than not.

Got bedbugs? Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today!

What do you recommend travelers do when they get to their room to check for bed bugs?


Most hotel headboards hang directly on the wall. I start my inspection here before even looking at the bed itself. I have found bed bugs, their exoskeletons, and the telltale black stains they leave behind around the edges of or in the crevices of headboards. If the headboard looks clean, move on to looking over the pillowcases and comforter for any signs or stains. You can dig into the bedding as deep as you want here, but I encourage people to look over the top layer of things at the very least.


What are some lesser-known signs of bed bugs in your hotel room?


The specifics of the black stains they leave behind, which as gross as it sounds, are just digested blood as that’s all that bed bugs feed on. If the stains are on a hard surface, they will be small dots as if left behind by an ink pen and will smear into a brownish gray when moisture is applied. If they’re on fabric, they will usually bleed along the fibers making a small diamond, square or X shape.


If there are bed bugs in your hotel room, can they travel home with you?


They absolutely can, however this is easy to prevent. While staying in a hotel, keep as much of your clothing and luggage off the beds as possible. Storing suitcases in the bathroom might sound odd, but it’s an effective method of prevention.

Don’t tackle bedbugs yourself, call Clark’s at 866-781-4991!

What should you do with your suitcase if you suspect your hotel has bed bugs?


When arriving home from a trip, leave your luggage in the garage or on a porch and bring your clothes in one load of laundry at a time. If the clothes are dirty, wash them like you normally would, if they’re clean then run them through the dryer for at least forty-five minutes. Once your suitcase is empty, vacuum over it meticulously (don’t forget to empty the vacuum when you’re done), or if you’re in the right climate, expose it to heat for a few days by placing it in your vehicle (parked in the sun) or for a few weeks in your attic.


The Clark’s Solution


If you brought bed bugs back to you home, Clark’s is here to help. Our Bedbug Control service is designed to eliminate bedbugs and create a safe, comfortable environment.


A Clark’s Pest Professional will do an inspection and recommend a plan of attack to get rid of bed bugs now and prevent them from hatching in the future. Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today for more information.



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