Hey there, gardener friends. Thanks for joining me today for episode five of the ATX Gardens Podcast, airing on November 13th, 2025. I’m Colleen Dieter, a landscape consultant at ATXGardens.com. Today’s episode is all about what to do in the second half of November in your gardens and landscapes in Austin, Texas.

Before we get to our gardening to-do list, this episode is sponsored by my landscape consulting business, ATXGardens.com. I help my customers by alleviating their anxieties about their yards.

This week, I met with Jody, a repeat customer who had a house in South Austin where I helped her back in 2020. She moved out to Bastrop and got a new home out there, and she had me come out to consult on that property too. She has a very large lot and wants to turn it into a food forest. A food forest is a low-maintenance edible landscape designed to mimic a natural forest by layering different food-producing plants—starting with tall shade trees, then smaller fruit trees and understory trees, and down to ground covers and useful edible perennials. I gave her some advice on how to get started building a food forest, what plants to put in each area, and how to lay out walkways to connect the spaces.

If you have questions like that, or if you’re curious about food forests or changing even just a small section of your yard, make an appointment with me today at ATXGardens.com.

Alright, let’s get to the show.

Mid and late November is when everything changes dramatically in our gardens and landscapes—more so than other parts of the year. This is when the warm-season plants are really wrapping up their bloom time and getting ready for winter. The average first freeze in Austin is around November 30th or the first few days of December. A lot of suburban or low-lying areas get freezes earlier than that, so now is the time to start preparing.

If you have cold-sensitive tropical plants or succulents, make a plan for moving them indoors or protecting them from the cold. I’ll talk more about that in the fruit tree section of this episode, so keep listening.

November is also a great time to start a new compost pile, and I’m going to be doing that at my house. There are plenty of tree leaves available to use as a base. Compost is made of materials that used to be alive and have broken down into their basic parts. It’s filled with microorganisms that feed your soil and help your plants thrive. Compost also contains complex micronutrients and provides a gentle feeding almost any time of year.

If you’re going to start a compost pile, make it at least three feet by three feet by three feet. The number one mistake people make is building piles that are too small, which prevents proper heating and decomposition. Your pile should be about two-thirds tree leaves and one-third kitchen scraps—things like apple cores, eggshells, tea bags, coffee grounds, paper towels, lint from your dryer, or even pet hair and human hair, which is rich in nitrogen.

Try to keep it simple. You can overcomplicate composting, but it doesn’t have to be. Just make it as big as you can. If you have dogs or animals like raccoons that might get into the pile, you may want to use a bin or tumbler instead. Just make sure it’s large enough—most store-bought tumblers are too small to work properly.

For many years, I had a compost pile that worked beautifully without problems. Then one day, raccoons discovered it, and they started eating all the food scraps, which stopped the pile from decomposing correctly. I switched to large tumblers, and now everything’s running smoothly again.

Now, what’s going on with our woody plants at this time of year? November is a great time to plant or transplant trees, shrubs, roses, and woody vines. They’re slowing down for the season, and planting now gives them time to establish roots before summer heat arrives.

Possumhaw holly and yaupon holly are some of my favorites for winter interest because their berries are turning red now and will stay that way all winter. They’re really beautiful. I always recommend planting them where you can see them from a window so you can enjoy them year-round.

For fruit trees, rake up and remove fallen leaves if you can—it helps prevent disease and pests from reinfecting the trees next spring. You don’t need to get every single leaf, just do your best. Enjoy the fall color on your fruit trees, too; it’s one of my favorite sights.

This is also a good time to plant container-grown fruit trees like apples, pears, peaches, plums, persimmons, and grapes. Cherries generally don’t grow well here, but I’d love to hear from anyone who’s had success. There will be more availability of fruit trees in December and January, so I’ll talk more about that later in the season.

Now, let’s talk about protecting citrus trees from freezing temperatures. If you have citrus in pots, be prepared to bring them inside or move them to a sheltered area like a porch or garage. Freezing weather can kill most citrus. If your pots are large and heavy, use a dolly or hand truck, and consider planting in plastic pots to make them easier to move.

I have a large key lime tree, and this time of year I strap it to a dolly with ratchet straps so my husband can wheel it into the garage before a freeze. If you can’t move your pots or have citrus planted in the ground, water them deeply before the freeze and cover them with lightweight row fabric, old sheets, or blankets—just avoid plastic, which can make leaves even colder.

If your plants are small, you can fill a trash can with leaves and turn it over on top of the tree, or surround it with straw or hay bales to insulate it. Just remember to remove those covers after the freeze so the plants can get light.

Do not use heat lamps or space heaters—they can burn plants and are a fire hazard. However, old-fashioned incandescent holiday lights wrapped around branches can help provide gentle warmth (LED lights won’t get warm enough).

I prefer keeping citrus and tender succulents in pots so I can bring them inside instead of struggling to cover them in strong winds. Freezes often come with gusts, and trying to cover plants in the dark when it’s cold and windy can do more harm than good. Focus your protection efforts on the plants you truly care about and limit how many cold-sensitive plants you have—it’ll make gardening much easier.

Citrus trees usually produce fruit or have just finished producing this time of year. If yours are in pots, give them a light feeding with liquid humate, seaweed, and a dry organic fertilizer. For citrus in the ground, just seaweed and a little humate will do.

That brings us to our sponsor break.

Hi y’all, I’m Colleen Dieter with ATXGardens.com. I give plenty of garden advice on my podcast, but there’s nothing like meeting in person to get the best information for your plants and landscape. As a certified arborist and professional gardener with over 20 years of experience, I help my customers by alleviating their anxieties about their yards. Visit ATXGardens.com to book a consultation with me. You can also shop my favorite gardening tools, books, and apparel there.

Now, back to the show.

I’m delighted because I got some listener mail from Lynn, who wrote:

“I’ve been enjoying your advice since I attended your class at the Wildflower Center. I’ve redone much of our lawn with native plants and hardscaping, and I just completed my hell strip lawn conversion using free plants from my yard. Do I need to water all these new and transplanted plants weekly for a full year, or do they go dormant after it freezes?”

That’s a great question, Lynn. The answer depends on several factors, including soil type, sunlight, and recent rainfall. In general, for the first couple of weeks after planting, keep the soil moist like a wrung-out sponge. After that, water deeply once a week unless it rains.

Check the soil regularly, especially in areas that dry out quickly, like the strip between the sidewalk and the street. If the soil is compacted or full of sand or concrete chunks, it may dry faster. You can use your finger to check the soil, but in cold weather, it’s sometimes hard to tell, so I recommend a moisture meter. They’re inexpensive and easy to use.

After a few weeks, your new perennials should be better established, and you can water less often. Plants like Gulf muhly, autumn sage, and rock rose still need water in winter, even though they’re not actively growing.

There’s an old saying that the best fertilizer for the garden is the gardener’s shadow. Spending time in your garden helps you notice what your plants need.

Thank you, Lynn, for your great question! I appreciate you listening and mentioning my “Let’s Care for Texas Plants” maintenance zines, which you can find on my website.

Now, on to perennials and bulbs.

If you have perennials that need to go in the ground, get them planted as soon as possible, but don’t buy new ones right now. A hard freeze could kill them before they establish. Cool-season perennials like yarrow, lyreleaf sage, and columbine can still be planted at the end of November.

You can also plant bulbs like bearded iris, agapanthus, rain lilies, and Dutch iris. Label them with paint pens on rocks so you remember what’s where.

Moving to the vegetable garden, late November is your last chance to plant cool-season crops like radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, kale, mustard, chard, collards, spinach, and lettuce. Direct-sow root crops instead of transplanting. Keep soil moist and mulch with leaves or pine straw to protect against freezes.

If a freeze is coming, cover beds with row fabric or old sheets, and remove them once it warms up. Hydrated plants handle cold much better.

For strawberries, winter is actually the time to fertilize. If they’re in pots or raised beds, I recommend using Has to Grow fertilizer, which I’ll link in the show notes.

For herbs, late November is your last chance to plant cool-season varieties like cilantro, parsley, dill, chamomile, feverfew, calendula, and cutting celery. You can plant from seed or transplants. Perennial herbs like sage, thyme, and chives should be planted soon or wait until spring.

Now’s also a great time to plant cool-season annuals like pansies, violas, snapdragons, cyclamen, or ornamental cabbages and kale for a pop of color. Sweet peas and alyssum can be planted from seed or small transplants.

For wildflowers, it’s too late to seed, but you can buy transplants in four-inch pots. Native American Seed also sells live roots of certain wildflowers and native grasses that can be planted this time of year.

And speaking of Native American Seed, they sponsored our Central Texas Seed Savers fundraiser at Greensleeves Nursery on November 1st. It was a great success, and I want to thank everyone who came out.

Coming up on November 17th, I’ll be presenting on tree planting techniques at the Williamson County Master Gardeners monthly meeting at 6:30 PM. You can find more information in the show notes.

That wraps up today’s episode. Don’t forget to check the show notes for links to the tools and events I mentioned, and if you’re enjoying the podcast, please share it with a fellow gardener—it helps more Central Texans find the show.

I’m Colleen Dieter with ATX Gardens, and I’ll see you next time.