By Tamborine Mountain Gardening Club
November brings a burst of life to Tamborine Mountain, where the rich volcanic soil and cooler, subtropical microclimate provide ideal conditions.
With summer almost here it is time to establish heat-tolerant crops, vibrant shrubs, and prepare your soil for the warmer months ahead and complete crucial maintenance tasks before the summer storm season arrives.
Vegetables, flowers and shrubs to plant
With daytime temperatures rising, shift your focus toward heat-loving edibles.
November is ideal to plant capsicums, chillies, sweetcorn, eggplants, snake beans, and pumpkins.
If you are planting salad greens like lettuce, look for heat-tolerant varieties or use shade cloths or taller plants to shield tender leaves from the intense afternoon sun.
Integrating herbs into your vegetable plots creates an effective pest-management system through companion planting and a great addition to our food:
- Capsicum and chillies: interplant alongside aromatic basil. Basil works as an exceptional companion by enhancing overall plant growth and naturally repelling common pests like thrips, flies, and mosquitoes.
- Sweetcorn and pumpkins: plant these next to English marigolds and nasturtiums as their flowers act as visual anchors and sacrificial “trap crops” that draw slugs, snails, and caterpillars away from your primary vegetables.
- Leafy greens: position mint or sage near your lettuce to deter the highly destructive cabbage white moth.
Flowers and shrubs
To invite essential pollinators into your yard, introduce vibrant blooms like sunflowers, hibiscus, pentas, and purple ginger, which is a favourite of native blue-banded bees.
For structural definition, privacy hedging, or bird-friendly spaces, November is an excellent time to establish hardy native shrubs.
Local mountain favourites include Lilly Pilly for dense screens, vibrant bottlebrush and grevilleas to attract native honeyeaters, and resilient varieties like tea tree and coastal rosemary for low-maintenance structure.
Garden jobs
- Apply deep mulch: before the full weight of summer heat hits, spread a five to seven cm layer of organic mulch—such as lucerne or sugarcane—over your garden beds. This insulates roots, retains soil moisture, and suppresses fast-growing weeds.
- Tip pruning: lightly trim spring-flowering shrubs and native bottlebrushes to promote a bushier shape and encourage a secondary flush of summer growth.
- Storm and pest preparation: as we know first-hand, Tamborine Mountain is highly prone to sudden summer storms. Tie up tall plants, secure lightweight structures, and clear out sagging gutters to eliminate pooling water where mosquitoes breed.
Oh, and enjoy your full tanks and well-soaked gardens.
