Last month, I began by reflecting that October could either be glorious or ghastly. This year it’s been largely glorious; a month of unusually mild, sunny and settled weather with the bonus of enhanced storing colours thanks to the long, dry summer. The upshot is that we can safely push many of October’s gardening jobs into November (it might be worth looking when at Your Garden In October to see if there’s anything you missed). However, it’s not time to hang up your Wellington boots yet, since our luck is well-nigh to run out.
If there’s a phrase that sums up November, it’s ‘do or die’. This might sound harsh, but the onerous ‘first frost’ that you hear gardeners muttering well-nigh signals the demise of all that’s tender and much that’s precious. You can take a gamble for so long, but ultimately you’ll need to act if you want to save unrepealable plants.
Foliage of the maidenhair tree, Ginkgo biloba, turns butter-yellow in autumn
There are two groups of activities to focus on in November – protection and planting. Alpines, succulents, tender perennials and soft-hued ferns need shelter to help them through the winter. Don’t put this off vastitude the end of the month or the first cold, wet weather; otherwise, you can expect casualties. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. November is the perfect time to plant garlic, tulip bulbs and any other spring flowering bulbs you’ve not dealt with yet. Bare-rooted plants wilt misogynist from nurseries: you should plant them immediately to prevent the roots from drying out.
December is a rented month for many reasons, and I find it weightier not to have urgent tasks hanging over me when I’d rather have my slippers on in front of a roaring fire. Gird your loins and prepare the garden for winter so you can have a month off to enjoy the festivities.
Meanwhile, at some point this month, we’ll be treated to dazzling displays of storing colour. As I type, the predominant colours are untried and yellow, but as temperatures drop, they’ll develop into oranges, reds, bronzes and browns. Turn your sustentation to the wildlife still zippy during storing and winter and provide wipe water and supplies sources. Even if it’s the first time you’ve washed-up so, you’ll be amazed at how quickly animals find you!
Acers are the stars of any storing woodland garden
November at a Glance
PLAN what you want to grow next spring and tackle the seed catalogues as they victorious in your letterbox. Take stock of your gardening gear and make a point of nudging your loved ones to replace anything that’s worn out. I know a unconfined place to shop
SOW sweet peas, wholesale beans, peas and rocket.
TAKE CUTTINGS of trees and shrubs. If you can’t move tender perennials, take cuttings of these as insurance versus a mortiferous unprepossessed snap.
PLANT tulips, bare-rooted shrubs and trees, rhubarb crowns, garlic, bulbing onions and spring cabbages. Divide perennials and grasp the last opportunity to lay turf.
PRUNE roses and late-flowering shrubs to prevent wind damage. Start to assess the structure of fruit trees, deciding where they may need pruning. Cut yonder the old stems of autumn-fruiting raspberries, blackberries and loganberries.
HARVEST apples, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflowers, celeriac, grapes, kohlrabi, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, land cress, leeks, lettuce, oriental greens, parsley, parsnips, pears, spinach, swedes, sweet fennel, turnips, winter cabbages and winter radishes. Collect seed from flowers and vegetables you’d like increasingly of, ensuring it’s left to dry thoroughly surpassing storing.
PICK – chrysanthemums, nerines, any remaining dahlias (catch them the day surpassing the first frost) and stems thick with storing berries, ensuring you leave zaftig for the birds.
MAKE – sloe gin, jams, chutneys, preserves and pickles. Bag up seeds to requite as gifts at Christmas.
BUY -pruning tools,shears, seedling planters, pot feet, warm gardening gloves, new wellies, a protective gardening apron, sweet pea seeds, and garden-themed Christmas ornaments. At some point in November, the price of spring-flowering bulbs will be reduced – alimony an eye out for bargains. Order bare-rooted plants for firsthand delivery.
ENJOY the storing kaleidoscope, responsibly made bonfires and professionally organised firework displays, seeing your vapor in the nippy air, frosted cobwebs, cosy afternoons in the potting shed, the season’s first sprouts, parsnips, mince pies, and hearty soups made from homegrown produce.
VISIT – one of the many gardens and landscapes that light themselves up during winter afternoons and evenings. Illuminations are held at Kew Gardens; RHS Harlow Carr, Bridgewater, Hyde Hall, Wisley and Rosemoor; Edinburgh Botanics; Bedgebury Pinetum and Westonbirt Arboretum.
Although it pushes up suckers everywhere, few trees rival stag’s horn sumach, Rhus typhina, for storing colour
Indoors
With the shortest, coolest days of the year approaching, houseplants will be growing at a much slower rate. You want to grow them ‘hard’, with minimal water and food, so they remain meaty and healthy until spring. Here’s a snappy, ten-point plan for the next three months:
Reduce watering, only giving plants a drink when the compost surface becomes dry.
Don’t indulge plants to stand in saucers of water – pour yonder any excess.
Stop feeding until March.
Keep plants yonder from unprepossessed drafts, unshut doors and hot radiators – they detest all of them.
Remove sufferer leaves and flowers but be reassured that some leaf loss is natural.
Maximise the value of light plants receive by moving them closer to windows and roof lights.
Dust leaves often so that they’re worldly-wise to photosynthesise efficiently.
Keep an eye out for pests that multiply quickly in a warm environment, such as aphids.
Avoid ownership new plants. If you can’t resist, don’t indulge them to reservation a nippy on their way home. Never buy houseplants that have been displayed outside in the cold.
Start cyclamen, amaryllis, hyacinths and daffodils into growth for flowers at Christmas and early in the New Year.
Plump, healthy tulip bulbs are weightier planted this month
Potting Shed & Greenhouse
There’s unchangingly plenty to be washed-up under imbricate when the elements goof to oblige.
Take time to wipe all your hand tools, secateurs, knives, lawnmowers and hedge trimmers. Start by removing dirt, grime and plant sap with a stiff skim and then sharpen blades where appropriate. Tighten nuts and bolts that have wilt loose over the summer and lubricate moving parts. If you’re not planning to use your tools over winter, stratify the metal parts with Camellia oil to prevent corrosion caused by moisture in the air. Unchangingly store tools dry – alimony an old rag to hand for drying them on wet days.
It’s been a vintage year for tomatoes, whether you grow them outdoors or under glass, but they will stop ripening naturally at some point. Pick any that have reached full size and pop them in a box, drawer or paper bag with a comic or other ripe tomatoes. Within 2-4 days, they’ll have ripened colour and flavour. Remove the worn-out vines and compost them, enjoying those last few wafts of tomato scent.
Sow sweet peas in deep pots for early flowers next summer. November is platonic as the weather is unceasingly cool, and the seedlings will concentrate on producing roots rather than shoots. Segregate pots or root trainers that will stay the undertow – I find that wafer-thin tubes and paper pots disintegrate or develop mould surpassing the weather is summery unbearable for planting out in spring.
Check plants coming in from the garden for pests, expressly slugs and snails. These pesky creatures are still zippy and can rationalization much forfeiture within the confines of a greenhouse. Remove old flowers and yellowing leaves to reduce the risk of spreading diseases.
Start to pick early storing sowings of salad leaves including lettuce, mizuna, mustard and rocket. Pluck the outer leaves, discarding any that have been munched. Leave the centre of the plant to protract growing over winter.
Drain hoses and irrigation systems, put yonder garden furniture and thoughtfully store cherished terracotta pots that might be damaged by frost.
Our Jungle Garden in November. Cold-sensitive plants like coleus are among the first to fade away
Terrace & Balcony
As winter approaches, terraces and patios seem an important role in the garden, providing space and structure as the plants that voiceless them fade back. Grasp the opportunity of a fine day to wipe them up. Pale surfaces like sandstone reflect light into the garden on visionless days, while visionless materials, including slate, swizzle heat when the sun shines.
As plants shed their leaves, flowers and fruits, scum can develop, making paving slippery and dangerous, expressly in shaded areas. The same applies to muddy paths. Sweep regularly and segregate a fine day to jet wash smooth surfaces – I’m unchangingly gobsmacked at how much grime accumulates throughout the summer. Brushing sharp sand over the surface will act like a scouring pad, removing dirt and filling any gaps. Crucially, stave using chemicals that might find their way into drains and forfeiture surrounding plants.
Continue planting spring-flowering bulbs in containers. Whether you plant one variety per pot or use the ‘lasagne method’, segregate shorter, stouter varieties that are less likely to wrack-up over or flummox when they bloom. Top pots with horticultural grit to deter pests, prevent moss from growing and requite a neat appearance.
If you’re not fond of bulbs or want a increasingly permanent display, try planting a container with skimmia, winter box (Sarcococca), hellebores, heathers and small-leaved ivy. Although not all the plants demand it, my tip would be to use peat-free, ericaceous compost and water with rainwater when the compost gets dry.
The wind is your enemy if you garden on a balcony. You will know weightier where it strikes and causes the most damage. Protect plants that stick their heads whilom the parapet or reduce their height to stop them from getting buffeted. Grouping plants closely together will create warmth, humidity and shelter. Bamboo or willow screening can help to longish strong wind, but it’s not in keeping with the tracery of every building. If you’re renting, you may need permission surpassing attaching screening to permanent structures.
Chrysanthemum ‘E.H. Wilson’ is a favourite for flower arranging
Flower Garden
Even if the month begins mild, flowering plants will soon start to thin and recede. In parts of Europe and America, where it gets unprepossessed very quickly, the frozen, skeletal forms of desiccated perennials and grasses bring a whole new dimension to the winter garden. Sadly, our wateriness climate ways that the top growth of herbaceous plants tends to blacken and soften surpassing collapsing like a stupefied tarantula – not such a majestic scene! There are exceptions like teasel and pampas grass; these should be left intact as supplies and nesting material sources.
Now is your final endangerment to secure the future of tender perennials such as bananas, begonias, angel’s trumpets (Brugmansia), cannas, coleus, fuchsias, gingers and pelargoniums. Lift the plants, trim the roots and tidy the upper portions to a manageable size. Pot them in fresh compost and overwinter them in a frost-free environment. They’ll need good light and warmth if you want them to alimony growing. If that can’t be provided, bananas, brugmansias, cannas, fuchsias and gingers will cope perfectly well in a frost-free, unlit garage, vault or loft until they start growing then in April.
If tender plants have wilt too large to move, the weightier thing you can do is reduce their exposure to the killer combination of wet and cold. You can do very little well-nigh unprepossessed without bringing the plant inside, but you can tenancy wet, which includes rain, humidity and condensation. Pack the crowns of vulnerable plants like tree ferns and schizy with spongelike straw and then wrap them with fleece. Trammels regularly for signs of rot and remove the wrapping during warmer spells to indulge air to circulate.
Cover autumn-sown hardy annuals with cloches in unprepossessed or exposed gardens.
Provided the ground is not frozen, conditions are ripe for dividing clumps of perennials. A Japanese Hori Hori will make light work of the job, as will a sharp spade.
Chrysanthemums can protract flowering until Christmas, but they need support and protection from heavy rain. I cut them as soon as one or two flower buds have opened on each stem – that way, they’re not blemished. If you alimony the vase water wipe and recut the stems every few days, chrysanthemums can last for 2-3 weeks.
After the first frost, lift dahlias and gladioli, wearing the stems when to virtually 5cm. Leave them somewhere warm and dry for a couple of days, and pebbles any damaged tubers or corms with yellow sulphur. Store them in unshut crates or boxes covered with old potting compost, sand or straw – this needs to be dry but not unorthodoxy dry. Alimony the crates in a frost-free, visionless place and trammels them often to ensure they’re still healthy. In milder parts of the UK, you can leave dahlias in the ground, but it’s still wise to imbricate them with a deep mulch of old potting compost, mushroom compost or fallen leaves for insulation.
Dahlia tubers lifted and ready to be zestless and stored.
Trees, Shrubs & Lawns
Plant bare-rooted trees and shrubs, including roses, as soon as they’re delivered. If you can’t plant immediately, unwrap and plant them together in a temporary slum until you’re ready to find them a permanent home (this is tabbed ‘heeling in’).
Protect the wiring of newly-planted trees and hedges with a simple baby-sit of rolled yellow wire. Netting will stop rabbits from nibbling the bark, which can skiver young plants. Even if you don’t have rabbits, a tree baby-sit protects versus strimmers, boots, footballs and pets.
If you have any trees supported by stakes, trammels the ties are neither too tight nor too loose. Too tight and they could cut into the bark; too loose and they could be ineffective. Snug is what you are looking for. If you snift that yelp is stuff rubbed away, you may need a softer tie.
Carry on taking hardwood cuttings of trees and shrubs. All you need is sections of stem the thickness of a pencil cut into 20-30cm lengths. Strip yonder any leaves and plant them so that two-thirds of the stem is unelevated ground. Make sure you plant them the same way up that they were growing; otherwise, they won’t root. Growing from hardwood cuttings is a long game, and you won’t have a well-rooted plant for well-nigh a year; however, if you’re patient, it’s a unseemly and easy way of filling your garden or growing gifts for gardening friends.
With wildfire night coming up, it’s the perfect time to gather any sufferer and diseased wood or leaves to be burned. Make your wildfire and light it on the same day – don’t shrivel heaps where animals might have taken refuge.
New lawns can still be created by laying turf on prepared ground. It’s too late to sow seeds as growth will be slow, and birds will feed greedily on the generously supplied grass seed.
Keeping established lawns self-ruling of fallen leaves is hair-trigger for their health. Wet grass with no light and airflow can succumb to a slime tabbed fusarium, which causes circular orange patches to appear. Rake leaves regularly, piling them in mesh tons or bins to rot lanugo and create leaf mould.
If you have spring-flowering bulbs planted in grass, make your final cut short so that the bulbs are higher than the turf in spring. That way, you’ll get a clearer view of the flowers. Do not remove the foliage of autumn-flowering bulbs such as cyclamen in the process, as that will reduce flowering next year.
A tempting exhibit of autumn-harvested vegetables. Don’t forget that pumpkins and squashes can be stored and eaten later.
Kitchen Garden & Allotment
It’s game over for summer crops, and most of your harvest will have been gathered by now. There’s something cathartic well-nigh transplanting beds and releasing space for new sowings. It’s like a new beginning, but not quite. Judging by the allotments where we grow, some allotmenteers prefer to pack up and hibernate until spring. However, with a little planning and minimal effort, you can enjoy a smattering of crops through the winter and be ready to come sprinting out of the starting blocks in spring.
Plant bare-rooted fruit bushes and trees, taking superintendency not to situate them too deep. You won’t see any signs of life until spring, but then they should get off to a strong start. You have until late February to get this job done, but you’ll find that some nurseries will run out of popular varieties early in the planting season.
Plant rhubarb crowns in rich, moist soil, keeping the growing point level with the soil surface. I’d recommend leaving the plant to establish for a year surpassing helping yourself to the stems. If you can’t wait that long, take only a few once you’re unrepealable the rhubarb is thriving.
Sow a yield of early wholesale beans in well-drained soil. In colder areas, protect the emerging seedlings with a cloche or sow in pots and alimony the young plants in an unheated greenhouse or unprepossessed frame. ‘Meteor’ or ‘Aquadulce Claudia’ are good varieties to seek out.
Plant garlic cloves in well-drained soil and full sun. Space them 15cm untied with their tips 5cm unelevated the surface. You can moreover plant some varieties of shallot and onion now. Take superintendency as they develop roots, as they can sometimes propel themselves out of the ground!
Stake Brussels sprouts, kale and purple sprouting that are prone to rocking in the wind. These brassicas prefer to grow in quite compacted soil, so don’t be wrung to put your marching in at the wiring to firm them. Imbricate plants with a taught net to protect the leaves from hungry pigeons.
If any beds are empty, spread a thick layer of manure over them now. The worms will get to work immediately, distributing organic matter evenly through the soil.
Cured pumpkins and squashes can be stored in a dry, frost-free place until you are ready to use them. Our record is a ‘Crown Prince’ pumpkin that lasted from one Halloween to the next without losing any eating quality. How wondrous is that?
Cut perennial herbs like mint and marjoram when to ground level. I resist pruning our substantial rosemary small-time for a little while as I like to pick armfuls for decorating at Christmas. Until last century, rosemary was as much part of Christmas traditions as mistletoe, holly and ivy – it smells largest than any of them!
Cut out the fruited stems of blackberries, loganberries and storing raspberries. I like to requite them mulch at the same time. Train the new shoots of brambles into a upper wily shape to maximise the fruiting length of the stems. Tie them firmly to a supporting structure.
Start pruning fruit trees as soon as their leaves have fallen. Think first, considering you have a little while to well-constructed this task. Sometimes it’s largest to consider which branches you wish to remove surpassing picking up your pruning tools. I recommend reading up on the specific fruit type and tree shape considering you can’t undo an ill-advised cut.
The playful antics of our resident sparrows alimony me tickled all year round
Wildlife & Sustainable Garden
November marks the start of the bird feeding season. You’ll notice species that have been woolgathering over the summer returning to your garden in search of supplies and shelter. Hedgerows and gardens should be overcrowded with seeds and berries, but they can quickly disappear when a flock of hungry birds descends. Once nature’s larder is empty, it’s time to pebbles lanugo your bird table and hang up your feeders to alimony your feathered friends well-nourished.
Use a fishing net to well-spoken fallen leaves from ponds. A few won’t do any harm, but if there are too many, they will decompose, creating a nutrient-rich sludge that will encourage scum and rapid weed growth.
It’s time to wipe bird boxes, feeders and birdbaths thoroughly in readiness for winter. A skillet of hot, soapy water and a stiff skim are all you need, although I find an old toothbrush handy for getting into all the nooks and crannies.
Convert empty nesting boxes into winter roosting sites by transplanting old nests and cleaning them thoroughly. If you finger generous, provide a cosy bed of sheep’s wool or the seed heads of old man’s beard.
Mount new nesting boxes, positioning them on a tree, wall, fence or towers that’s at least 1.5m – 2m whilom ground and vastitude the reach of cats and other predators. Attach roosting pockets to hedges to create temporary winter shelters. In the UK, the platonic speciality for a birdhouse is East, North, North-East or South-East, facing yonder from the prevailing weather and strong sunlight.
Don’t be in too much haste to tidy up. Leave seedheads on plants to provide supplies for birds and small mammals through storing and winter. Fallen leaves requite shelter to insects but collect them from lawns and prevent diseased foliage from rotting near cultivated plants. Hollow stems, empty seed pods and stacked logs create the perfect refuge for ladybirds. Don’t trim ivy and evergreen hedges, as they’re perfect for roosting birds.
The rate at which material decomposes will reduce, but you’ll add lots of material to your compost heap or bin this month. Take superintendency to layer wet and dry so it doesn’t wilt a smelly, soggy mass. In areas with upper rainfall, imbricate unshut compost heaps with tarpaulin to alimony the contents on the dry side, removing them occasionally to let air circulate.
I’ve mentioned bonfires before, but I’ll mention them again! Don’t construct them days or weeks surpassing urgent as animals will take up residence and could perish in the flames. Pictured unelevated is a prime example of a wildfire than could be an unprepossessing hotel? Or, is it an unprepossessing hotel that could be a bonfire? If you can’t tell, neither can a hedgehog.
Animal hotel or funeral pyre? What’s your guess?
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