Here, courtesy of the Royal Horticultural Society, is a list of some of the things you could be doing to keep your garden in tip-top condition and ready for the next growing season:
- Clear up fallen leaves – especially from lawns, sheds, ponds and flower beds.
- Raise containers on to pot feet to prevent water-logging.
- Plant out tulip bulbs for next spring’s floral display.
- Prune roses.
- Plant out winter bedding plants.
- Cover any brassicas to protect them against birds – particularly if pigeons are a problem where you live.
- Insulate containers to protect them from frost.
- Put grease bands around the trunks of your fruit trees to stop winter moth damage.
- If you have one, make sure your bird table is in good repair and put out bird feed to encourage winter birds into the garden.
Here a few other practical things you do in the garden in November:
- Reuse spent compost from container displays as a mulch on the garden.
- Make compost bins for collecting fallen leaves and dead plant material.
- Build a cold frame to protect plants from the winter weather.
- Collect leaves up for making leaf mould as a soil conditioner. Oak, alder and hornbeam will rot down in a year but beech, sycamore, horse chestnut and sweet chestnut will take a couple of years to compost.
- Clean out water butts and let the autumn rains refill them. Install a new water butt ready for next year.
- If the soil is dry, give your garden one last good watering before the ground freezes.
- Check stored onions and garlic and remove any rotting bulbs immediately. The neck of the bulb is usually the first area to rot. Try using onion bags to improve air flow.
- Check stored potatoes and remove any that are rotting. Use hessian sacks to store your potatoes as this will allow the crop to breathe.
- Once plants are dormant, it is a good time to lift and relocate any plant that you want to move.
For more details of jobs to do in the garden this month visit the RHS website
