November Gardening…a Mixed Bag

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t blogged for a couple of weeks. Mr F-W hasn’t been very well and it has rather thrown me and any November gardening – or blogging – off course.

So much so that, shock horror, I haven’t planted any tulips in my raised lower tulip bed this year.

I’ve also barely planted up any spring flowering bulbs (tulips included) in pots.

The lack of tulip planting in the raised bed means I am forcing myself to see how last year’s tulips, which have been left in place, perform for a second year. Tulips aren’t known for being brilliant after the first year, but some people report wonderful results, so I’ll see how it works for me. Who knows, they may look fab. Fingers crossed as I do so love the riot of tulips the bed normally delivers each year.

Time to Catch-Up

As a result of all this gardening inactivity, things have got a bit out of control. So I’m going to spend what’s left of November and December, playing catch up.

So I thought I’d share a few of the jobs I’m quickly cracking on with.

November Gardening =Leaves, lots of them!

November means fallen leaves. While we don’t have a huge garden, we do seem to have 16 trees in it, the vast majority of which are deciduous. So that means there’s a heck of a lot of leaves to get to grips with.

I like to make leaf mould by putting the raked-up leaves in old empty compost bags with a bit of water. I puncture holes in the bags and let the magic happen. To speed the process up you can run the mower over the leaves before you store them. Whether you mow them or not, stored for one or ideally two years, you end up with wonderful leaf mould. It doesn’t have any nutrients but it is a fantastic crumbly, delicious material (no I don’t eat it, honest).

Leaf mould is so useful for mulching around plants in my borders. I also stick a layer on pots to protect the plants in them over winter. It’s also a brilliant soil improver, so I sometimes mix a bit with my potting compost when planting new tubs and containers.

November Gardening a Time for Bed Tidying

I’m not a big fan of too much tidying in the garden. I think a less tidy garden over winter is a good thing as it helps our insect and wildlife populations. Ladybirds over-winter in old woody stems. The birds munch the old seed heads. And the growth that I haven’t cut back provides an environment in which the birds can hide from predators.

That’s not to say my borders are neglected at this time. There’s some cutting back to do, picking up old rose leaves, weeding and mulching. If leaves from the trees fall on my borders, I tend to leave them where they are. They provide a nice natural bit of protection for the plants and the leaves will quickly rot down and improve the soil. The only thing I’m careful of is keeping the leaves off the top of the plants in the beds. As rotting leaves on a precious plant might encourage some plant rotting/disease too. So I’ll spend a bit of time checking for this, moving the leaves so they’re around the plants but not on them.

Roses

I need to trim back my shrub roses just a little – in particular where they have straggly bits. If left, the rose boughs could catch the winter winds and make the whole plant sway back and forth. This risks root rock – where all the swaying tugs on the roots, interfering with the plant’s ability to stay firmly planted in the ground. It also damages the hairs on the roots which deliver food or water to the plant.

Please note, this slight trimming isn’t the same as major rose pruning. That’s a mid-February job for me.

But back to my November gardening, I’m also going to pick up the dropped leaves from my roses – many of which were spoiled by black spot. I’ll put these leaves in the garden refuse bin and get rid of them – as I don’t want to encourage black spot by letting it fester in the compost heap!

Having picked up the dropped leaves around the roses, I’ll mulch the roses with leaf mould made from leaves gathered last year or probably the year before. Just to provide the roses and their roots with a bit of additional warmth and protection.

November Gardening Means Mulching

Mulching is a big part of my November gardening regime – and I’m really annoyed I haven’t got to it yet! So I’ll be mulching like mad once I’ve finished this blog! I tend to use my homemade leaf mould, but there are loads of other things you can use – ornamental bark, strulch (good for deterring slugs from hostas) garden compost, well-rotted manure and mushroom compost or grass clippings. With the latter you want to obviously have a lawn that’s full of grass rather than like mine, full of weeds. Otherwise you’ll be spreading trouble all over your borders!

Why mulch?

Mulching is useful for a number of reasons. It suppresses weeds, and few of us love weeding. (Though if I’m honest, I don’t mind it too much…does that make me mad?) Mulch helps retain soil moisture and as already mentioned it protects plants in winter. If you are a tidy gardener then mulch can be used to make an area look nice. However, the biggest advantage of mulching is that it gives you an opportunity to add nutrients and structure to your soil.

Adding a layer of organic mulch to the surface of your beds, means you’re adding organic content to your soil. This not only adds a dose of goodness but the layer of mulch helps the soil hold onto water without it becoming water logged. Given the importance of conserving water, mulching is a great green gardening habit to get into.

Timing

The best times of year to mulch are spring and autumn. Mulching in spring gives everything a boost ahead of the growing season. It’s logical when you think about it. Also mulching around spring bulbs feeds the bulbs at the crucial time as the leaves are dying back. If you’ve roses which suffer from black spot (as all of mine do), spring mulching also apparently prevents rain splashing those annoying black spot spores in the soil on to the lovely new rose growth coming through.

For your November gardening, mulching provides all the normal benefits of mulching plus a protective layer for plants and their roots as winter approaches. So in addition to popping my leaf mould around the roses, I will put it around other plants – including those in containers, to give them a bit of winter protection.

Before mulching I weed. So slapping down a generous layer of the stuff isn’t necessarily the quickest job. But it’s so satisfying to get any remaining weeds up and the mulch down.

Dahlias

Dahlias grown in the ground can typically be left where they are – though I’d give them a good dose of winter protection by mulching. But if they’re in pots, they need lifting. Their tubers will be too close to the edge of the pot. So they won’t cope with the winter frosts.

How to Lift Them

I lift mine by going around the edge of the pot very carefully with a trowel and my hands. As I don’t want to damage the tubers. After lifting the tubers, wash them off and dry them thoroughly; this is really important as if you store them even vaguely damp they may well rot. I put mine to dry on newspaper in our laundry room for a few days. Then store them in a cool but frost-free spot, such as a shed, wrapped in newspapers or in a load of dry peat-free compost or vermiculite. Dahlias should be stored until all the last frosts have finished in the spring.

I lifted my two pots of dahlia Mexican Star on Friday and found I have monsters!

The tubers have become huge and congested. So they need dividing as otherwise next year the flowers will start losing their va va voom. Also, dividing means I increase my stock of the beauties.

However, when you divide up a tuber you need to ensure you have a couple of eyes with each division. And they’re incredibly hard to spot at this time of year, well I think they are. So I’ve taken the decision to split the tubers in half – just to make storing a bit easier.

There’s bound to be a good number of eyes in each clump. Then I will plant them up in a bit of soil in the spring to slightly get them going. That way I’ll be able to see the eyes much more easily, when I’ll do further division. Fingers crossed that works!

So that’s my November gardening – which I’ve got to pack into – eek 5 days! I’d better get gardening.

Happy gardening dear readers…X