I’m starting to think about my November gardening jobs. While it may on the surface feel a rathy gloomy and dull time of year to be in the garden, I actually think the to do list has possibly more variety than the jobs we get to do in the summer. Indeed if you can dodge the rain, it’s a rather lovely time of year to be out in the garden.
So what November gardening jobs do I have lined-up?
November Gardening Jobs – At a Glance
- Pot raising
- Pot tidying
- Hellebores attention
- Mulching
- Making Leaf Mould
- Root cuttings
- Rose leaves
- Rose pruning
- Tulip planting
- Dahlia lifting
Pot Raising
I love pottering around on my patio, tidying the plants, but now is a good time to make sure they’re all on feet. In the really dry weather it’s possible to get away with having your pots flat on the patio, though I don’t recommend it. However, once the rains of autumn and winter start, your plants in containers can really become boggy and waterlogged. A pot flat on the ground – even though it has holes in the bottom – stops draining.
I appreciate that the fancy, ornamental feet for pots can be expensive. Even the plain ones aren’t cheap. If you have lots of pots it can add up to a small fortune. But you don’t need to go this fancy route. Mr F-W simply cuts for me little squares of wood using 2×1 or 2×2. You can get this from any old DIY shop. I pop three of these under each pot. They raise the pot up evenly and they’re not visible from the side, so everything still looks attractive. Job done!
Pot Tidying
While I’m raising up my pots I’ll also do a little bit of tidying, removing dead leaves or faded blooms here and there. Especially plants like my geraniums, and of course my dahlias which at the moment are still blooming merrily!
I leave the container plants which lose their leaves at this time of year – my hostas and some of my ferns – to do this naturally.
I resist the temptation to ‘help them off with their leaves.’ I always feel that there’s potentially still a bit of goodness going into the plant from those dying leaves. Also I may cause some damage trying to remove the leaves. So I’ll give a very – and I mean very – gentle pull. Virtually no pull whatsoever. If the leaf comes away, so be it. If it doesn’t I leave it alone.
Hellebores
One of the early joys in your New Year garden will be your hellebores. You and the queen bumblebees coming out of hibernation will be thrilled to see their gorgeous, fresh nectar rich blooms.
Hellebores are a favourite of mine, not least because they’re a no-nonsense plant. They need very little attention for most of the year. But come November I go round them just to check the old foliage isn’t causing any problems. I essentially don’t want to remove all the old leaves, but I do want to make a bit of room for the new leaves which are coming through from the crown of the plant. I also keep an eye out for brown spots – the signs of a fungal infection which can affect the leaves and stems. If I spot any of these I cut them off and dispose of them (not on the compost heap).
Once I’ve cut back the untidy old leaves a little, I mulch around the plants – but not over the crown – to provide additional winter protection and to introduce a bit of extra oomph to the bed.
Mulching
I do most of my mulching in March. That’s because I don’t tend to do a lot of tidying and cutting back now. I prefer to leave old stems etc for the ladybirds and other insects to over-winter in. They will thank me for my hospitality by eating any pest like aphids next year!
However, if I’m doing any tidying now, such as my hellebores, as part of the process I do pop down a bit of mulch.
If you are wondering, I have blogged about what mulch is and why to do it
I often use leaf mould which I’ve made the previous year. Leaf mould doesn’t contain any goodness but it is a superb soil conditioner. So once it finishes protecting the plants and works its way down into the soil it will help improve the soil structure of my flower beds. So it’s a win win!
I also put mulch on some of my more tender container plants which have finished doing their thing, such as my agapanthus, to give them extra winter protection. However as I’m not really trying to condition the soil in those containers, I may use straw, if I have some to hand, rather than my precious leaf mould.
Making Leaf Mould
Raking up leaves can feel like a real chore on the November gardening jobs list. The leaves are relentless. I’ve no sooner raked them up then the wind blows, and the grass is covered again. However, if, having collected the leaves you put them in sacks, wetted, to store away and turn into leaf mould, suddenly that chore feels really productive. You’re doing two jobs in one. Tidying and making something really useful.
I won’t go into huge details about the lovely stuff here as I have written an entire blog on how to make leaf mould and use it. Do check it out. All I will say is that it is one of the most useful and wonderful of November gardening jobs – making something that’s completely natural and that in 12 months time you will be so glad to have to hand.
November Gardening Jobs Continued…
Root Cuttings
Another fun item on my November gardening jobs list is taking root cuttings. It’s one of those jobs that’s apparently best done in late autumn or early winter. So I think that means towards the end of November and in January when the plants in question are dormant. (I’m not adding to my December jobs as who needs extra jobs with Christmas to prepare for!)
It is a particularly good way of increasing stocks of plants with fleshy roots such as oriental poppies and verbascum. I have an oriental poppy called Coral Reef which I love. It has gorgeous large, coral coloured flowers with a black splash on the petals. I think it’s such a romantic looking plant and a nice change from red poppies (though I love them too). Anyway, I’m digressing.
Coral Reef is in my sunny bed which runs around my patio. When I first planted it up I put in about 5 of them but annoyingly only one survived. I was so cross! However, thanks to root cuttings I’ve been able to clone my one survivor and put four more in the bed.
Buoyed by this success I’m going to have another go at root cuttings to see if I can increase my stock of Coral Reef even further! I really ought to write a blog on how to do it. But until I do, there’s a really brilliant guide here
Rose Leaves
My roses are so lovely in the summer. The picture above is one of my favourites, Jacqueline du Pre. But now, even though Jacqueline still has some blooms, (what a trooper) she is losing her leaves. Much to my annoyance, and despite my best efforts, some of my roses, Jacqueline included, still have black spot. So in November I take extra care to collect the fallen leaves of my black spotty roses and dispose of them. I also remove any black spot leaves that still remain on the plants. Again I don’t put them on the compost heap as I don’t want to spread black spot around my garden to all my roses!
Rose Pruning
There’s a risk in a windy autumn and winter that tall bush roses will rock about and this will damage their roots. So my November gardening jobs include shortening their stems by a third to a half. Wherever possible I cut the stems to just above an outward-facing bud, to encourage a nice, open airy shape to the rose bush. At the same time I prune any branches which are damaged or crossing. Those that cross not only make the rose look congested but they may touch and that could lead to disease.
November Gardening Jobs – Tulip Planting
In late November or even into December I plant my tulip bulbs both in my raised tulip bed and in containers. They are planted with at least twice the depth of the bulb in soil/compost covering them.
Although the garden centres seem to have been selling tulips for months, I resist planting them any sooner than this as I think they perform best if the ground has already had a cold snap of frost. That’s because the cold weather kills off a disease called tulip fire, a fungus, which may otherwise affect your tulips. It makes the leaves and blooms deformed and twisted.
Holding off until late November/December also gives me time for my dahlias to finish in my containers. Freeing up the containers for more tulips – yay!
Dahlia Lifting
I blogged about the delights of dahlias last week. In my blog I mentioned that if you live in the right weather conditions you may be able to leave your dahlias in the ground over winter – perhaps with a bit of mulch as extra protection.
However, I like to be on the safe side and lift mine. Lifting them also works for me as I have some in containers and I want to use those pots for other things such as tulips in winter and spring. So after the first frost has struck, typically towards the end of November, I lift all my dahlias, clean them off and store them in dry compost, vermiculite or simply wrapped in dry newspapers. I put them in a frost free place – typically my beloved potting shed.
November gardening jobs – what’s on your list?
So that’s my lovely ‘to do’ list for November. But obviously, depending on what you have in your garden you will have your own list too. I’d love to know what it includes.
If you are passionate about your lawn, there will be heaps of lawn maintenance which I don’t do (my grass is awful). And fruit and veg growers or those with greenhouses will have a completely different set of November gardening jobs. But whatever you are up to, I hope your time in the garden is a happy one. Do tell me what you’re up to – x