November Gardening: Tips and What to Plant

It’s the penultimate month of 2024 and a year since I have been writing this blog. I’m not sure if anyone reads our monthly tips but I hope they have brought garden inspiration to someone, or taught them something new.

Christmas is approaching, and we are brainstorming ideas for our Christmas do; where should we have a meal? Should we go bowling? I think an escape room would be a great team building (or breaking) exercise! Perhaps I will ask our Instagram followers for ideas – don’t forget to follow us!

Check out our post on winter mulching to learn about the types of mulches and benefits of mulching at this time of year. You can also find our Field No.1 Organic Soil Improver here.

General Garden Maintenance:

• Regularly pick off and sweep up yellowing or dead leaves and faded flowers before disease problems develop and spread.
• November is the perfect time to make bonfires (where safe and allowed). You can use garden waste, including infected plant parts and excess debris unfit for composting.
• Feed the birds. Keep extra bird feeders and refill regularly to keep birds fed during this sparse season.
• Conduct machine maintenance to ensure your mowers and hedge trimmers are working effectively next spring:
  • Wash down and scrape off any encrusted grass or mud.
  • Drain the petrol from the tank as unleaded petrol doesn’t keep.
  • Oil the blades and moving parts.
  • Consider taking your mower in for a service.
  • Put the machinery away somewhere safe and dry for the winter.

Houseplants:

• Feed your houseplants once a week with liquid fertiliser and continue through autumn.
• Water houseplants less frequently as days shorten and growth slows and move them off particularly cold windowsills at night.
• Repot any houseplants that have become top heavy, or pot bound into large containers. Our Field No.23 Peat Free Potting Blend compost is perfect for this!

Greenhouse:

• Clean and sterilise your greenhouse:
  • Remove dead plant material from the floor.
  • Clean pots and equipment.
  • Using soap and water, clean any of the surfaces and panes.
  • Wash down the outside of your greenhouse to remove algae and grime build up.
• Insulation:
  • Use heat and/or insulation to keep your greenhouse frost free, e.g., using a fan, paraffin, heater, or bubble air insulation material.
  • Attach insulation to the sides and north facing roofs.
  • Retain warmth in the greenhouse by closing vents by mid-afternoon.
• Remove all shading plants from the greenhouse.

Lawns:

Maintenance:

• Give your grass a light trim with the mower during mild weather, as grass continues to grow in temperatures above 5 degrees.
• Remove fallen leaves from your lawn so they don’t smother the grass or block out any sunlight or moisture.
  • You can gather up fallen leaves with a rake and store them in a bay or bin bags to make leaf mould. Keep them damp and mix them up/put a hole in the bag to add oxygen.
  • You can also use the lawn mower to gather up fallen leaves at the same time as giving the lawn a final trim. Start with the mower on a higher setting to gather up, chop and mulch leaves simultaneously, then lower the height for a second pass so the lawn is neat, tidy and trimmed.

Flowers:

Jobs:

• Divide perennials and prune them to soil level, to ensure they return next year.
• Clear faded sweet peas, morning glory, thunbergia and other annual climbers from their supports.

To Plant:

Use Field No.23 Professional Potting Blend compost.

• Sweet peas. Sow in a cool greenhouse or cold frame for an early display next year.
• Spring flowering bulbs, e.g., daffodils, lilies, tulips and crocuses. Plant outside and as early in the month as possible, for an early display next spring.
• Plant autumn bedding plants, e.g., violas and pansies, on a sunny day in rich moist soil. Plant wallflowers in gaps in your borders.
• Hardy winter flowering shrubs, e.g., Viburnum tinus, Viburnum fragrans and Mahonia winter sun.

Fruit & Veg:

Jobs:

• Harvest root veg if you haven’t already, and continue to harvest and store fruit.
• Cut back any berry canes to soil level, this is so they grow back strong and healthy.
• Pick ripe apples; eat or store in a cool dry place for later this year.
• Conduct some veg patch maintenance for winter; do a final weed, tidy up and then add plenty of Field No.1 Organic Soil Improver to mulch the bare patches and growing veg.

To Plant:

• Winter salads. Plant these in the greenhouse, conservatory or inside by a warm south-facing window. Choose varieties that don’t require extra heat, like winter gem, winter land cress, purslane and corn salad. Use Field No.23 Professional Potting Blend compost.
• Herbs, e.g., basil, dill, chives and parsley. These can also be grown in the greenhouse, conservatory or inside, in No.23 Potting Compost.
• Soft fruits like raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries and currents. Use Field No.16 Tree and Shrub Soil Improver to mix in with the soil when planting fruit canes.
• Peas. For an early crop next spring, sow hardy cultivars like ‘Avola’ and ‘Meteor’ peas now. Sow them direct in 5cm drills in the ground, mixing in Field No.23, or in root trainers to plant out in a couple of weeks. It’s also a good time to plant out peas sown in root trainers or guttering in September.

Trees & Shrubs:

Jobs:

• You can prune and train many deciduous trees, shrubs and hedges. It is easier to see what you are doing now that branches have no leaves.
• Prune roses. Reducing the height will prevent wind-rock and shallow-rooted bushes to become loose in the soil if they are buffered by strong winds.
• Tie wall shrubs and climbers onto their supports and protect them from wind damage.

To Plant:

• Bare-root trees and shrubs. Plant fruit trees like apple and pears, cherries and plums, blackcurrants and gooseberries and raspberries. Use our Use Field No.16 Tree and Shrub Soil Improver or Field No.1 Soil Improver for planting trees and shrubs; dig a hole and mix it 50:50 with the existing spoil from the planting pit.