Still plenty going on in the garden to keep you busy
Resist the urge to ‘put the garden to bed’ this month and ignore it during winter, because even though growth slows, leaves fall and many plants are dormant, there can still be plenty going on.
Dormancy also provides the perfect opportunity to plant, move and prune many deciduous trees and shrubs without disturbing their growth or risking their health.
November is the month that ‘bare root’ plants first become available for delivery. These fieldgrown deciduous plants, including ornamental and fruit trees, shrubs, hedging and roses, are dug up for sale while dormant (until early March) and shipped without any soil surrounding their roots. It’s vital that they are planted as soon as you receive them, but there is much to recommend them because they are cheaper than pot-grown plants and more environmentally friendly as they generate much less plastic waste and are lighter to transport.
This is also the time to begin pruning free-standing apple and pear trees (leave cherries and plums for summer to avoid silver leaf disease) and soft fruit bushes. Use clean, sharp secateurs to remove any weak, damaged or diseased wood and aim to produce an open form that will allow air and light in among the branches. Cut back new shoots at the tip of apple and pear tree branches by about one third, to just above a bud.
Prune new growth on gooseberries and redcurrants back to four buds. Cut out around a third of the old, darker brown stems of blackcurrant bushes at their base to allow space for more fruitful younger wood.
Tidy away any remaining supports in beds and borders and finish raking up fallen leaves from beds and lawns. Shredding leaves with a rotary lawnmower is a good idea if you want to add them to your compost heap as it helps them break down more rapidly.
Once vegetable beds are clear, mulch them with a 5cm-thick layer of well-decomposed compost, which can just be laid on the top for worms to feed on and take down into the soil. This layer will also help to protect soil from erosion and other damage during wet and windy winter weather.
There is also still time to plant garlic and spring-flowering bulbs this month. I will be finding space for a few more winter-flowering perennials and shrubs to add colour and scent, and keep my local honeybees fuelled when they venture out on sunny winter days. The spires of yellow flowers on Mahonia x media ‘Charity’ are already a favourite, to which I hope to add climbing Clematis cirrhosa, the fragrant shrubs Lonicera x purpusii and Sarcococca (sweet box), and more elegant nodding hellebores.
I will be finding space for a few more winterflowering perennials