Tasks for November

The first frosts are just around the corner – so take a look around your garden and make sure your precious plants are well protected with our top winter survival tips. Hold off cutting back fuchsias and penstemons till next spring, leaving this year's dead stems and foliage in place. The extra protection will prevent the frost penetrating the ground [...]

Sow garlic now for a generous crop of fat, fragrant bulbs next summer, as they need a good spell of frost to encourage them to split into cloves. There are three different types of garlic to choose from: Hardneck garlic is the gourmet choice, with particularly good flavour. Try early-maturing 'Chesnok Red' or the spicy flavours of 'Red Sicilian'. Their [...]

Make leafmould from all those autumn leaves currently raining down on your lawn, as it's a waste of a truly precious garden resource to burn them or send them out with the green waste. Leafmould acts as a wonderful soil conditioner, opening up heavy clay and holding on to moisture in light, sandy soils. Bulbs like snowdrops adore a leafmould [...]

What to do in the garden in November: It may seem chilly out there but the summer's warmth is still in the soil: it's a great time to buy and plant new additions to your garden. Here are some other jobs to be getting on with this month: General tasks: Clean out bird boxes, removing old nesting material and washing [...]

November's plant of the month is trees, often viewed with some trepidation among gardeners who don't have much room – but it's a myth that you need lots of space to have a tree. In fact there's a tree for every possible situation, with some even small enough to grow in containers. Trees really shine out at this time of [...]