Jobs to do in the garden in November

As fireworks light up the sky, enjoy an explosion of colour on the ground too, with November delivering a sparkling finale to the season.

Image credit: Gap Images

By Lucy Hall | Published - 24 Oct 2024

Plant - for our future

Trials by the team at Kew Gardens show trees and shrubs planted in autumn and established in still warm but damp soil survive better than those planted in our increasingly dry springs.

They also show that a wide, square hole is best, to encourage roots to spread rather than wrapping around in circles.

Loosen soil lightly with a fork, adding organic soil conditioner or leaf mould and sprinkling mycorrhizal fungi (£5.75 for 150g, Rootgrow) on to the fan of tree roots.

Backfill with soil, then firm around the trunk with your boot to anchor the tree.

Try - trees in tiny spaces

Think your garden is too small to give a home to trees? Try planting these path-side, into borders, along walls or in a half-barrel tub.

For foliage colour - Cercis chinensis ‘Avondale’ for pink flowers and purple spring foliage. Up to 3m.
For taste - Apple ‘James Grieve’, for cooking, juicing or eating, on dwarfing M9 or M26 rootstock, as a small tree or cordon. Up to 3m.
For blossom - Magnolia ‘Susan’ with red-purple buds opening to purple-pink flowers. Up to 4m.

Pick - festive berries

Homegrown Christmas decorations are best made fresh but now’s the time to pick choice berries and hips before birds strip them all.

Leaving the lion’s share to winged visitors, cut a few long, hip-bearing stems of roses, such as hedgerow rugosa or spinosissima types, and berries from viburnum, dogwood, callicarpa or hawthorn.

To store, remove leaves and thorns before placing somewhere dark, cool and airy, to slowly dry – a shed or garage is ideal.

Grow - easy-care fruit

Crumble, jam, compotes, sauces… rhubarb is the most versatile fruit for kitchen gardeners. It also makes a dramatic foliage plant for damp – even shady – pathways, so there’s no need to give up a sunny border.

Plant now from crowns (enlarged roots) into damp soil, enriched by rotted manure, as they’re hungry plants. Remove flowering stems and resist picking in the first year, so the roots build strength.

Tasty varieties with the RHS Award of Garden Merit include ‘Timperley Early’, ‘Valentine’ and ‘Goliath’.

Prepare - houseplants for winter

Shorter days and lower light levels trigger slower growth among houseplants that respond to seasonal change, such as pelargoniums and streptocarpus.

Move these closer to a window (though not into direct light) and ease back on watering at this point – plants will die if given too much liquid.

Tropical plants, like monstera (Swiss cheese plant), alocasia (elephant ear) and philodendron, continue to grow naturally when in a bright spot warmed by central heating.

These benefit from consistent watering and a regular (at least monthly) feed.

Bathe - with giants

With leaf colour set to last longer this year due to our wet summer, walk out among trees, switch off your phone and tune into nature with some ‘forest bathing’.

The National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, and Dawyck Botanic in Peebles, are both spectacular now.

Find local woodlands at Forestry England or Forestry and Land Scotland.

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