Gardening – Nov 24

Tom Strowlger

@garden_with_tom

November arrives and with it comes the last month of meteorological autumn. The clocks have changed meaning our gardens have much less daylight and cooler temperatures. This is the last month to get our gardens winter ready, so let’s put on our warm outdoor clothing and get our gardening tools out. The main gardening job for November is to do a tidy up in readiness for the dormant winter season.

The garden has a much slower feel about it, it’s lacking in colour, damper, cooler and shadier. We can do a little something about the lack of colour, we can add some seasonal floral colour to brighten up our gardens. The best plants for a little late autumn and winter floral colour are Cyclamens, Viola, Winter Pansies and Primroses. They are winter hardy and can be planted into pots, containers, tubs, beds and borders.

To plan ahead, we can plant out tulip and allium bulbs this month for beautiful flowers in springtime. The garden will have its fair share of brown leaves settling into corners, borders and beds and on the lawn grass. The fallen golden leaves look amazing as a seasonal feature but unfortunately if they are left to lay over winter they will cause the lawn to go patchy and plants to become smothered.

We should rake the leaves up and compost them to be used as mulch on the beds and borders in the future. It’s time for some last minute lawn grass care in readiness for the dark months of wintertime. We should edge our lawns as it will make our borders and beds neat and tidy. The lawn should be aerated at this time of year, to allow air to the roots. We should ideally spike the lawn by hand using our garden fork and create as many holes as we can, this will keep our lawn aerated.

The lawn should be cut on the very highest cutting setting at this time of year as longer grass is healthier grass, and should not be cut again until springtime of next year. The soil in borders and beds can become compacted after summertime and a turn of the topsoil with a spade or fork can bring a refreshed look back. You can also put a nice thick layer of mulch over the topsoil to suppress any weeds and very importantly protect plant roots from the cold and freezing weather of wintertime. November is a cosy month, summed up by myself as being outside in the cooler air, gently gardening away for a good few hours and then enjoying a hot drink and a favourite biscuit or two as a reward.

November feels like a defining line in the gardening calendar, we look back on our successes and look forward to what we want to plant next year. So while the sun is setting that much earlier in the day grab a pencil and notepad and get drawing, writing and planning your future garden.