Your Garden In November
By Colin Dale, Notcutts Garden Centres
Bring a taste of spring to your house over the festive season, by planting prepared Hyacinths and Narcissus ‘Paperwhite’ in bowls now to flower at Christmas. Your local garden centre will have a range of suitable bulbs, containers and bulb fibre. Plant with the tip of the bulb just showing and leave in a dark, warm place, such as an airing cupboard, until shoots appear. Immediately bring out to a cool, light place and water sparingly from the base of the container. With a little practice, many other bulbs, such as Crocus and Lily of the Valley can be brought into flower early to provide unusual arrangements in the house. Visit your local garden centre to choose from the range of evergreen shrubs and conifers to give colour in the garden through the winter and also provide evergreen material to decorate the house in future years.
If you are planning a new hedge, from now until the end of February is an ideal time to plant this and other evergreens. Prepare the ground well and incorporate a general fertiliser such as Vitax or Bonemeal, as well as some well rotted garden compost or manure. Smaller plants will establish more quickly and probably won’t need to be staked, whereas larger plants will give an instant screen, but will require more watering and staking on exposed sites. If cold winds are a problem, plants should be protected with a windbreak through the first winter until they establish.
Make sure any spring bulbs that are still in your shed are planted as soon as possible this month at three times the depth of the bulb, with a sprinkling of bone meal in the base of the planting hole. Why not plant up some containers with dwarf Tulips to brighten your patio next spring? Once they have flowered the bulbs can be dried off and planted in the garden for future years.
Think about protecting permanent planting in containers by wrapping the pots in bubble wrap to insulate the roots and moving to a sheltered position away from cold winds. Make sure that these containers do not go short of water through winter.
This is the month to enjoy the autumn colours of many trees and shrubs in the garden, as cooler nights and mornings give the signal for plants to slow down and go into dormancy until next spring. As the leaves fall, continue to rake them from lawns and add to compost heaps or make leaf mould. Visit your local garden centre and choose from the range of trees and shrubs to provide autumn interest either with coloured leaves or fruits, which provide valuable food for birds and insects. There are many trees available which will suit even the smallest garden, such as Sorbus aucuparia (Rowan), Cotoneaster and Malus (Crab Apple). As well as adding a new dimension to your space, they provide a useful perch for birds.
Top Ten Tips for November
1. Make sure that any spring flowering bulbs, such as Tulips and Narcissus are planted as soon as possible this month. Plant at three times the depth of the bulb and mark the position to avoid disturbance during the early spring tidy up!
2. Plant prepared Hyacinths and Narcissus ‘Paperwhite’ in pots to flower for Christmas. Leave them in a warm, dark place, such as an airing cupboard, until they begin to shoot then keep them in a light but cool place to grow away and form flower buds.
3. Continue to rake leaves from lawns and add to your compost heaps or compost in wire cages to produce leaf mould for acid loving plants such as Rhododendrons and Azaleas.
4. Cut down established herbaceous plants to 6cm and use a thickly spread mulch of rotted compost or bark to cover the border and protect the crowns of the plants from cold weather.
5. This is a good time of the year to plant new evergreen hedges, such as Prunus laureocerasus (Cherry Laurel) and conifers. Prepare the planting hole well and protect the plants from cold winds using windbreak material. Make sure the plants do not go short of water until they are established.
6. Visit your local garden centre to choose from the range of evergreen shrubs and conifers available to give you colour through the winter and also provide useful decoration for the house during the festive season.
7. Sow a couple of rows of winter hardy Broad Beans, such as ‘Aquadulce’, early peas and autumn onion sets in the kitchen garden to use some of the vacant space and get ahead for next year.
8. Prune old canes of Blackberries and autumn fruiting Raspberries to the ground and tie in any new canes to wires for fruiting next year.
9. Aerate your lawn if you have problem areas that get too wet. Use a hollow tined aerator or garden fork and brush grit and compost into the holes to improve drainage.
10. Think about protecting your containers and plants in them through the winter. Any empty containers should be moved to a frost free place. Planted containers should be wrapped in bubble wrap or fleece and moved to a sheltered part of the garden or the lee of the house away from cold winds.