
After an unforgivable delay here is an update on what to do each month in the garden....
November is when you start to put much of the garden to bed for the winter; there is a lot to do, and the more you do between now and the end of the year, the better the results will be in 2025. Here is what we will be getting on with:
The big hedge cut back.
Although minor hedge and shrub trimming take place throughout the year it is now that we do our big annual cut back. This is the one time of year where I get professional help as it is a heavy job and it requires stamina and the right machinery. Charles, our local paysagiste, arrives and gives the laurel hedging, Italian cypress and several wayward deciduous shrubs their annual cut. He also removes the outer limits of the wisteria (but does not give it the the major prune, which I do in February) and takes back the Virginia creeper to about a metre below roof level. (We grow Parthnocissus tricuspidata which is best at clinging to the walls). This takes him a day - it would take me a week. He also takes all of the resulting debris to the déchetterie. He does not cut back our Cornus alba - a dogwood which has wonderful red stems in the winter. We grow this for its winter colour and it is planted so that it catches the afternoon sun and stands out against the monochrome shades of winter days.
Raking leaves
I always think that the point just before the leaves fall off the trees is the moment when the garden looks at its worst all year. Bedraggled, wet and untidy. Once the leaves come down I can rake them all up, we run over them with the lawn tractor to chop them up and I then use them as a mulch under the shrub border which borders the hedging. I do not leave them to rot down into leaf mould - which is what you are supposed to do - as I find that getting them onto the soil now stops weed growth and, because they are chopped and mixed with a few grass cuttings, they rot down rapidly and benefit the soil.

The traditional thing is to store all your non-leathery leaves in a wire sided bin or black bin bags for a year and then use the resulting leaf mould, which is like black gold, in the garden or as potting compost.
Chop, weed and compost
Once the leaves are safely out of the way the garden starts to take on that sharper, more austere appearance of winter. Chop back any dead and rotting perennial stems but leave beautiful grasses and seed-heads. Compost the remains along with any annual weeds.

There goes the sedum (now called hylotelephium, just to make things confusing) chopped up and ready to compost.
Deep rooted perennial weeds and things like couch grass and convolvulus should be destroyed or taken to the déchetterie. Cut back the old leaves of hellebores and destroy these in a similar manner as they may be infected with hellebore leaf spot. With a bit of luck you will then be left with a clean soil surface between your tidied up shrubs and perennials - which is just begging to be mulched. I tend to mulch as I go along, because it can be quite heavy work - but I will deal with the topic in more detail next month as it is a really under appreciated garden task and is something you can do in stages throughout the winter.

Gravel mulch - the early stages of my plans for a gravel bed next year
Plant tulips
Tulip bulbs are planted later than other bulbs. You can put them in borders or in pots and species tulips can even go into grassland where they will multiply over the years. I tend to plant tulips in pots in their first year and then keep the bulbs until the following year when I put them into the borders and just see what comes up. As I frequently forget to label the stored bulbs it is quite exciting seeing what colour combinations are going to manifest themselves around the garden the following spring.
In the potager
Remove the last of the courgettes, pumpkins, squashes and any summer herbs and vegetables. Compost the remains. Ensure pumpkins and squashes are hardened off in a sunny spot before storing them in a frost free corner of your barn or shed along with sweet potatoes. You can use them for months if they have been carefully dried or hardened off before storing. Pick the final chillis and remove the plants. Chillis freeze extremely well and I find I can take one out of the freezer, to use immediately, when ever I want to.

This chilli - piccante a mazzetti - has been our most successful for the last two years. It looks pretty, grows really well and is not too strong, but still has a punch, especially if you also use the seeds.
Clear the soil of weeds and general detritus and either dig it over or add a layer of mulch if you use a no-dig method.
We are now harvesting and cooking leeks, rainbow chard, parsnips, autumn salads, cavolo nero, borcole (Russian Kale), horseradish and the final radishes and raspberries along with herbs such as parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme and chives.
This month I will be planting garlic. You can read more about how to plant garlic here:
Moving bare rooted trees and shrubs
If you plan to move any young trees and shrubs in the garden (I frequently plant something in the wrong place) now is the time to do it. Make moving any young evergreen shrubs your priority in the early part of this month as the soil is not yet too cold and the plant has the whole of the winter period to establish its roots in a new environment before rapid growth starts next spring. You can of course move, and plant bare rooted deciduous trees and shrubs (including) roses throughout the winter, but I do think that the earlier you do it the better.
Well.... these are my ambitions for November. Fingers crossed I achieve most if not all of them.
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