Gardening jobs this month: November

From Prima gardening expert Ann-Marie Powell:

■ Plant tulip bulbs. Read: how to plant tulips
■ Apply a thick mulch to your borders, especially over less hardy plants, such as agapanthus and kniphofia.
■ Plant garlic cloves if you're in an area with a mild climate. Read: how to plant garlic
■ Dig over empty borders, particularly in the vegetable plot, so frost can help break down large clods of earth.
■ Bring some herbs into the kitchen to use over winter.
■ Plant winter bedding plants such as wallflowers, winter pansies and forget-me-nots.
■ Continue lifting, splitting and replanting overgrown clumps of herbaceous perennials.
■ Cut back pelargoniums and keep them in the greenhouse over winter ready for planting out next spring.
■ Keep clearing up fallen autumn leaves from the lawn and flowerbeds.
■ Prune back shrub roses to prevent their shallow roots from being lifted in strong winter winds.
■ Plant roses. Read more on growing roses

From Country Living gardening editor Stephanie Donaldson:

Garden care
■ Bring forced bulbs inside once the buds are 5cm high. Stand the bowls in a cool place and turn by a quarter each day to ensure even growth.
■ Dig compost or manure into your kitchen garden or sow green manures such as field beans.
■ Protect clay pots from another hard winter by removing saucers and standing on feet or bricks
■ Net brassicas to defend them from pigeons
■ Clean greenhouses and cold-frame glass
■ On fine days, ventilate the greenhouse to help prevent a build-up of pests or diseases.

Tidying
■ Remove decaying plants and leaves from ponds.
■ Tidy messy areas of the garden now that everything has died back and revealed where attention is needed.
■ Clean cold frame glass and greenhouse windows; light levels are low enough without added grime.
■ Collect and burn all the leaves from beneath your roses to control disease.
■ Rake up all the other leaves and stack in a wire netting bin or in black plastic bags.
■ If the weather allows, hoe weeds before they take hold.
■ Remove bindweed by digging up plants to untangle its roots.
■ Clean out birds' nesting boxes - wear gloves to avoid any parasites.
■ Check stored vegetables and fruit. Remove bad ones.

Pruning
■ After stormy weather, check for broken branches and stems, and prune back to healthy wood to prevent further damage.
■ Lightly prune roses to prevent wind rock.
■ Resist pruning hydrangeas - the dead flowers will protect bulbs from the frost.
■ Cut back flowering shrubs and tall roses by half to reduce wind damage over winter.

Planting and sowing
■ Plant garlic now so over-winter chilling encourages bulb formation. Read: how to plant garlic
■ Dig over next year’s runner-bean trench.
■ Net brassicas before the pigeons find them.
■ November is the best month to plant tulip bulbs. Plant them as deep as possible for a better chance of them flowering again in future years, but if the ground is too wet, plant in black plastic pots for transplanting in the new year. Bury holly leaves with bulbs if squirrels are a problem
■ Plant new hedges. Work compost and bonemeal or a similar slow-release fertiliser into the soil to ensure they establish well. Read: how to plant and lay a hedge
■ Plant bare-root and container-grown trees and bare-root roses.
■ Plant wallflowers without delay.
■ This is the best month to plant soft-fruit bushes. Check they are certified virus-free before buying.
■ Sow broad beans and peas. Soak seeds in liquid seaweed to deter mice.
■ Sow sweet peas in a cold greenhouse. Read: how to grow sweet peas

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