This Month in Your Garden - NOVEMBER

Keep digging!

Any areas not dug over should be finished with soil still workable and areas such as the vegetable plot freed up. Ground turned over will benefit from the action of the weather with frosts through winter. Work in manure and fertiliser as required. 

Finish tidying herbaceous borders and pruning bush and standard roses. 

Carry on planting trees and shrubs. You can plant tulip bulbs, preferably after the other spring bulbs have gone in. 

In early November use a bulb planter and plant the tulips on a layer of coarse grit in a sunny position to flower in the spring. 

Lilies can go in anytime between now and April. 

Prune deciduous hedges. Climbing plants such as honeysuckles and clematis, jasmines and ornamental vines supplied in pots can be given a soaking in tepid water in a bucket before planting. Loosen the roots once the pot is removed. 

Give the greenhouse a good clean and wash. 

Bare rooted roses can be carefully planted now in thoroughly prepared ground. It’s a good month to pot deciduous shrubs for early flowering in the greenhouse. Tend plants growing in frames, protecting from frost. 

• Lift early-flowering chrysanthemums you want to store in a cool greenhouse 

• Pot deciduous shrubs such as hydrangeas, deutzias and lilacs to early flower in the greenhouse 

• Plant hyacinths 

• Protect alpines by placing glass over them supported on bent pieces of wire, keeping the sides open for air circulation 

• Prune roses 

• Insulate the greenhouse, bubble wrap will help retain heat 

• Protect frames and plants from frost 

• Wrap outdoor containers in sacking to insulate them