This Month in your Garden - November

Carry on gardening

Why not make the first satisfying job this month one of planting tulips in what will be the sunniest spot. They like heavy soil lightened with some coarse grit and will reward you next spring with their variety and colour, especially when planted in a scheme with wallflowers and pansies.

Lilies can also be planted out now. Laying them on their sides on some sharp sand in the planting hole will aid drainage.

Prune roses now and plant bare-rooted roses along with honesuckles (Lonicera), clematis and jasmines, deciduous and coniferous hedges and winter bedding. Carry on clearing up the leaves, especially from the lawn, pond and any beds where they would smother young plants. If you have more digging to do, go for it now before the ground gets too hard and you can still easily work in manure and compost. Start a regime of protecting susceptible plants from frost, bringing fuchsias, argyranthemums and pelargoniums into the conservatory or greenhouse.

Now is the last planting of anemone tubers, pansies, irises, Sweet William and Canterbury bells and sowing cyclamen seeds for next year. If you have lifted dahlia tubers shake off the soil, turn them upside down and place them in trays somewhere frost-free to let any water drain from them. Once they dry out they can be stored in boxes of dry compost ready for next year. Compost your waste garden vegetation including vegetables, spent plants and final mowing clippings. Compost leaves separately because they take a lot longer to mulch down. Stop feeding plants now as they are no longer growing and keep an eye open for diseases that become prevalent on plants at this time of year, such as mildew and black spot.

• Raise containers onto pot feet or bricks to prevent waterlogging
• Apply an autumn mulch to more delicate hardy plants such as Agapanthus and Kniphofia
• Dig flower beds when you can to let winter frosts break down the soil
• Lift and store cannas, tuberous begonias, dahlias
• Lift and divide overgrown herbaceous perennials
• Put out bird food
• Order seed catalogues
• Last chance to lay turf in prepared areas
• Sow sweet peas in pots
• Plant containers for winter colour