by Justine Hutchinson
November is that rather bittersweet time of year when we start putting our gardens to bed for the winter
Lots of cutting back, sweeping up, mulching and tidying of garden sheds and greenhouses to be done. And of course, while the soil’s still warm enough, a last minute bit of planting to be squeezed in.
Sowing & Growing
This is the perfect time to sow a first batch of sweet peas. There’s a fantastic choice of seeds out there, and sowing in autumn so your plants can toughen up outdoors under cover over winter will ensure strong, abundant plants come spring.
I have a few firm favourite suppliers I turn to for my peas. They’re all small operation seed-smiths, often breeding their own special varieties.
While occasionally their websites may be unglossy and clunky (because websites just aren’t their thing!), the quality of their seed is great, you’ll be supporting independent, British businesses, and your sweet pea trellis won’t bear the same old, same old blooms that everyone else has. Try Roger Parsons – rpsweetpeas.com the holder of the National Collection of Sweet Peas; David Matthewman – sweetpeasonline.co.uk – a multi-gold-award-winner at Chelsea with over 40 years experience; and English Sweet Peas – englishsweetpeas.co.uk.
Sweet Peas
To successfully sow and nurture your peas through to late-spring planting out time:
- Pop one seed into a Rootrainer cell filled with a peat-free, multi-purpose compost, or 5 – 6 seeds into an approximately 12cm diameter pot
- Sow about ¼ inch or ½ cm deep
- Once your seeds are sown, don’t firm down the compost too much. Instead, settle the soil by watering with a fine watering can rose.
- Don’t cover your seeds or use a heat mat or propagator to achieve germination. If it’s still relatively warm outside, place your newly sown peas straight into a cold frame or cold greenhouse and germination should take place in a couple of weeks
- If you’re sowing towards the end of November and the temps have dropped, it might be worth germinating your seeds indoors on a sunny windowsill before transferring them outdoors as soon as the young shoots start to appear
- Keep an eye on the moisture levels of the compost: it should be kept slightly on the dry side after the first watering, since overly damp soil will encourage fungal infection such as damping off disease
- Wherever your peas are, do remember to protect against pesky mice and slugs, and ensure they get lots of light
- Sweet peas don’t mind the cold and will even tolerate a light frost. However, if your peas are in a cold frame and hard frosts or very cold temperatures are predicted (-5C or lower), ensure the frame’s lights are closed and add some lagging like bubble wrap or newspaper. Leave the lagging in place until the temperatures have risen and the seedlings have had time to thaw. Also remember to protect your seedlings from strong winds.
Bulbs in pots
Now to spring bulb ‘lasagnes’… November is the last chance to create your lasagnes for pots of bountiful gorgeousness from early next year. Some people like to plant bulbs of the same variety in one container (say, several types of narcissi or several types of tulip), but I like to layer up bulbs of different sorts. For my bulb lasagnes, I pop a layer of narcissus bulbs at the bottom, followed by one of tulips, then iris reticulata, and lastly crocuses or muscari. To create a bulb lasagne:
- Choose a large pot with good drainage holes (one large pot with spectacular display always looks better, to my mind, than lots of little pots with reduced displays and a rather cluttery feel). Place your pot on feet
- Pop in some broken crocks and pebbles for added drainage, then add a layer of compost up to about the one third mark of your container
- Choose compost especially for containers and baskets, since this has a higher nutrient quotient than standard multi-purpose compost
- Next add your largest and longest-flowering bulbs: in my case this would daffs/narcissi. Place the bulbs close together – roughly a bulb’s width apart – and top with another compost layer
- Lay over that your next-size-up bulbs – tulips for example – cover with soil and continue, finishing with your smallest bulbs and a final layer of compost
- Once everything’s nicely tucked in, you might either top the whole lot with something like winter-flowering pansies to see you through to spring (remove these once they are spent to give your first round of bulbs room to breath), or you might simply sprinkle over some horticultural grit to help with the slugs and snails once the new shoots start to appear. And voila!
- If you live somewhere where the blasted squirrels do blasted squirrelly things, wrap a layer of chicken wire over the top of your planters to prevent a bulb massacre. Crocuses, in particular, are like little sugar bombs for tree rodents. (As a side note, I did try one tip of using a spread of thorny rose clippings instead of chicken wire as a preventative measure. Needless to say, this did not work and the squirrels just laughed!)
Bare Root Plants
Autumn is the time when your bare root rose and hedging orders will start to arrive. Plant your bare roots straight out into the ground as per their accompanying instructions. If the ground’s frozen or saturated, temporarily ‘heel’ the plants into an area of free-draining soil or place them in pots with soil until you’re ready to move them to their permanent positions.
Pruning & Other Jobs
Prune back to approximately waist-high your rose shrubs. Don’t worry too much about carefully shaping them at this time: you’re going to prune them more precisely in a few months. This is simply to prevent wind rock during the upcoming winter storms.
Tie in any long, whippy shoots of climbers.
Cut down to the ground any hardy perennials which are dying back, such as garden phlox and peonies. Do bear in mind, however, that some perennials prefer not to be pruned until spring. Penstemon and many salvias, for instance, can be slightly finicky when it comes to frosts, and benefit from their growth being left in situ during the colder months to protect their crowns.
Lift and divide any perennials that flower before midsummer, such as aquilegias and lupins. Perennials which flower after midsummer – rudbeckia and heleniums, for instance – should be split in the spring.
As you go about putting your garden to bed, make notes of any changes or additions you’d like to make next spring.
Continue sweeping up all the fallen leaves and add to your compost. A Pro Tip from one of our landscaper’s, Dan… It helps speed up the composting process if you blow the leaves into a pile on the lawn first, run the mower over them to chop them up, and then transport to your composting area.
Please do remember to clear any fallen detritus from around the bases of your fruit trees and roses. This will help with disease prevention and stop slugs and snails from overwintering. If any leaves show signs of blackspot or rust, throw them out rather than adding them to the compost.
If you haven’t already, tie some grease bands around your fruit tree trunks. These protectors prevent crawling pests such as winter moths, weevils and ants from clambering up the trunk ready to attack your tree as soon as new buds start appearing in spring.
Add several layers of mushroom compost to your dahlia beds if you’re leaving your dahlias in situ. Also generously compost over tender perennials. Agapanthus, for instance, really does benefit from an extra blanket of mulch at this time of year, whether that be compost, straw or even small bark chippings. To do this, cut back and clear away any deciduous foliage once it’s dead and mulch around the plant to a depth of at least 3 inches / 8 cm, pulling away any mulch from the susceptible-to-rot centre. Think tucking in rather than swamping your plant. If necessary, the mulch can be removed in spring.
Have fun in the garden, Everyone!
