Our Garden Maintenance Tips For November

Winter is approaching ..

It’s getting colder and wetter as we draw into November. Trees are putting on their autumn displays and winter stems start to come into their own. As autumn turns to winter, your main jobs in the garden are mostly about protecting plants and structures from the wilder weather to come.

Looking after your lawn

Aerate your lawn now before winter sets in. Either use a lawn aerator / Scarifier or simply insert a garden fork at regular intervals and lean it back slightly to let air in.

Continue to clear fallen leaves off the lawn to keep it healthy using a light rake.

Set your lawn mower to a higher cut-height for winter.

Edge your lawn. This is easy to do in the winter months once beds are clear. Lawn edging creates a neat and tidy appearance and makes maintenance easier throughout the year.

Other jobs in the garden

Reuse spent compost from annual container displays as a mulch on your garden beds and borders.

Build a cold frame to protect young plants from extreme winter weather.

Sweep up debris and fallen leaves from paths and beds to prevent fungal spores, slugs and snails from overwintering.

Keep an eye on your potted conifers. Tall varieties may need staking for added security in exposed, windy gardens.

Lift and relocate plants if you need to when they are dormant.

Create bins for composting fallen leaves and dead plant material. Oak, alder and hornbeam will rot down in a year but beech, sycamore, horse chestnut and sweet chestnut will take a couple of years to compost. Shred fallen leaves to help them rot down even more quickly. A quick way to do this is to mow through leaves on the lawn using a rotary mower with a collection box.

Start a bonfire heap with twigs and pruning’s. Make sure you check for hedgehogs before lighting your bonfire.

Net ponds to prevent leaves falling into them. If you need to clear pond weed, lay it next to the pond for a day after removal, to allow wildlife to escape back to the water.

Clean out water butts and let the autumn rains refill them. Install a new waterbutt ready for next year.

Use the last of the dry weather to paint sheds and fences with preservatives before the winter arrives.

Give evergreen hedging a final trim before the bad weather sets in, so they look neat and tidy for the winter.

Book a Winter Service for your mower

Have you considered investing in a Scarifier to aerate your lawn or a Chainsaw to make light work of your firewood preparation?

Enjoy your winter garden and plan ahead for the spring!

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