What to do in the garden in November:

What to do in the garden in November:

Early winter is a time for planning, and for making sure your garden is tucked up snugly for its winter rest. Here are your jobs to get on with this month:

General tasks:

• Clean nest boxes removing old nesting material which can harbour parasites. Give bird baths and feeders a good scrub too.
• Check bonfires for hibernating hedgehogs, moving established heaps to a new site before setting light to them.

Ornamental garden:

• Protect delicate plants likely to suffer in frosty weather, like cistus and fuchsia, tucking bracken or straw around their bases.
• Protect fastigiate (columnar) conifers from snow damage by loosely wrapping them with wire so branches aren't forced out of shape.
• Plant tulips in generous drifts, each bulb about 7.5cm apart and 15cm deep, adding a handful of coarse grit to planting holes to help drainage

Kitchen garden:

• Plant gooseberry bushes, available now from our garden centre - you can fit them into even the smallest gardens trimmed into cordons and trained against a fence.
• Plant garlic spacing cloves about 15cm apart and sinking them into the ground so the tips are just below the surface.
• Net Brussels sprouts and cabbages to keep off hungry pigeons, though check regularly to make sure birds aren't getting trapped.