November Gardening – What To Do In The Garden In November

“The wild November comes at last, Beneath a veil of rain…”  The weather so far this Autumn may have been very mild, but it’s also been incredibly wet and windy. November gardening this year sees us busily tidying up the garden for Winter, and planning ahead for next Spring. And there’s still lots to do as plants that would usually be dying back continue to flower happily, with new growth appearing daily – like the pretty Verbascums in this month’s cover picture. Welcome to my November horticultural update, let’s take a look at what to do in the garden this month.

What to do in the garden in November

As usual, I’m going to split my November gardening guide into flowers, vegetables, jobs, and wildlife for easier reading – please feel free to skip ahead to any sections of particular interest. And I’ll also be sharing my regular gardening tips for your November garden too, including how to put a garden to bed. Top tip: get yourself a cat to supervise your efforts.

November garden flowers – flowers that bloom in November

Due to the lack of cold weather (we’ve not had our first frost yet), we have a lot more flowers on show this month than usual. Not that I’m complaining, far from it – so here are the annuals and perennials lighting up our November garden. Starting with a recent purchase to brighten up our front door, a joyously seasonal red cyclamen.

Annuals

As my regular readers will know, annuals grow from seed, flower, set seed, and then die, all within one year’s growing season. First up we have our two lovely Malvas (Mallows). The paler beauty self-seeded from her parent (new this year) over by our smaller pond, and her darker sister self-seeded from the original plant we had some years ago. Plants for free, and edible ones too – we are very lucky.

We’re still enjoying rich November gardening colour from our blue Cornflowers and blue Borage*, the purple Petunias*, and my all-time favourite Spanish Lavender* – all sown from seed this year, and all edible too.

Technically, lavender is a perennial, but this is a very tender variety, so I sow afresh every year, just to be on the safe side. Spanish Lavender has the most incredible fragrance, not at all like the more common French or English varieties.

The last of the colourful annuals are the Cobea Scandens vine* (aka Cup and Saucer plant because of the shape of her petals and sepals), and the papery pink Helichrysums* with their leonine heads. Both will die off as soon as the freezing temperatures arrive, so we’re enjoying them while we can.

Perennials

Perennials are plants and shrubs that die back in Winter and come back again the following year – you can never have too many of these great value garden essentials. As epitomised by our fabulous Penhill Watermelon dahlia with her huge pink blooms, purple Verbena Bonariensis, and white Scabious in the flower bed.

Two more good reasons to plant lots of Verbena Bonariensis: one, they self-seed prolifically, giving you lots more plants for free, and two, they provide a valuable source of nectar for bees and butterflies at this time of year. And planting for pollinators is something we should all be doing as much of as possible.

I know I always harp on about the importance of dead heading your flowers, but this is why. Fresh blooms on our pink Echinaceas (Cone Flowers), and also our lilac Osteospermum (African Daisy) who’s started flowering again after a little break. Tip: spend just five minutes dead heading every day and look at the payback.

A testament to the unseasonably mild weather so far this Autumn, we’re seeing brand new rose buds and fully formed blooms on our plants in mid-November! So, I certainly won’t be pruning any of our roses while this is going on.

I’ve been religiously dead heading our Salvias to encourage repeat flowers, and don’t they look striking in their jewel-bright tones? Fun fact: the red flowering one is actually a potted Pineapple Sage herb that I let run wild. Originally the size of a supermarket Basil plant, left to her own devices in the flower bed, she’s now over 3 feet tall and wide, and features the most spectacular blooms!

It’s so important to have something that smells good in your garden, no matter the season. Fortunately, this is more than taken care of with our gloriously sweet-scented yellow Mahonia, which looks like a huge glowing candle flame, don’t you think? Not to be outdone, our Daphne Odora’s heady fragrance follows me all around our orchard. Fun fact: in Korea, Daphne Odora is also called “churihyang” – a thousand-mile scent.

I’ve written many times before about the reliability and beauty of our hardy purple Geranium Rozanne, and this year we’ve also planted one of her sister Cranesbills, the little Geranium x Oxonianum ‘Wargrave Pink’ with her luminous pale blooms. I don’t know which I prefer – what do you think?

New in our garden this year are the clouds of white Gaura Lindheimeri, also known as the Whirling Butterfly plant for obvious reasons. And my favourite Hydrangea is still lighting up our front door as she turns from brilliant white to a speckled pink.

Ivy is one of the most underrated plants in any garden, I think. She offers year-round shelter for bugs and birds, artfully disguises ugly fences and walls, and her sparkler-like flowers provide plentiful nectar for the bees. And the Hypericum is still thriving underneath the shade of Flora’s trampoline in the orchard. Also known as St John’s Wort, her berries are toxic to humans so we leave them for the birds instead.

November gardening is such a joy when you can take a moment to appreciate the changing colours of the leaves. Like this Clematis winding her way through the evergreen bush behind her, and our glorious Viburnum Opulus Roseum, aka the Snowball Bush thanks to her white pom-pom flowers that emerge in Spring.

Coming back to my all-time favourite, dahlia, the little neon pink Roxy. I was going to deadhead her, but instead was lucky enough to film this little bee. Tip: if you can’t be bothered to lift and store your dahlias somewhere dry overwinter, do what I do and simply cut them back to ground level then mulch them heavily to hibernate in peace.

As for what flowers to plant in November, it’s all about plenty of Spring bulbs for bursts of colour next year. I’ve finished planting my 350 alliums, gladioli, and narcissi, with 280 tulip bulbs still to go. I’m waiting for the first frost as tulips do better in colder ground, and feeling very grateful for my long handled bulb planter* which is one of the best garden tools for any gardener – remember, Black Friday is coming up 🙂  Tip: if you’re planting in pots, don’t let them get waterlogged over Winter, either keep them raised up on a ledge or pop them onto bricks so they don’t sit in puddles.

What to do in the vegetable garden in November

November jobs in your vegetable garden are about clearing and preparing your veg beds for new planting, especially as the soil is still warm. What are the best vegetables to plant in November? Broad beans* for early crops next Spring. I’ve just started mine off in Rootrainers* in the greenhouse to overwinter. Depending on how big they get, I may plant them out early next year and cover the tender new plants with cloches*, polytunnels*, or horticultural fleece* to protect them from frosts. The French beans have finished cropping now, so I’ll cut them down shortly, leaving the roots in situ to fix nitrogen in the soil for next year’s plants.

Other vegetables to try are garlic, shallots, and onions in free-draining soil or raised beds. And now is a great time to plant bare-root fruit trees, bushes, and canes while the soil is moist and warm, before the ground freezes. As for our current bushes, I’m still debating whether or not to try making green fig jam with all our unripe figs, but I’m definitely leaving all our sweet little seed-filled grapes on the vine for the birds 🙂

And I think we might get one last harvest of rhubarb as well as a tiny handful of strawberries before the end of this month – how amazing is that?

I’ve cleared the last apple and pear from our prolifically cropping fruit trees. Luckily, November is not too late to replace the grease bands* on our plum tree. It’s the best pest control to reduce the number of Winter moth caterpillars in Spring as the sticky bands stop the wingless females from climbing up tree trunks and laying eggs. There’s nothing worse than biting into a juicy fruit and finding a little wriggling guest 🙁 

Not really fruit or vegetables, but I didn’t know where else to write about all the wild fungi that’s sprouting underneath our old weeping pear tree and in our orchard. However, my Picture This plant i-d app (available on Apple and Google Play) says they are all toxic rather than edible, sadly.

November gardening jobs – things to do in your garden in November

First up on your November gardening to do list is lifting, dividing, and moving any perennial plants that look in need of a refresh. Many perennial plants need dividing every few years, partly because they get too overcrowded in their pots or borders, and partly to reinvigorate their roots. It’s also time to move any tender plants inside the house (pelargoniums) or into the greenhouse (potted fuchsias) to overwinter in peace. And to carry out some lawn edging to neaten up all our new herbaceous borders too.

This month sees the end to one of Alan’s regular gardening chores – mowing our lawn and orchard. Lawn care in November is easier now the grass growing season is over. He only needs to keep collecting up all the fallen leaves with his new leaf blower* and stuff them into biodegradable leaf sacks* to rot down into leaf mould. This is a brilliant – and free – organic matter soil conditioner for your garden plants.

Other November gardening jobs to add to your chores list include planting bare-root hedging, roses, trees and shrubs before the weather turns really cold, cutting down faded perennials that are looking tatty, then mulching the surrounding soil with garden compost or a thick layer of my favourite Strulch*. Straw + mulch = Strulch 🙂 Really, November is all about putting the garden to bed for Winter.

Regular readers of my garden blogs will know this has been my best ever year for sweet peas*. I experimented with sowing the seeds last November, so they could get their roots down and then grow away faster in Spring, producing earlier blooms. It was so successful that I’ve sown two seeds per cell in compost in some Rootrainers* to overwinter in the greenhouse again this year – fingers crossed.

Wildlife in your November garden

Alan is topping up our bird feeders daily with quality wild bird food* and high energy fat balls*, to make sure our feathered friends get a really good energy boost before Winter arrives. Although they also have plenty of berries and seeds to graze on in the rest of our garden – like these fluffy Clematis seedheads. Fun fact: when Clematis go to seed, they’re known colloquially as Old Man’s Beard!

And before it gets too cold, we’ll be placing footballs in the water, to prevent a solid edge-to-edge ice sheet forming and suffocating all the fish, frogs, newts and other water denizens of our ponds.

I talked about fallen leaves earlier, well here’s another tip for you: leave a few leaf piles in corners, for the hedgehogs to have somewhere to hibernate safely. We don’t burn our garden waste but if you do intend to light a bonfire, please check there are no hedgehogs hiding in your pile.

November gardening – a summary

And that’s the end of my November gardening update, and how we’re putting our garden and orchard to bed. Thank you for reading if you’re still with me, and I hope this blog post has given you some inspiration about what you can do in your own garden before Winter’s freezing temperatures arrive. Here’s one of my favourite quotes for the last days of Autumn in the meantime:

“Autumn, the season that teaches us that change can be beautiful.”

What did you like most about your virtual visit our November garden? What are you enjoying in your outside space this month? Which of my November gardening tips will you be trying?

* This post features affiliate links but all opinions are my own (see my Disclaimer).