“November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.”
– Cyde Watson
The clocks have changed, the days are short and the colour palette of our gardens has changed. Gone are the pastel summer colours and instead the oranges, reds and golds are triumphing.
- Cut peonies down to ground level, compost the stems and place a marker so that you don’t forget they are there and dig them up!
- November is the time to plant tulips. Mix and match the colours or combine colours that will clash to give impact to your display.
- It’s still not too late to plant daffodils and other spring flowering bulbs. Visit our blog for tips on naturalising your bulbs.
- Start planting bare-root roses, shrubs and trees.
- If you haven’t already done so, then sow some sweet peas in early November and your reward will be early blooms next year.
- Dahlias can be lifted and stored but only if the stems have been blackened by frost
- Rake leaves from the lawn and place in bags to make valuable leaf mould.
- If you’re lighting a bonfire on November 5th, or any other day, please do a hedgehog check first.
- Plant garlic and then cover with fleece to stop the birds pulling them up.
- For fresh winter salads sow some Leaf Salad Winter Mix and grow on a sunny windowsill
Christmas is coming!
Please don’t wince too hard at the mention of Christmas in early November. It will be here before you know it! On or around the 11th November our Christmas catalogue will be popping through your letterbox. Bursting with gift ideas for the gardeners in your life or perhaps for yourself. Our ever-popular Azalea Christmas trees are back and this year a white variety is available. Perfect for a festive table decoration.
Personalised wooden crates make a wonderful, quality gift and are available in 7 sizes and 6 colours! Do order early please to ensure the free personalisation can be completed ready for pre-Christmas delivery. There’s always a last minute rush.
With 47 pages full of gift ideas the Christmas catalogue is not to be missed. So much easier to shop from the comfort of your own home than to traipse around crowded shops. And, we’ll deliver to your door for just £4.99 – which is cheaper than most car parks!
Competition Winners
We have some exciting announcements this month with the winners of two of our growing competitions.
Tallest Sunflower
This years winner was Valerie Briggs who grew a very impressive 4.60 metre tall sunflower. Valerie’s prize was the height of her sunflower in pound coins amounting to a very cool £1,417. You can find out more and view all of the entries here.
Longest Tromboncino
This weird and wacky vegetable is a type of squash and we received some very interesting photos of these being grown. All manner of shapes and sizes were sent in but it was Eric Gillespie’s tromboncino that grew to just over 5 feet in length that has won Eric the Suttons Longest Tromboncino trophy.
Blog Reminders
In case you missed last month’s blogs you can find them by clicking on any or all of the following titles:
Good to see the reminder about checking for hedgehogs before lighting a bonfire.
Hedgehogs are in decline so also check to see that their ‘motorways’ between gardens are operational and your neighbours have not blocked them off. Gaps of at least 6 inches (15cms) square are suitable, spaced around the garden boundaries,
If you are bored during the winter why not knock up some wooden tunnels – they apparently like dark tunnels and these would alert your neighbours to the hedgehog ‘motorways.
For frogs, don’t be too enthusiastic about cutting down perennials such as the larger geraniums, frogs hibernate in such plants.
Both hedgehogs and frogs are valuable friends in the garden.
As a newbie gardener I really enjoy your nrwsletters – so refreshing that they are full of actual gardening advice for each month and not – ” Hey it’s November you need to buy this and these and those ” like some I have been sent . They are informative and reassuring – keep up the good work – I’m off to plant my tulips as instructed .