Here are my gardening tips for November.  First lets talk about autumn gardening or is it winter gardening now? I never quite know! 

Whatever the season, it has been an unusually mild early autumn so far.  Great for late harvests of autumn raspberries but also good for slugs! I’ve suddenly started to see damage on my autumn planted vegetables.  If these pests are still causing your plants grief then it would be worth using the biological control nematodes, whilst the soil is still warm enough. I have some in the fridge ready to apply as soon as I have a moment.

You might think its too late so why bother? But I still do it to help reduce the population that is around next spring. The great thing is, it is easy to apply (I use a watering can with a coarse rose) and totally harmless to wildlife, pets and humans.  Because the soil is pretty moist too, and more rain is forecast over the next few weeks, it’ll be easy to keep the soil moist enough for them to be really effective. Check out this to get your supply Nemaslug

Planting Apples & Pears

I love this time of year as there is always a plentiful supply of apples and pears for munching on or, in the case of the cookers, making into a whole host of delicious desserts.

If you’ve not got any fruit trees and could possibly find the space in your garden, then why not plant a few? As soon as the trees are adequately dormant, growers will lift them from the fields where they are grown and sell them as ‘bare root’ plants.

As far as I’m concerned, this is definitely the best way to buy fruit trees and there are some really good specialist fruit nurseries to choose from.  They invariably have a brilliant range AND can offer advice on what to choose. If you’re not lucky enough to have one locally, most do mail order and will have really helpful websites or catalogues. Bare root fruit planted over the winter months and into very early spring always establishes well for me – and often costs considerably less that a fruit tree purchased in a pot. So great if you are gardening on a budget.

Night time temperatures are starting to tumble (albeit in an erratic sort of way!) so don’t forget that it only takes one short spell of cold or worse still, frost, to do a lot of damage to tender growth. The mild start to autumn means there may well be more vulnerable growth than usual as many plants put on late flushes of tender, new growth. So keep checking the weather forecast and be ready with the fleece cover-ups. The Easy Fleece Jackets are a real time-saver as the drawstring closures and sewn sides of the ’bags’ make them so easy to use, and certainly a lot easier than metres of fleece combined with clothes pegs and/string!

I hope the weather continues to stay mild and you enjoy my gardening tips for November.  Happy gardening everyone!