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Before talking about November I must say what a fantastic month October turned out to be. After such a long hot and dry summer the garden burst into flower in October. The roses gave a great Autumn show and the perennials have finally caught up after the summer and will hopefully continue until the first hard frost. The runner beans produced a massive crop in the first half of the month and couldn’t be picked quick enough before going stringy. Lawns are improving but have taken a hammering this year and will take a bit of time in the Spring to come good.
Aim to complete planting spring bulbs in November with Tulips the last to go in and complete winter bedding and containers. Continue with tidying the entire garden, pruning back perennials and sweeping up leaves as the weather permits. If your roses had blackspot then discard the leaves and do not compost. This is also a good month to plant bare-rooted trees, shrubs and roses.
Start lifting parsnips after the first frost as this converts the starch into sugar and gives them a sweet flavour. Also divide mature clumps of rhubarb once they are dormant. Prune apples and pears but do not touch plums (winter pruning encourages disease). Tidy up the greenhouse, prune the hedges and light the fire.
That’s about it for me in the garden unless the weather stays unusually good in which case I will do some fence repairs. So it is time to reflect back on the year and start making plans for next year. Firstly, I have had it with tomatoes after another poor year. Germination was slow in the spring and the seedlings struggled to gain any size and like last year hormonal damage produced distorted plants with little flower. The spring onions also failed with virtually no germination. The marrows were great but produced such a glut that I do not know what to do with it all, so time to cut back on the number of seedlings. This will create extra space to try some sweetcorn next year and I will go for a super sweet variety. I am also growing suspicious of some seed suppliers as seed only remains viable for a limited time, so I am changing to DT Brown.
The new perennials finally came good in the Autumn but again poor seed germination has resulted in fewer plants than expected and in some cases no plants at all. So it is time to switch to plug plants for flowers and increase numbers from cuttings.
One last project is to consider ground cover for the shady patches underneath the shrubs which isn’t as easy as it may sound and will require lubrication of the brain cells.
We are always looking for new members and try to encourage a fun attitude towards friendly competition. So if you want to grow your own fruit, vegetables and flowers or even enter any of the 3 shows we hold each year, then please get in touch, we would be happy to hear from you.
If you are interested in becoming a new member, (all ages are welcome), please contact Rosey on: 01634 377812 (evenings) or Email: rosemary@ringwoodaccounting.co.uk
Sean Barry - Upchurch Horticultural Society
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