ENGLISH COTTAGE CHIC GARDENING
providing a traditional and reliable gardening service
Website updated: 9th November 2025
Garden Jobs for November
"November’s garden rests beneath a quilt of fallen leaves, dreaming of the blooms that spring will bring."
November has come around and soon it will be the time to put away the mower for the winter, plant tulips and sharpen secateurs and shears, a time to make the most of the beautiful late-autumn foliage. Frosts will come and do their work, and most plants are resting and becoming dormant for the winter.
There is, however, still plenty to do if you fancy getting a bit of fresh air. Everything will set the garden in good stead for the coming spring.
Lawn Care
By mid-November, the lawn will need less frequent cutting, though an occasional tidy-up may still be necessary. Clean the underside of the mower, removing dried clippings, and empty the collecting bag before storing it for winter. If the ground is dry enough, aerate the lawn using a fork or aerator to improve drainage and airflow before frost sets in. Importantly if there is frost or snow do not walk on your lawn as it will cause damage to the grass.
Containers and Pots
Prevent pots from becoming waterlogged by raising them off the ground with bricks or pot feet. This helps protect roots from rot and frost damage.
Roses
Prune roses to half their height to prevent wind-rock and protect roots from loosening in strong winds. Remove any fallen leaves around the base of rose bushes that suffered from blackspot or rust to reduce the risk of reinfection next year.
Borders and Beds
Continue gathering fallen leaves and tidying borders. Clear away old stems and dead foliage and lightly fork over the soil around plants to refresh the appearance of the garden. Cut back yellowing foliage of herbaceous perennials and divide overcrowded clumps to maintain their vigour.
Tie in the long whippy shoots of climbers and wall shrubs to prevent them from being blown about and damaged in any windy weather.
Cut back ornamental grasses this month as they can become untidy as the winter months progress.
Vegetable Patch
As summer crops are cleared, enrich the soil by mulching with organic matter such as garden compost or spent mushroom compost. Apply a 5 cm layer and allow worms to incorporate it naturally into the soil. Turn compost heaps made since late summer to speed decomposition and improve quality by introducing oxygen and breaking up lumps.
Sowing and Planting
- Broad Beans:Sow in deep module trays so seedlings reach about 5cm by the new year. Deep trays accommodate their long roots. If using a greenhouse, sow until mid-November and plant out before or after Christmas for an early crop.
- Garlic:Plant cloves 10cm apart in rows 30cm apart. Garlic benefits from a cold period to develop properly.
- Tulips:November is ideal for planting tulips, as cool, moist conditions reduce the risk of fungal disease. Choose firm, healthy bulbs and plant them two to three times their depth.
- Rhubarb:Divide mature clumps once dormant to rejuvenate growth.
- Bare root hedging: Plant while it is in a dormant state, anytime between mid-November and the end of February.
- Relocation:Move dormant plants now if they need repositioning.
Compost and Mulch
Turn heaps of compost made since late summer to speed breakdown and improve quality. It is hard work but makes a worthwhile difference as it speeds up decomposition. It only needs to be done once and is a way of introducing oxygen to the heap. This feeds the bacteria, which promotes further decomposition. It’s also a good opportunity to break up any lumps you find and mix the ingredients. The easiest way to do it is to dig out the whole heap with a fork and move it into an empty neighbouring bin.
Reuse spent compost from annual containers as mulch on beds and borders to improve soil structure and retain moisture.
Fruit Trees
Prune apple and pear trees anytime between mid-November and February while they are dormant. Avoid pruning plum trees during this period to prevent disease.
May I close with a thought: November may be cold and quiet, but the work done now — tidying, planting, and preparing — lays the foundation for a healthy, vibrant garden in the spring.
As always, I wish you happy gardening.
Rog,
English Cottage Chic Gardening.
The above is written by Rog Leppard, owner of English Cottage Chic Gardening, a professional gardener and gardening writer based in Ashurst Bridge, Hampshire.
Website: www.english-cottage-chic.co.uk
A few gardening thoughts for October
October is a beautiful month of autumnal colours and first frosts. Crisp, blue-sky days are the perfect time to tidy up and cut back in the garden
There’s a lot you can do in the garden in October, whether that’s making your garden look better, harvesting crops or planting something new.
Make sure you care for your lawn by raking or brushing leaves off the grass. Try collecting the leaves in a leaf bag, which will turn them into leaf mould – a useful and versatile soil conditioner.
Depending on the weather, you can also cut the grass for the final time of the year at the end of October. Make sure that the last cut is slightly higher than during the summer months – this will help to protect your lawn from winter frost damage.
Aerate your lawn with a garden fork to avoid waterlogging and compaction over winter,
Rake any thatch from the surface and repair dead patches. There's still time to lay fresh turf if required. Apply an autumn lawn food to help strengthen your lawn ready for the coming winter.
Continue to plant spring flowering bulbs in beds and borders. For best effect plant bulbs in groups of 5, 7 or 9, tucked into gaps generated in the border as perennial plants are cut back for the winter. Early flowering spring bulbs, such as daffodils and crocus benefit from being planted now, whilst tulips can wait until November if you are busy. Plant them at a depth equal to twice the height of the bulb.
October is definitely the time for clearing up – greenhouses, ponds, gutters and water butts may all need cleaning out. Wooden garden furniture will need covering or storing away for the winter and terracotta pots will need bringing inside, so that they don’t freeze and crack. If you don’t already have a compost heap or bin October is a great time to start one, with all the leaves and cuttings to be disposed of.
Make sure that you trim your hedges so that they are crisp and tidy for the winter months. Sharp edges will look very impressive when coated in frost in winter.
If you still have green tomatoes on your plants, pick them and ripen them indoors by putting them in a paper bag with a banana or an apple. The fruit releases ethylene, which promotes ripening.
Harvest the last of your french and runner beans, then cut the plants back to ground level and leave the roots in the soil to release their stored nitrogen.
Plant onions, shallots and garlic, and sow hardy peas like ‘Avola’ or ‘Meteor’. Garlic is best planted in autumn. Plant it in your vegetable patch with the pointed ends up, just below the soil surface and spaced 10cm apart.
Fill pots with violas, cyclamens and other winter bedding plants to give you colour through the winter months.
Cut tall shrub roses down by half to stop them from being damaged by high winds in winter, and prune rambling roses if not already done.
Cut back perennials as they fade but leave a few hollow flower stems and seedheads standing if you can provide food for birds and homes for overwintering insects.
Protect half-hardy plants with fleece or bring them into a frost-free greenhouse.
Lift dahlia tubers, begonia tubers and gladioli corms to store over the winter months. Remove any dead foliage before storing them.
This month is the ideal time to plant hedges and move and plant new trees and shrubs allowing them to establish over the winter months.
Clean out water butts and let the autumn rains refill them. Install a new water butt ready for next year.
Plant biennials now, such as sweet, scented stocks, foxgloves and honesty for strong statuesque plants to carry masses of flower early in the spring
The simplest method of clearing leaves off the lawn is to run over them with a lawn mower The cutting action of the mower blades will help to shred the leaves and make them quicker to rot down. Collect leaves this way once a week - any longer and the grass will start to grow long and get harder to cut. For clearing patios, paths and other surfaces, a leaf blower is a better bet. Either blow the leaves onto the lawn for the mower to pick up or blast them on to a tarpaulin and drag them to the compost heap.
As the garden is tidied in preparation for winter, lots of material is generated for composting. To encourage it to rot down quickly, turn the contents regularly to stir it up and allow in lots of air. In the colder weather, the rate of decomposition will naturally decrease, but it will soon speed up during warmer spells.
Weeds will still be germinating and growing strongly in mild periods of weather, so be vigilant and remove them when you see them. Try to dig them out rather than pulling them up, as you’re more likely to kill them off permanently.
Dividing perennials regularly will ensure healthy, vigorous plants that will continue to perform year after year. It also offers the opportunity to multiply your plants.
As always, I wish you happy gardening.
Rog
The above is written by Rog Leppard, owner of English Cottage Chic Gardening, a professional gardener and gardening writer based in Ashurst Bridge.
Website: www.english-cottage-chic.co.uk
SEPTEMBER GARDENING JOBS
Hello,
The shortening days are a sure sign that the year is moving on into Autumn, and as always there are still plenty of gardening jobs to keep your garden in decent shape. I love this time of year, with the lower sun and it is warm, spectacular sunsets of orange, scarlet and pink. As the leaves start turning on some trees toward the end of the month, the colour palette around us is more varied than any other time of year.
September brings a coolness and a wetter month than we have become use to. September is also a month where we all need to make the most of the suns remaining warmth.
As the month progresses and the temperature drops, summer bedding will start to wither by the wayside. Remove dying leaves, stems and weeds from your borders, and if it is not diseased or full of pests add it to the compost heap. Fork over the soil and if possible, enrich it with well-rotted manure, compost or dig in some chicken manure pellets. You can now either let your flower beds lie fallow through winter or plant spring bedding and bulbs.
It is the month to start planting spring bulbs for next year but please leave the tulip bulbs to late October / November, as they grow better when planted later.
Below is a selection of spring bulbs to plant in September and the month in which they will flower.
Jan/Feb. Snowdrops and, Cyclamen – (possibly best planted as a plant, but you can find cyclamen corms to plant now)
March / Apr. Daffodils - Narcissus come in all shapes and sizes, as well as different shades of yellow, even pure white. I personally love ‘Thalia,’ ‘Geranium’ ‘Jonquilla Pueblo,’ ‘Tete a Tete,’ Narcissus bulbocodium ‘White Petticoat.’
Crocus – best planted in a sheltered area because wind and rain can cause them to flop.
May / early-June:
Alliums – most alliums will flower between May and early June depending on the variety. Look out for some cultivars that flower later in summer. I like ‘Globemaster,’ ‘Mount Everest’ and A. christophii, among others. I always grow chives as much for their flowers as for their flavour.
Fritillaries – Fritillaria meleagris is one our most beautiful wildflowers grown from a corm, it will be happy in any damp sunny place. F. imperialis is the giant fritillary with orange, red or yellow flowers and a foxy musty scent. F. persica has the most beautiful dusky black-purple flowers.
Tulip bulbs could be planted now but can be susceptible to wet ground condition and infection (Tulip Fire), it is my recommendation that Tulip bulbs are planted late October.
September usually has ideal warm and wet conditions for planting new plants, or you can wait to add them in spring (or grow from seed!)
Some late season plants include:
Ornamental grasses: most will be in their prime in September to October including: Miscanthus, Pennisetum, Calamagrostis, Stipa, Jarava and many more!
Aster
Clematis viticella and other late-flowering species
Cosmos (annual)
Dahlia
Echinacea
Helianthus (sunflowers)
Hydrangea
Plant up containers for autumn interest, using cyclamen, heathers, heucheras and other colourful bedding plants. Plant wallflowers, pansies, forget-me-nots and other spring bedding in borders.
Keep summer bedding flowering in hanging baskets and pots until the first frosts by deadheading and feeding regularly.
Sow hardy annuals, such as, scabiosa and cornflowers, for flowering early next summer.
Lift gladioli corms, dry them off, then store in a frost-free shed or garage over winter.
A lot of seeds will be ready to harvest in September, so now is the time to pick any seeds you want to grow again next year. For the best chance of success, make sure your seed heads are ripe – which is generally when they turn from green to brown - and collect them on a dry and sunny day. Store them in labelled paper packets.
Bring any houseplants that you moved outside over summer back indoors before temperatures start to drop.
Lift, divide and replant congested clumps of perennials, such as achilleas once they finish flowering.
Autumn weather is perfect for good lawn establishment, so make sure to rake, aerate, and apply an autumn fertiliser that is rich in potassium and low in nitrogen. If you want to lay new turf or sow grass seed, take advantage of your soil being warm from the summer sun, and moist from autumn showers.
Fill any gaps with late-flowering perennials, such as sedums, to provide nectar for pollinating insects into autumn.
Take cuttings from fuchsias, salvias and pelargoniums.
Harvest fruit regularly, at the peak of ripeness, when richly coloured, plump and easy to pull off. (Pick on a dry day, so the berries are not wet). Cut back the stems of summer fruiting raspberries and hand on the baton to the Autumn fruiting berries.
With bird nesting season over, it’s now a suitable time to cut back hedges to keep them in shape, if cut mid-September onward they should remain neat and tidy throughout the winter months. Remember the golden rule to keep the sides slightly sloping to allow light to reach the lower half better.
Leave sunflower seedheads in place for birds to feed on.
Put netting across ponds to stop autumn leaves falling in and rotting.
Water autumn-flowering asters regularly to deter mildew.
Clean out water butts and check downpipe fittings in preparation for autumn rains. Ensure patios and areas of decking are regularly swept clean of leaves. If they are left to accumulate, they risk being washed into drains, causing blockages, it also safeguards against dangerously slippery surfaces developing.
Collect up the first of the Autumn leaves.
Remove duckweed, pondweed and algae from water features and ponds.
Check that tree ties and plant supports are firmly in place, ahead of any autumn gales.
Do not forget about your hanging basket and container plants whilst you are tidying the rest of your garden. Be sure to continue feeding and pruning these plants, as they can still bloom for another couple of months. Basket and container plants do not normally begin to retreat until the first frost of winter if cared for properly, so be sure to make the most of yours!
Scour your borders too and dig up, divide and re-plant bindweed infested clumps of perennials. Take care to extract the thick creamy-white roots of bindweed for even the tiniest piece that is left in the soil will re-sprout.
Now is the time to order trees and shrubs, as they will grow well next spring if planted this autumn, and for those with a fruit garden, do not forget your strawberries, raspberries, and other berry fruits as these are best planted during their dormant season.
Dividing your perennials will keep your plants healthy and vigorous year after year, encouraging them to return to full form come spring or summer. Whilst you can do this all year around, it is most successful when the plants are in their dormant season, which for most summer-flowering perennials will be dormant from late September to November.
As always, I do wish you ‘Happy Gardening’.
Rog
Rog Leppard writes the above, owner of English Cottage Chic Gardening, a professional gardener and gardening writer based in Ashurst Bridge, Hampshire.
Website: www.english-cottage-chic.co.uk