GINA PARKINSON outlines the work to be done in the garden this month

THE list of garden jobs is mostly ticked for this year but a few things remain to draw a keen gardener outdoors.

Much of this will be tidying and trimming but there is still some planting to be done.

November is a good month for sorting out the flowerbeds and cutting back untidy perennials.

Those that have attractive seedheads, such as grasses and sedums, can be left for a while longer; they look lovely rimed with frost on a sunny winter’s day, but other plants will just flop or become unpleasantly soggy.

There are no hard and fast rules to the November tidy up.

Some gardeners like total control over their patch with everything cut back and orderly while others are happy to leave everything until spring when new growth is coming through.

I fall between these two camps and try to put in some semblance of control while still keeping a shadow of the garden as it was in summer.

So grasses are left as long as possible, dahlias kept until blackened by frost and the brown paper seedheads of phlomis allowed to remain as homes for hibernating insects until a warm spring day tempts the sleeping inhabitants out.

It is worth bearing in mind that a little untidiness in the garden will provide hibernating homes for insects such as bees and ladybirds. Hollow stems are ideal insect hiding places and piles of leaves will provide shelter for other small creatures.

 

In the veg garden

Gooseberry bushes can be pruned as soon as the leaves have fallen this month. Start by taking out any dead or diseased stems then cut back the side shoots coming of the main stems back to a couple of buds.

The height of the shrubs can also be reduced by trimming the branches back by around a quarter. Although gooseberries will fruit without any pruning, overlong branches become weak and may be damaged under the weight of the fruit.

It is also a good idea to open up the centre of the plant by taking out some of the congested growth. Just cut back two or three crossing stems to begin with then a couple more the following year if necessary. This will create an open shrub and allow air to circulate around the branches more easily thus deterring diseases such as gooseberry mildew. It will also make picking the fruit easier; gooseberries are fearsomely prickly.

Apple and plum trees can also be pruned this month once their leaves have dropped. Like the gooseberry, dead and diseased stems need to be removed first before taking out congested growth from the centre of the tree. This will eventually form an open goblet shape.

The branches that form the framework of the tree can be cut back by up to third of the previous year’s growth with their side shoots cut back to four or five shoots.

To a novice grower like me, this sounds daunting and we only have one small tree but over the past three Novembers I have gradually become a little more confident.

Some of the trees in our neighbourhood however are anciently huge. Large specimens like this are probably best left alone apart from emergency pruning for safety reasons. Sometimes ideal garden maintenance is to leave things alone.

 

Weekend catch up

Hardwood cuttings are a cheap way to propagate shrubs and as many root very easily from this method it is always worth giving it a go.

Now is the time to take these cuttings because they are done in the dormant season. Cut off a length of shoot from the current season’s growth about 25cm-30cm long. Trim just above a leaf joint at the top of the stem, a sloping cut will allow water to roll off it, and just below a leaf joint at the bottom.

Then put the cuttings into a trench in a corner of the garden with about 7.5cm showing above the level of the soil, firm them in and label.

If the soil is heavy, it is a good idea to line the bottom of the trench with sharp sand to help with drainage.

The cuttings should be well rooted this time next year when they can be dug up and put into their permanent spot.

 

Gardening TV and radio

Tomorrow:

8am, BBC Radio Humberside, The Great Outdoors. With Blair Jacobs and Doug Stewart.

8am, BBC2, Alan Titchmarsh’s Garden Secrets. A visit to an 18th-century garden in Stowe, Buckinghamshire.

9am, BBC Radio York, Julia Lewis.

9am, BBC Radio Leeds, Tim Crowther and Joe Maiden.

9am, BBC2, Gardeners World.

2pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. The team of horticultural experts answer questions from an audience at Sparsholt College in Hampshire.

Friday

3pm, BBC R4, Gardeners’ Question Time. Chairman Eric Robson together with Bob Flowerdew, Pippa Greenwood and Christine Walkden is at Rochdale Pioneers Museum, the birthplace of the modern co-operative movement.

8.30pm, BBC2, Gardeners’ World. Carol Klein celebrates berried hedgerows and Rachel de Thame visits the garden of comedian Julian Clary, right.