NOVEMBER GARDENING TIPS
This month's theme is creating colour and interest with berries. The evenings are darker and summer displays of annual and herbaceous blooms are over, but berries are a wonderful way to achieve autumnal colour.
You'll see groups of plants
in the garden centre displaying fantastic leaf and berry colour. Birds love to feed on berries in mid-winter so do them a favour by introducing one or two to your garden. First up for a plethora of autumn berries are pyracanthus with a profusion of yellow, red or orange berries. Cotoneasters come in all sizes and give masses of red berries. In late spring they have pinky white flowers but it’s the autumn and winter berries that are their most appealing feature.
Leycesteria will just be
hanging on with reddish purple berries, it’s known as the Himalayan honeysuckle due to its origin. Commonly known as beauty berry, the callicarpa bodinieri profusion has the most beautiful clusters of violet fruits and the added bonus of pink flowers in the summer.
Skimmias are a favourite with lovely evergreen foliage and fragrant flowers followed by red fruit. Be careful and get advice with this one, there are male, female and hermaphrodite plants just to confuse things!
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The last shrub to get a
mention over the hundreds to choose from is gaultheria mucronata. It has lots of colourful varieties with an excess of outstanding oval fruits in white, pinks, purples and red. Again with this one, you need the male, as in so many walks of life!
November is one of my
favourite months in the garden. It’s a good time for planting, while the soil is moist and still warm. So long as the frosts haven’t started you can plant new shrubs and put in border plants. One colourful suggestion is cyclamen, which never fail to lift my spirits on a dreary day. This is your last chance to get bulbs planted for the spring. If you like tulips, the time is right for planting.
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Following on from the 'right
plant, right place’ advice from last month, always check the plants can thrive in your garden’s conditions. When planting trees and shrubs add some slow acting fertiliser to help them along and make sure your new or moved plants are well watered in dry spells until they become established.
This is also a great month to
get stuck into the lawn. You can scarify, aerate and top dress feed. Choose an autumn lawn food, as they are high in phosphates for root development. Pick leaves off the lawn to get rid of any over-wintering bugs and spray fruit trees on milder days with a winter wash, again to kill over-wintering pests.
Until next month, happy gardening!
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