November Tips
NOVEMBER leaves, seeds and weeds.
NOW IS THE TIME TO….
tidy up the garden for winter.
WEEDING thoroughly now will make the garden easier to deal with in spring.
Make sure you remove ‘ephemeral weeds’ such as annual meadow grass, hairy bitter cress and groundsel, which will continue to flower and set seed throughout most of the winter.
When weeding or digging, take care to remove the roots of perennial weeds, such as bindweed (thick white roots), couch grass (brown and white roots) mare’s tail (dead looking dark brown roots) and dandelions (long pointed roots which go deep in the soil). Never compost these perennial weeds or weeds with seed heads or flowers. They won’t be killed by home composting but should break down in the higher temperatures of municipal composting.
You can try soaking them in a bucket of water. The resulting very smelly liquid can be used, diluted with water 20:1 as a plant feed in spring. Not for the faint-hearted!
In the FLOWER BORDERS, remove and compost any annuals which have died but leave any interesting plants seed heads, which will add interest to the garden in winter as well as feeding the birds. If you cut down any dead plant with hollow stems, leave the stems on the garden as a shelter where beneficial insects such as ladybirds can overwinter.
Remove FALLEN LEAVES if they are dangerous (on paths) or obscuring plants or lawns. Otherwise, leave them to rot. The worms will soon take them down into the soil. Collect leaves and put them in black plastic sacks with a few holes for ventilation. Tuck the bags out of sight behind shrubs for a year or two, when the leaves will have decomposed to become leafmould, which is a great soil improver.
If you haven’t already sown broad beans and garlic, you can still do so now.
FLOWER ARRANGEMENT
EUROPEAN DESIGN
FLOWERS
5 Carnations
FOLIAGE
Hebe
Ivy
Euphorbia
Lavender
SUNDRIES
Moss
Circular container with oasis
Ribbon
Pins
Dried Chillies
Dried Coriander Seeds
METHOD
- Soak oasis in water and replace in dish.
- Cover oasis with short pieces of ivy, lavender and hebe leaving three areas bare. You may need pins to secure.
- Insert 5 carnations.
- Put into display position.
- Add chillies. moss and coriander seeds to cover bare patches of oasis.
- Wind wired ribbon around base.
