Jobs NOT to do in November
With so little going on in the garden at this time of year, sometimes the grumpy gardener has no other choice than to tidy up. It’s a hateful occupation, tidying up, but it can be put off for weeks on end with a variety of excuses ranging from the mildly plausible, “it’s raining” to the more specialised “I’m worried about compaction issues”.
There are many excuses NOT to do a variety of things in the garden which can be found in that trusty tome, the Grumpy Gardener’s Handbook. For example: In October pot up your spring bulbs at fortnightly intervals for a staggered spring display. Or, alternatively, plant them all at once, it’s so much simpler, but put some in a bit deeper and at right angles to give them more to think about. The anarchic nature of the response was a reaction to all the hectoring you get in worthy gardening books and websites that give you a metre-long tasklist of things you really should be doing in November. Otherwise, shame on you. Some of the suggestions are sensible and some are less so. One I saw in a recent newsletter was along the lines of:
This is a great time of year to clean out your water butts before they fill with fresh rain water over winter. Right. Those would be the water butts that are already filled to the brim with autumn rain and whose sudden emptying might create a mini-version of the Somerset Levels to form around the shed.
In November they exhort you to: Finish planting your spring bulbs by the end of the month. Yes, you can understand the logic of that, but if it’s as mild as it’s been recently then that gives the slugs more than a head start. Bulb specialists J.Parker’s point the finger firmly at slugs in their cultural instructions sent out with every delivery of new bulbs. “In mild autumns and winters slugs attack new premature foliage to an extent that the plant crown cannot regenerate in the spring.” So while you’re putting out a range of delicacies on the bird table, such as dried, roasted mealworms and suet berry treats, by planting bulbs early you’re doing the equivalent underground. It’s not laziness or fecklessness that’s stopping me from planting out my new peonies and tulips, no, it’s the abiding grumpy gardener’s principle: Never do a job in the garden unless you really have to.
So what else should we be doing this month? Or not.
Clean out your greenhouse from top to bottom. Wash the glass, the floor and the staging using a horticultural disinfectant to kill any overwintering pests and diseases. Like that’s going to happen. Continue to clear fallen leaves off the lawn to keep it healthy. Wooo, what a stunner. I’d never have thought to do that unless reminded. Now your beds and borders are clear, try edging your lawn for a neat and tidy appearance. Or wait till Spring till anyone bothers to go out into the garden again, otherwise you’ve spent a whole hour doing something nobody’s ever going to notice.
Make sure all gardening tools are cleaned of soil and debris. Just get the big lumps off.
Check your garden notes to see which vegetables did well in 2014 and which seeds to order for next year. You know what. I may have misplaced those ‘extensive garden notes’ that I made throughout 2014, but I can promise you that counting the successes won’t take long.
Jobs to Avoid in December - coming soon...
