Our resident gardener Claire Ratinon shares her tips for gardening tasks in November.

Claire: The clocks have turned back and although that means brighter mornings for a time, the sun has started disappearing well before dinner time. Although I used to find this time of transition to be disheartening, I now see it as a welcome and necessary part of nature’s cycles and an invitation to slow down, to conserve my energy and reflect on the season’s abundance (and failures!). 

Around this time of year, the Persephone period will arrive, the time in the year when there is less than 10 hours of sunlight in a day, and thus plant growth will stop entirely. So, what, I hear you ask, are the gardening tasks in November, other than to wait it out while the seasons pass? Well, for one, now’s a good time to tuck your winter crops in and get some tidying up done before the cold and frost nudges us to withdraw indoors for the winter months.

Gardening Jobs
If you haven’t gotten round to mulching your vegetable beds (like me!) and the ground hasn’t yet frozen where you are, there’s still time to follow my advice in October’s diary and cover and feed the soil before the temperature drops below zero. Don’t worry though, it’s also an option to do this job in late winter or early spring next year as well.

If you’ve grown root crops like carrots or beetroots, be poised to either protect them from the freezing ground (and thus becoming impossible to harvest!) with a layer of compost or straw on the ground around them, or covering them with fleece. Alternatively, harvest them before it gets too cold and store them to eat during winter. Parsnips gain sweetness after a cold snap so lift them out of the ground after a few light touches of frost for a better flavour.

The winter brassicas – purple sprouting, winter cabbages, brussels sprouts – are likely to have grown quite tall by now and if your patch gets even moderate gusts of wind then it is worth supporting your plants with stakes. It might be tempting to remove the protective netting now that the cabbage white butterflies are no longer looking for brassicas to lay their eggs on, but I keep mine in place to prevent hungry pigeons from stripping their leaves.

Making Leafmould 
With the sheer volume of leaves falling from the trees, and since you’re probably raking them up anyway, there’s no good reason not to make leafmould. It’s a very straightforward way of using a readily available material and turning it into a valuable resource to use in your garden. Quite simply, leafmould is made up of decomposing leaves and once broken down can be used as a soil conditioner. The process that breaks down autumn leaves is different from the process that takes place in a compost heap which is why they are best allowed to decompose separately. 

If you have the space, a very simple leafmould bin can be constructed using wooden stakes or bamboo canes driven into the ground and surrounded by chicken wire to create a frame. Position your leafmould bin somewhere sheltered from the wind so the leaves don’t blow away. Alternatively, you can use bin bags to store your moist leaves while they decompose but you have to pierce holes in them to ensure that air can reach the contents.

All leaves will eventually turn into leafmould but some leaves decompose faster than others. Beech, birch, oak and hornbeam work well but I avoid evergreens as they take far longer to break down. Shredding your leaves before storing can speed up the process, as will ensuring that it stays moist and occasionally aerating it.

It takes between one and two years for leafmould to be useable but once it is, you can mulch your garden with it to improve the soil structure or use it as a low nutrient material for making your own seed-sowing medium.