Jobs for the Month: November

November brings crisp fresh mornings, walking into the garden with the low sun illuminating the yellow, red and gold leaves of sparsely populated trees, just starting to cut through the thick autumn mists that shroud the Kitchen Garden... It's not always this poetic, so when ‘All the leaves are brown’ and its decidedly soggy, take stock and I will let you know what I will be doing in the kitchen garden this month.

I hear November is a quiet month in the garden! Well not round these parts as there is still loads to be done. I am planning for next year, adding raised beds, moving beds, taking beds away. Improving the performance of the garden by tweaking, what worked well this year, what did not, and, how can I enhance what is here?

This is an excellent time for fruit tree planting so you may want to peruse those catalogues and make some selections. Do take expert advice and remember that a well-chosen, good quality, properly situated tree is a real investment and will repay your investment. I have purchased some lovely apple trees for the Kitchen Garden this year, but I did my research first to make sure they will thrive.

If you are creating espalier forms from your maiden trees you may need your Secateurs handy as now is the time to behead them. Removal of the Apical Bud is the key to this art - you need two strong buds in the right spots to form your tiers; take advice if in doubt. The nursery from which you purchased the trees should be able to help you, failing that the RHS provides much info on this subject.

When purchasing trees or canes you need to reckon in supports. Most young trees need staking, espaliers and fans need wires or a framework, and raspberries also benefit from some structure. Here at the garden we are using a Wire and Gripple combo for our baby espaliers. I am also using the same system for the tayberry and blackberry canes, training on one section the first year’s growth and the next year’s growth on the next section! This way the plant can easily be cut back when fruiting has finished.


In the fruit cage our raspberry canes have been thinned out, this will enable them to be picked much easier and give a better quality of fruit and the old rows will be grubbed out. I have also decided to open the fruit cage over the winter to allow birds and predators in to eat and remove pests and will use the Sneeboer Rake to pull back the mulch around base of the canes replacing it in the new year with a fresh layer of Strulch.

The steel Raspberry Frame works really well in our cage providing support and keeping the canes well spaced, this should mean less mould and spoiled fruit, and easy access for Stephanie.

Other seasonal chores...
Digging over plots, using fleece, hoops and cloches to protect tender plants, a thorough greenhouse clean-up and most time-consuming is the removal of all those leaves; note that I use the Small Rake get in all the nooks especially round rows of winter veg.