November in the Garden

Leave the old flower heads on common garden or big-leaf hydrangeas. They help to protect the next season's flowering shoots over the winter.

Clean dead growth from garden beds and containers, and add the removed material to a compost heap.

Watch for freshly washed up seaweed after the first storms of the season. Spread it on emptied vegetable and annual flower plots, and dig it under.

Send for some new garden catalogs for next year.

After the first few hard frosts, mound the bases of rose bushes with soil from another part of the garden.

To keep amaryllis foliage strong and upright, provide bright light and coolish temperatures. Avoid overwatering and overfertilizing with nitrogen.

Perk up the indoor garden with a new house plant. Peace lily (spathe flower), cast iron plant, snake plant and Chinese evergreen are suitable for low-light areas.

Plant or transplant lilies this month. Continue planting spring-flowering bulbs.

Keep leaves and debris raked off the lawn, and don't allow small perennials to be smothered with a covering of wet leaves.

Add leaves in layers to a compost heap, or use them on their own in a special pile lightly layered with garden soil to produce leaf mold. Dry leaves chopped by passing the lawn mower over them will decompose faster than whole leaves.

Cut down the tops of Jerusalem artichokes. Leave a short length of stem to mark the plants for digging the tubers during the winter.

Apply a dormant lime sulphur spray to fruit trees (except apricot) after the leaves have fallen.