"No sun – no moon!
No morn – no noon – " ...
So runs the beginning of Thomas Hood’s famous poem “November”, and in the garden this time of year feels slow, peaceful, a bit “soggy” after recent welcome rain, and full of ... well, not a lot. Ultra-violet levels are dropping, growth is slowing, and many leaves are turning to beautiful colours before they fall, a still process only broken by the occasional shrill song of a wren or the more tuneful autumn singing of a robin. Crows are still making plenty of noise, but blackbirds seem silent.
If tempted outside, many a gardener might feel a great urge to cut back dead or dying stems, clear away fallen leaves, and generally make everything look “nice and tidy”. Tidiness is not a natural state (ask any parent of teenagers), and the natural world that lives alongside our decades-long attempts at artificially manipulating it in the service of horticulture might well prefer us to do less, especially at this time of year. A pile of leaves can harbour dozens of hibernating insects as well as a hedgehog or toad (both great allies to the gardener), while leaves left on garden beds will slowly rot away and nourish the soil beneath. Stems, especially hollow ones, also provide refuge for hibernators, and the whole lot will look great with a frost on it – should we ever get one this year (later in November seems to be “normal” for this area).
Nonetheless, keep alert for the first freeze, and this year why not try keeping pelargoniums going over the winter in a frost-free place? Garages usually work for this, and all you need to do is reduce watering to a minimum, give them some good light, and cross your fingers. If you have free window-sill space inside, they might even keep flowering for you. Last winter I kept dahlias alive by making a cover for their container out of insulating bubble-wrap, but if you have them in beds you’ll need to dig them up and keep them frost-free in dry compost – they should show signs of life with little green shoots next May.
Should you want your plot to look more interesting during the cold months, you might think of planting more evergreen shrubs or even conifers (though these can look out of place in lowland Oxfordshire), as well as plants with brightly-coloured fruit like iris foetidissima (“Stinking Gladwyn” is one of its English names, and its red seeds are more exciting than its small spring flowers), cotoneaster (“Cornubia” is a very good species, if you have room for it), pyracantha, rowan, spindle, or crab apple (mine has gone crazy this year, and its fruit will keep even marauding wood pigeons going for weeks). All vegetable growers are already planting, or at least planning what to plant, for winter and early spring harvesting – there is excellent advice for all gardeners here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-own/in-month/november
I’ve also started “dreaming”, buying a few plants to put in next spring (they’re often cheaper at this time of year) and wondering how I’ll find room for everything. I’ve done this every year for forty years. Perhaps I should wonder why this never seems to change …