| AREA | PLANT | ADVICE |
| FLOWERS | ROSES | Prune back hard old growth almost to ground level on your rambling roses. |
| CHRISTMAS CACTUS | Reduce the amount of water you give it as this will encourage flowers nearer christmas | |
| POTTED PLANTS | Any plants in pots will not need watering as much. If you have some potted plants that will not survive the winter outside and you have nowhere indoors to put them give them to a friend with a greenhouse rather than let them die. | |
| BEDDING PLANTS | Start to lift them now. There is still time to plant out many winter and spring bedding plants | |
| GLADIOLI | Lift the corms and store ready for next year. | |
| TULIPS | Plant tulips, hyacinths, daffodils etc in pots or bowls, water lightly and cover. | |
| LAWN | You could plant out lots of bulbs into your lawn now for a lovely spring display. However it is important that you do not mow the lawn after your bulbs have flowered as they will need the food they produce from the leaves, mow once the leaves have died back. It is a good time to feed your lawn and to take out any weeds, generally giving it an overhaul. | |
| SWEET PEAS | Plant sweet pea seeds for the following year. | |
| FRUIT | APPLES | Early varieties are ready for picking |
| BLACKBERRIES | Once all the fruit has been picked prune back the fruited canes to ground level. | |
| GENERAL | Collect as many seeds as you can from the dead flower heads, put them in a packet in a dark dry place, name and date them ready for next year. | |
| If you are very organised after a row of vegetables have been harvested, you could dig in some manure into that vacated row ready for next years planting. | ||
| It is an important time of year to generally tidy up. Clear away any hanging baskets keeping any plants that you might want to keep in the greenhouse. If you have terracotta pots, bring them in or cover as some are not frost proof, if some still have plants in them then wrap with bubblewrap or some such thing for protection. | ||
| GREENHOUSE | Go to our new Greenhouse section. | |
| HERBS | Go to our huge Herb section for lots of interesting information. | |
| The woody roots of some herbs such as mint, rosemary, lavender, hyssop, thyme, savory, oregano, marjoram and tarragon will make excellent cuttings now.. | ||
| Harvest the underground roots of marsh mallow, comfrey, horseradish and angelica. | ||
| Horseradish grows in a similar way to mint and care should be taken in its placement. | ||
| HOUSEPLANTS | There is no need to feed your houseplants any longer and they will only need one watering a week. Try taking some cuttings of your favourite plants. Go to the houseplant section for more information and care advice. | |
| SEED SOWING | ||
| SHRUBS | It would be a good time to move any shrubs that are not happy or are in the wrong place. From now until the ground starts to really harden (late December) for new plants. | |
| VEGETABLES | GARLIC | Plant your garlic out now 5cm deep and 14cm apart. Seperate into individual cloves |
| TOMATOES | Pick all your tomatoes and put on a sunny window sill to ripen. | |
| BRUSSEL SPROUTS | If you planted an early variety they might be ready to pick now. Slugs love the old dead leaves that fall to the ground so make sure you dispose of them. |