THE ALMANAC - NOVEMBER

LAWNS 
1. Rake fallen leaves off lawns before they block out light and moisture from the grass.
2. If putting lawnmowers away for winter ensure they are clean and dry before storing. Also remember to drain fuel as unleaded petrol doesn't keep, and may cause problems next year when trying to start up the machines.
3. It is now too late to sow grass seed, but new lawns can still be laid from turf if the weather is not too cold.
4. Don't feed the lawn with left-over summer feeds. These contain too much nitrogen, which stimulates lush growth; at this time of year, lush growth will be vulnerable to diseases. Use an autumn lawn feed, which contains more potassium and phosphorous, to encourage hardiness and root growth instead.
5. It is too late to apply lawn weedkillers now - effectiveness will be much reduced. A final mow will keep weeds in hand until the spring, when weedkillers can again be used.
6. Toadstools often appear on lawns at this time of year. They generally do very little damage but are best removed if small children are present. Most are harmless saprophytic fungi.

VEGETABLES 
1. Order seed catalogues for next year, if you haven't already done so.
2. Cauliflowers can be harvested, or left in situ with the leaves snapped and folded down over the curds to protect them.
3. Lift and store root crops such as carrots, beetroot, turnips and swedes
4. Stake any Brussels sprouts stalks that look leggy and vulnerable to wind rock.
5. If you have Brussels sprouts ready for harvesting, pick the largest sprouts from the bottom of the stalk first
6. Sow over wintering broad beans (mild areas only) outside or under cloches where the soil is well drained, or in pots in an unheated greenhouse in cold districts. Harvests should be marginally earlier than the first spring sowings.

GREENHOUSE
1. Pot up Hippeastrum (amaryllis) bulbs, and bring them back into active growth with regular watering and feeding. They should give you beautiful flowers for the festive season.
2. Reduce watering and feeding of houseplants as the days shorten.
3. Christmas cacti can be managed in the same way as other cacti, or in reverse, for flowering at Easter or Christmas respectively.
4. Pelargoniums can be cut back, de-leaved, watered less, not fed, and kept relatively dormant and just moist, over the winter. Re-potting, watering and feeding in the spring will bring them back into active growth. They must be kept at around 10°C (50°F) while dormant
5. If you enjoy working in your glasshouse over the winter, then consider installing greenhouse lighting to make this possible even on dull days and during the evening or early morning.
6. Make sure you have removed all shading paint from the greenhouse panes, in order to maximise light levels in the darker months of the year. If applying glasshouse insulation, to attach it only to the sides and north facing roofs to let in as much light as possible.

TREES AND SHRUBS
1. Bare-root deciduous hedging plants, trees and shrubs become available this month. They need to be planted promptly, before they dry out. They can be heeled into the soil for a short period if conditions are not suitable for planting
2. Shrubs normally pruned hard in the spring - such as Buddleja davidii, Cornus alba and Lavatera - can be cut back by half now, to prevent wind rock and neaten their appearance.
3. Tie wall shrubs and climbers onto their supports to protect them from wind damage. Any growth that refuses to be trained in this way can be pruned off.
4. Check tree stakes and ties are secure and will withstand the winter weather; ensure that ties are not strangling trunks or branches - they may need loosening.
5. This is also a good time to transplant trees and shrubs growing in unsuitable positions. However, if they are more than a couple of years old, you are unlikely to be able to remove an intact enough rootball to ensure the plant's survival in its new position, and you may be best advised to leave well alone. There are contractors who specialise in moving established mature specimens, but they are not cheap. For more information, RHS members can contact the Members' Advisory Service, and non-members can try the local Yellow Pages.
6. Garden hygiene helps greatly in the prevention of disease carry-over from one year to the next. It is always a good idea to rake up and destroy (i.e. do not compost) any infected leaves. Diseases such as black spot on roses,scab on apples and pears and quince leaf blight can all be controlled to some extent in this way.

ROSES
1. Lightly prune bush roses now, if not done already, as reducing their height will prevent wind-rock. Roses are generally shallow rooted and can become loose in the soil if buffeted by strong winds.
2. Climbing roses should be pruned now at the very latest, and should preferable have been done much earlier in the autumn.
3. Gather all leaves from the rose beds as these will help to infect foliage as it emerges next season.
4. Keep hoeing through the rose beds to keep down the weeds .
5. Make sure trellis is sound and that tree ties are in good condition. 

PERENNIALS
1. Plant tulip bulbs this month. Some tulips persist year to year, some perform less well and are treated as bedding, and replaced every year.
2. Last chance to plant out winter bedding. You could try wallflowers, forget-me-nots, Bellis, Primula, Viola (winter pansies) and other spring bedding plants, planting them into well- prepared ground, or pots of suitable compost. Water them if no rain is forecast, using stored rain or recycled water wherever possible.
3. Now is a good time to plant new herbaceous perennials, as the soil is still warm, but moister than it was during the summer.
4. Penstemons are best left as-is (except for deadheading) until the spring, when they can be cut back further. In mild areas they can carry on flowering well into the late autumn and early winter. The old faded stems will help to protect the crowns from cold. Mulching over the crowns in colder areas will also help.
5. Protect alpines from the wet, if you have not done so already. Ones with woolly or silvery leaves are most vulnerable. Sheltering them from rain, ensuring good ventilation, and picking fallen leaves and weeds from the plant mats will help keep them in top form. Any bare patches can be covered with compost to encourage plant spread into those areas.
6. Hellebores rarely flower naturally by Christmas, despite their common name of Christmas rose. They can be encouraged to flower a little earlier, if you want, by covering them with cloches, potting them up and bringing them into a warm greenhouse, or placing them on a windowsill inside the house.