Jobs for November

• Insulate your outdoor containers from frosts. Use hessian or bubble wrap held in place with garden twine.
• Prevent containers becoming waterlogged by raising them off the ground for the winter using bricks or 'pot feet'.
• Encourage hungry birds into your garden by investing in bird baths and bird feeders.
• Protect roses from wind-rock by pruning them by one-third to half their height.
• Remove fallen leaves from around the base of any rose bushes which suffered from blackspot or rust this summer, to reduce the chance of reinfection next year.
• Continue to lift dahlia tubers, gladiolus corms and begonias tubers to store dry over the winter months. Remove the dead foliage before storing.
• Cut back the yellowing foliage of herbaceous perennial plants, lift and divide overcrowded clumps to maintain their vigour.
• Lift parsnips after the first frosts, when their flavour will have sweetened.
• Keep planting onion, shallot, and garlic sets. Dig over heavy soils adding organic matter before planting.
• Stake top-heavy brassica and leafy green plants.
• Check over your summer harvest of onions and garlic, removing any rotting bulbs immediately. The neck of the bulb is usually the first area to rot. Try using onion bags to improve air flow around the bulbs.
• Check stored potatoes and remove any that are rotting. Use hessian sacks to store your potatoes to allow the crop to breathe.
• Plant out currant plants as bare roots this month, while they’re in their dormant state.
• Plant bare root raspberry plants now for a delicious home-grown crop.
• Tidy up your strawberry plants, cutting off any dead leaves and removing runners.
• Prune apple and pear trees anytime between now and February.
• Don't prune your plum trees now as they will be susceptible to the silver leaf fungus - wait until midsummer.
• Apply grease bands to the trunks of fruit trees to prevent wingless female winter moths climbing the trunks and laying their eggs in the branches.
• Remove the top netting from fruit cages as heavy snow in winter will make it sag.
• Start a bonfire heap with twigs and prunings. Make sure you check for hedgehogs before lighting your bonfire.