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November 2025: Gardening Tips and What to Plant

Posted on 1 November 2025

Check out our blog on what to do in your garden this month and what to plant!

Its November – nearly the end of the year but only the start of Winter 🙁
We had a great October; we supplied lawn dressing for Prolawncare’s lawn demonstrations at his training course, our recycle bin at RHN Plant Centre is filling up, and we have sent out some exclusive discounts to our Compost Club members – do sign up to receive 20% off our winter mulches.

Top jobs:

Protect your plants against frost, wind and rain:

Apply a winter mulch to protect plants and their roots against frost. It also helps prepare any bare soil for planting in spring. For mulching in November, our Field No.1 Organic Soil Improver or No.12 Nutrimulch are the best and most suitable mulches! Our No.1 has the highest quantity of organic matter; this improves the quality of soil over time, and leads to fertile soil that is ready for spring planting.
Raise patio pots and containers up onto pot feet or bricks. This will make sure they will not become waterlogged and prevents the compost from freezing.
Consider moving tender plants into sheltered, well-insulated places like the greenhouse or conservatory.
Or if the plants can’t be moved, cut squares of horticultural fleece to fit each plant. Wrap the fleece around them to protect against light frosts.

General Garden Maintenance:

Regularly pick off and sweep up yellowing or dead leaves and faded flowers before disease problems develop and spread.
November is the perfect time to make bonfires (where safe and allowed). You can use garden waste, including infected plant parts and excess debris unfit for composting.
Conduct machine maintenance to ensure your mowers and hedge trimmers are working effectively next spring:
- Wash down and scrape off any encrusted grass or mud.
- Drain the petrol from the tank as unleaded petrol doesn’t keep.
- Oil the blades and moving parts.
- Consider taking your mower in for a service.
- Put the machinery away somewhere safe and dry for the winter.
Feed the birds. Keep extra bird feeders and refill regularly to keep birds fed during this sparse season.

Autumn leaves falling in the Field Compost yard

Houseplants:

Feed your houseplants once a week with liquid fertiliser and continue through autumn.
Water houseplants less frequently as days shorten and growth slows and move them off particularly cold windowsills at night.
Repot any houseplants that have become top heavy, or pot bound into large containers. Our Field No.23 Peat Free Potting Blend Compost is perfect for this!

Greenhouse:

Clean and sterilise your greenhouse:
- Remove dead plant material from the floor.
- Clean pots and equipment.
- Using soap and water, clean any of the surfaces and panes.
- Wash down the outside of your greenhouse to remove algae and grime build up.
Insulation:
- Use heat and/or insulation to keep your greenhouse frost free, e.g., using a fan, paraffin, heater, or bubble air insulation material.
- Attach insulation to the sides and north facing roofs.
- Retain warmth in the greenhouse by closing vents by mid-afternoon.
Remove all shading plants from the greenhouse.

Lawns:

Maintenance:

Give your grass a light trim with the mower during mild weather, as grass continues to grow in temperatures above 5 degrees.
Remove fallen leaves from your lawn so they don’t smother the grass or block out any sunlight or moisture.
- You can gather up fallen leaves with a rake and store them in a bay or bin bags to make leaf mould. Keep them damp and mix them up/put a hole in the bag to add oxygen.
- You can also use the lawn mower to gather up fallen leaves at the same time as giving the lawn a final trim. Start with the mower on a higher setting to gather up, chop and mulch leaves simultaneously, then lower the height for a second pass so the lawn is neat, tidy and trimmed.

Flowers:

Jobs:

Divide perennials and prune them to soil level, to ensure they return next year.
Clear faded sweet peas, morning glory, thunbergia and other annual climbers from their supports.

To Plant:

Use Field No.23 Professional Potting Blend compost.

Sweet peas. Sow in a cool greenhouse or cold frame for an early display next year.
Spring flowering bulbs, e.g., daffodils, lilies, tulips and crocuses. Plant outside and as early in the month as possible, for an early display next spring.
Plant autumn bedding plants, e.g., violas and pansies, on a sunny day in rich moist soil. Plant wallflowers in gaps in your borders.
Hardy winter flowering shrubs, e.g., Viburnum tinus, Viburnum fragrans and Mahonia winter sun.

Fruit & Veg:

Jobs:

Harvest root veg if you haven’t already, and continue to harvest and store fruit.
Cut back any berry canes to soil level, this is so they grow back strong and healthy.
Pick ripe apples; eat or store in a cool dry place for later this year.
Conduct some veg patch maintenance for winter; do a final weed, tidy up and then add plenty of Field No.1 Organic Soil Improver to mulch the bare patches and growing veg.

To Plant:

Winter salads. Plant these in the greenhouse, conservatory or inside by a warm south-facing window. Choose varieties that don’t require extra heat, like winter gem, winter land cress, purslane and corn salad. Use Field No.23 Professional Potting Blend Compost.
Herbs, e.g., basil, dill, chives and parsley. These can also be grown in the greenhouse, conservatory or inside, in No.23 Potting Compost.
Soft fruits like raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries and currents. Use Field No.16 Tree and Shrub Soil Improver to mix in with the soil when planting fruit canes.
For an early crop next spring, sow hardy cultivars like ‘Avola’ and ‘Meteor’ peas now. Sow them direct in 5cm drills in the ground, mixing in Field No.23, or in root trainers to plant out in a couple of weeks. It’s also a good time to plant out peas sown in root trainers or guttering in September.

Tree & Shrubs:

Jobs:

You can prune and train many deciduous trees, shrubs and hedges. It is easier to see what you are doing now that branches have no leaves.
Prune roses. Reducing the height will prevent wind-rock and shallow-rooted bushes to become loose in the soil if they are buffered by strong winds.
Tie wall shrubs and climbers onto their supports and protect them from wind damage.

To Plant:

Bare-root trees and shrubs. Plant fruit trees like apple and pears, cherries and plums, blackcurrants and gooseberries and raspberries. Use our Use Field No.16 Tree and Shrub Soil Improver or Field No.1 Soil Improver for planting trees and shrubs; dig a hole and mix it 50:50 with the existing spoil from the planting pit.