November in the Garden
November is when many things wind down in the garden. The first frosts will usually have struck and the trees will be shedding their leaves. It will mostly likely be cold outside but wrap up warm, get some tea in the thermos and head out to the plot as there's still some things you can be doing.
Sowing
There's still time to be sowing some over wintering broad beans (varieties such as Aquadulce Claudia) in a sheltered bed if you haven't done so yet. Get a bed prepared with a bit of organic matter (compost, well rotted muck, etc) in it on a day when the ground isn't completely frozen and pop the beans in a couple of inches deep. Cover the bed with twigs or cotton to keep the birds off or, if it is really on the cold side, you might want to cover the bed with cloches or some transparent plastic. Don't expend all your beans on an autumn sowing as there's a chance a tough winter (or hungry mice) may mean you'll want to do a spring sowing as well.
Garlic and autumn onion sets can also still be put in at the moment. These again are best covered with twigs, netting or cotton to deter birds from pulling the cloves back out of the ground.
Planting out
If you've not got a rhubarb patch, or you want to expand the one you've got, November can be a time to plant out one year old crowns, or divide an existing plant that is five or more years old. Prepare the bed by clearing out any weeds (especially the roots of nasty perennial weeds like stinging nettles, couch grass, bindweed, etc as you won't be able to dig the bed once the rhubarb is in place), digging in a healthy supply of well rotted manure and dig a hole deep enough that the top of the crown will be an inch or so underground. If you're putting more than one crown in place separate each plant by about 2' 6" (75cm) - for most folk three or four crowns should supply more than enough rhubarb. Spread a mulch around the plants to help suppress weeds but not over the rhubarb plants themselves. If you're wanting to divide an older plant, just put two forks back to back and use them to lever the crown apart.
Harvesting
The frosts will have probably nobbled the tops of jerusalem artechokes. This is your cue to lop the tops off (shred them and pop them in the compost bin) and then start to carefully dig down into the soil to find the tubers. You can lift these as you need them, but you can also keep them quite well for a couple of weeks in a cool place indoors, so it pays to harvest a few more than you need when you can dig them up in case of frosts.
Brussel sprouts are also getting into their stride in November, with the frosts helping to improve the flavour of many varieties. You can either pick the sprouts from the bottom of the stalks upwards or, if you've got lots and its cold outside, just lift the whole stalk and take it into the kitchen to strip. The stalks can be put in the compost bin but they take ages to break down. My dad used to keep then give me an axe and a chopping block and get me to chop them into 1 inch lengths. These then got dug into the ground during the spring.
You should find that spinach and spinach beet are harvestable at the moment.
If you have a moist soil lambs lettuce is a great salad crop for November seeded in the late warm summer months.
Time to bring in the meddlers for bletting.
The last of the apples may still be on the trees, depending on the varieties you have.
Other jobs
The trees are losing their leaves. So that means leaf mould creating time! Simply scoop up as many leaves as you can and either put them in bins formed from chicken wire tacked to four stakes in the ground, or in plastic bags (old compost bags are great!) with a few holes punched in them and then chuck them in a quiet corner of the plot. And then forget about them. Well, for about two years at least, after which time you'll have some superb leaf mould waiting to be used!
You can also be digging over ground if you don't do "no-dig" beds, unless the soil is heavy clay or chalk and the weather is really wet (as wet chalky/clayey ground will just compact and be awful to dig). This will give you a bit of a head start in the spring and, if it is clay/chalk can allow the frosts to break up the clumps. Really though its a better idea to be spending your time building some raised bed edges out of scrap wood, getting a bit of manure and setting out some no-dig, deep raised beds ready for next year.
