If you think there is nothing to do in the garden in November apart from tidying up leaves – think again!
Now is the time to think about next year. Where are the gaps you need to fill? What worked and didn’t work? What is doing well in the garden?
Filling gaps with existing perennials can be an easy and cheap way of increasing your plant stock. There are many plants that can be divided at this time of year and used around the garden, or potted up to be given away.
Herbaceous plants such as astrantias, rudbeckias, geraniums, salvias and hostas can all be dug out and divided by chopping your spade through the rootball with a swift cut. You can often get three or four clumps out of one plant. Place these back in the ground where you need more plants, with some compost in the planting hole, and next year they will come up beautifully.
You can leave hostas until the spring if you want, when you can feel the sharp spikes of their new leaves poking up through the soil. These are really good to divide, particularly when they are in pots and getting too congested.
Other ways of dividing clumps is to use two hand forks back to back and prising the roots apart, or sawing through roots with a serrated knife.
