Autumn gardening - November vegetables

Chives are a valuable garnish not just for salads, but in winter they are wonderful for flavouring potato dishes and colouring winter soups.. Small clumps can also be grown in pots on the windowsill. Keep some parsley in growth too, it's a superb source of vitamin C.

Pick apples as soon as they are ripe, remembering that some varieties can be eaten straight from the tree, while others are best stored for a few weeks. If you are prone to pest infestations, November is the time to catch the female winter moths who spend this month climbing up fruit trees to find a hole or crack to over-winter in. They can be foiled by wrapping grease bands tightly around tree trunks - don't forget to grease any tree stakes too, because the moth will simply travel along the ties and incubate in your tree!

Sow early broad bean varieties in early November. For the earliest pea picking in May, sow a row of early peas (often they have either 'first' or 'rocket' in their names) under cloches this month, because this can give you a crop of mange-tout from May, but remember that in very damp or colder areas it may be better to wait until spring.

Garlic cloves from strains that are selected to suit our climate can be planted outside now. Alternatively, raise them in pots to plant out later. Planting selected onion sets in autumn will give you a crop from late June into early July and you can get good value from your cold frames during the winter by sowing a crop of early carrots.

November veg photograph by fotologic, used under a creative commons attribution licence