The Wildlife-friendly Garden in November

It has been an incredibly dry autumn in many parts of the country, as a 'blocking high' (as the meteorologists say) has held the usual Atlantic gales at bay.

As a result, I've been having to water my pot plants and new lawn when I was expecting nature to do the job for me, and my pond remains resolutely three-quarters full when I was expecting to see it lapping the margins.

The conditions seem to have made the autumn colours especially radiant. Our native trees may not quite pack the punch that the Red Maples do in Canada, but I still love the intense yellows of Field Maple (below) and the flush of red in Wild Cherry against the mute deep purple of Dogwood.

As the last bumblebees, red admiral butterflies and common darter dragonflies finally concede that it's time to let winter take over, thoughts in the garden turn to some of winter's big tasks.

• In the vegetable patch it is time to start digging. (Respect to those who have mastered the art of the 'no dig' method). It opens up the soil, which relieves compaction and stops the soil getting waterlogged, and next year the plant roots will have a much easier task as they probe downwards.

• It's time to get tree planting, and that extends to shrubs and hedges, because this is the season when you can buy many of them bare-rooted. They're much, much cheaper, and you have no great root balls to manoeuvre (your back will be glad to hear).

• Doing nothing! Ah, yes, my favourite November activity. I know the urge is to tidy tidy tidy, but just because a flower has gone over doesn't mean that you can't find something to admire in the colour and structure of the seedheads. Like a faded movie star, the frost-flecked remains are so much more appealing than a bare bed, plus will be home to all sorts of hibernating insects and their eggs.

• But do rake those leaves off lawns and turn it into gorgeous leaf mould; it's so easy that we've made that our Giving Nature a Home activity of the month, with a handy little leaf bin to make that your hedgehogs or toads might like even more than you.