What to Sow in November
The shortest sowing list of the year, and we will not pad it. Sweet peas into root trainers, the last hardy annuals under glass, cool-season herbs and winter salads under cover, and a tray of microgreens on the kitchen windowsill. What genuinely earns a sowing in a cold Norfolk November.
We will be straight with you from the first line: November is the shortest sowing list of the year, and anyone telling you otherwise is padding it out. The beds outside are cold and wet, the light is gone by half past four, and the open ground is closed for business until spring. What is left is a small handful of things worth doing under glass and on the windowsill, and one of them is worth doing above all the rest.
So this is a short guide, on purpose, and a specific one. No filler, and no long list of things you could technically scatter and then watch rot. Just what actually earns a sowing in a Norfolk November, sorted the way we always sort it: flowers, herbs, vegetables, then the microgreens and windowsill growing that come into their own this month. It carries on from What to Sow in October and from the bigger picture we set out in The Autumn-Sowing Handbook.
November at a Glance
The List
Short, but genuinely useful
The One to Do
Sweet peas in root trainers
Direct Sowing
Finished until spring
Everything Now
Under glass or on a windowsill
Still Worth It
Broad beans and winter salad
No Garden Needed
Microgreens in a week or two
Flowers: Nearly All Sweet Peas
Sweet peas, into root trainers
The headline in November, and close to the whole of it, is sweet peas. If you missed the October window, this is your second and last good chance before January. Sow two seeds to a deep root trainer or a tall pot, because a sweet pea sends down a long root and resents a shallow one, and stand them in a cold frame or an unheated greenhouse: cool, bright, and safe from mice, which will hunt out the seed. They make slow, sturdy growth over winter and then race away in spring, giving longer stems and earlier flowers than anything sown in warmth later on. The full method is in How to Grow Sweet Peas from Seed.
On the pinching question, which catches everyone out: you pinch out the growing tip once a plant has three or four pairs of leaves, to push it into bushy side shoots. For a November sowing that stage rarely arrives before late winter, so the honest answer is that you pinch around February, not now. Leave the plants alone through the darkest weeks and let them sit tight.
The kit matters more here than with almost anything else, because the depth of root run decides the plant. Root trainers open like a book so you can lift a sweet pea without tearing a single root, and a windowsill greenhouse keeps a sowing cool, bright and covered on the sill if you have no cold frame. If you would rather start with the flowers chosen for you, our boxed Sweet Pea Collection gathers a season's worth of scented varieties in one go.
The last hardy annuals, under glass only
Direct sowing outdoors is finished for the year on cold Norfolk soil. A hardy annual scattered on open ground in November mostly sits, sulks and rots before it can germinate. Under glass is another matter. If you didn't manage to get hardy annuals in, a few of the toughest are still worth a gamble sown into modules in a cold frame, or on a cold, bright windowsill: cornflowers, nigella and calendula are the ones we would still risk, because they germinate in the cool and shrug off a hard winter as small plants. The lacy umbellifers are better left for spring now.
Keep Them Cool
Module-sown hardy annuals, and sweet peas, want to grow slow and tough, not soft and drawn. An unheated room, a porch or a cold frame beats a warm windowsill every time, because heat and low winter light together give you weak, leggy seedlings that never come to much.
Herbs: Under Cover, and Lifted Indoors
The herb list is down to the cool-season leaves under cover, and a clump or two to bring inside. Coriander and chervil both take a sowing under a cloche, or in a pot in the cold frame, for a slow trickle of leaf through the winter. Coriander is far happier in the cool than in summer heat, when it bolts in a fortnight, and chervil is hardy enough to sit out the cold for its delicate, aniseed-tinged leaf.
Everything tender, though, is done. Stop sowing basil, dill and the warmth-lovers now, because there is neither the heat nor the light to carry them, and a packet started in November only disappoints. Leave them in the drawer for a windowsill sowing in spring. What November does offer instead is forcing a little for the kitchen: a clump of mint or chives dug from the garden, cut back, potted up and stood on a bright sill, will keep you in fresh pickings through the weeks when the outdoor plants have died right back.
Vegetables: A Few That Still Earn Their Place
Overwintering broad beans head the list, direct into the ground or into deep pots. Broad Bean 'Aquadulce Claudia' is the classic autumn-sown variety, hardy through a Norfolk winter and ready weeks ahead of a spring sowing. Set the beans about 20cm apart and a couple of inches deep, and take what shelter you can from the wind. An autumn crop tends to be podding before the blackfly arrives in force, which is half the reason to bother.
Under cover, the salad keeps going. A hardy cos such as Little Gem will stand all winter under a cloche or in the cold frame, and a last sowing of oriental leaves such as Pak Choi 'Rubi' gives quick, mild pickings in the cool. For leaf that simply refuses to quit, perpetual spinach and wild rocket both sit happily under a cloche and crop on and off right through to spring, the rocket with a peppery kick that sharpens as the weather cools.
Microgreens: The Windowsill Crop
The real winner in November needs no garden, no greenhouse and barely any daylight. Microgreens give you fresh, sharp leaves within a week or two on a kitchen windowsill, through the darkest month of the year. Sow thickly across the surface of a shallow tray of compost, or onto a damp growing mat, keep them bright and snip with scissors when they stand a few centimetres tall.
The quickest and the most reliable, with rough timings for a warm kitchen:
- Radish is the fastest and the showiest, up in two or three days and ready to cut in about a week, with a genuine hot-radish kick. China Rose and Rambo are the ones grown for microgreens, with pink and purple stems.
- Cress is the classic, ready in one to two weeks, peppery and dependable. A pinch of common cress goes a very long way.
- Pea shoots take two to three weeks: sow a pot of dried or garden peas thickly and cut them at around 8 to 10cm for sweet, crunchy tips that often shoot again for a second cut.
- Rocket gives a peppery leaf in two to three weeks, the same wild rocket you grow under the cloche, simply cut young and small.
- Alfalfa is sprouted in a jar rather than sown in compost, rinsed twice a day and ready in four to six days for a mild, crunchy tangle.
A windowsill greenhouse keeps a succession going on the sill, and the reusable hemp microgreen mats make the tray-sowing cleaner and quicker if you would rather not handle compost indoors.
Jobs for a Wet Afternoon
When the weather keeps you indoors, November is the month to get the growing kit ready for next year, and it is time well spent. Clean your pots and seed trays, and give the greenhouse or cold frame a wash down while they are empty, because old compost and dirty pots harbour the pests and diseases that quietly undo a spring sowing. Check your cloches and fleece before you need them and mend or replace whatever the summer wore out, because the first hard frost gives no notice at all. And mulch: a thick layer of compost, leaf mould or well-rotted manure over cleared beds now protects the soil, feeds it over winter and saves you digging in spring.
November is also the month to order seed while the choice is at its fullest, especially anything you mean to sow early. Our Winter Seed Collection is being packed and posted this month, so if a boxed start to the seed year appeals, now is when it goes out of the door.
If You Only Do One Thing This Month
Sow your sweet peas. It is the single most rewarding thing you can put in during November. An autumn-sown batch makes strong roots over winter and rewards you with longer stems and earlier, more scented flowers than anything you sow next spring. Everything else on this list is a bonus.
What to Sow in November: Common Questions
Is it too late to sow anything in November?
No, but the list is short. Sweet peas in root trainers, overwintering broad beans outdoors, and herbs, winter salads and microgreens under cover or on a windowsill. Direct sowing on open ground is finished until spring.
Can I still sow sweet peas in November?
Yes. November is a good second chance if you missed October. Sow into deep root trainers, keep them cool and bright over winter, and pinch out the tips in February rather than now.
Can I direct sow hardy annuals in November?
Not on cold, wet soil, where they tend to rot before they germinate. A few of the toughest, such as cornflowers, nigella and calendula, are worth a gamble in modules under glass instead.
What can I grow on a windowsill in November?
Microgreens are the best indoor crop of the month: radish and cress in about a week, pea shoots and rocket in two to three weeks, and alfalfa sprouted in a jar in under a week. All you need is a bright sill and a shallow tray.
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