October was a month for getting potting sheds tidy and small repairs sorted. So, November will provide a chance to get some forward planning done and decide what can be used from the garden to decorate my home over Christmas!

For me, Christmas decorations are about baubles I have collected over the years and taking an old-fashioned approach to decorations. I loved tinsel when I was a child but now - with a better sense of season - I prefer what nature gives instead.Doddington Hall's 'green' Christmas decorations have been an inspiration.

I can stick a few bits of holly on a mantelpiece but I'm no florist. Luckily I have picked up a few ideas from Claire Birch, Doddington Hall's owner, and Rachel Petheram, the Hall's resident cutting gardener and florist. Whilst I may not have their skill, a little of their magic has rubbed off. One or two ideas and insights return effect generously. Each year, Claire and Rachel decorate Doddington's Elizabethan rooms with an approach that has doubtless been used for hundreds of years.

The decorations are all created from dried summer flowers and seasonal foliage - all harvested from the gardens and estate. In previous years, visitors have been able to enjoy large globes of hydrangeas, a mistletoe and ivy 'kissing ball,' ivy and red-berried holly entwined bannisters, displays using dried artichokes, walnut tree branches dripping with baubles and plentiful arrangements of bright red rose-hips. Seasonal foliage such as ivy, holly, birch twigs, red and yellow dog-wood suckers, sedums, larch and pine cones is gathered just before it is needed.

During previous years, produce such as chillies, sweetcorn, globe artichokes, bean pods, poppy seed heads and alliums has been dried and sprayed silver or gold. This year, ladies from the North Midlands group of the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies will also be creating displays in some of the rooms plus willow woodland animals made by Alison Walling will be making an appearance in the Long Gallery's Enchanted Forest (and these will be for sale).

My own garden and home is somewhat smaller but still, during November, I size up what I can gather and what can be done. I am lucky to have two holly trees and  already these are full of red berries so I will put sprigs of this in large bowls plus arrange them on the lunch table. I have a bay tree - which is just about alive after last winter - and this will supply some foliage.

I also have some ivy I have resisted weeding away during the year; this will be entwined around a candelabra. I often do this late November far earlier than I would put our tree up as autumnal and winter colours are my favourite.

My decorations can't rival Doddington Hall, nor my skill match Rachel and Claire's but it feels wonderfully old-fashioned and grounded to carry out the simple pleasure of bringing a little of the outdoors in to such great effect. I've grown to appreciate bulbs in the last few years, probably as I have seen so many looking wonderful in the gardens at Doddington.

This November I will be taking a leaf out of Rachel's book and planting some exquisite tulips. Once there has been a really good frost Rachel plants her tulip bulbs. "Waiting until there has been a hard frost before you plant them is an excellent means of disease control," she explained to me. "The cold should blast any hideous diseases that may be lurking in the soil."

Tulips are planted deeper than normal spring bulbs - about 12 inches deep. Add plenty of grit to the soil. It's really important that the soil is free draining and remember to put a marker where you have planted them.

Doddington is famous for its pageant of bulbs that add 'carpets' of seasonal colour to its gardens each spring.

Many of the daffodils, tulips, crocus and fritillaries are naturalised but still effort is put into ensuring a stunning display. It's during November - and depending on the weather time before and after - that Claire Birch's team of gardeners put in effort in planting extra bulbs. Not one to let her secateurs rest for too long, Rachel still does some pruning at this time of the year. "Most pruning of woody plants like trees and shrubs is done in spring and early summer but there is some pruning work best done in winter."

"For instance lilac is best renovated in winter which means you can cut it hard if you wanted to reduce the size and let it re-grow from the base." Rachel also explained that the stems of dogswood are often pruned in the spring so the lovely vibrant colours of the stems can be enjoyed in the winter but they be thinned now and the stems brought into the house and fresh green leaves will develop by Christmas.

As I have no cats - just a busy-body Westie - I like to see birds in my garden. Putting out bird food will help during winter when food is scarce. You could also allow some of your plants to go to seed to provide winter food for seed-eating birds.

"Seed heads also have an aesthetic bonus, as they provide winter interest in the garden," adds Rachel, always with one eye on the overall look of the garden.

Planting bulbs, earmarking seasonal foliage and feeding the birds.... isn't November bliss!