Was familiar with November in the gardens (4)
I believe the answer is:
knew
'was familiar with' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'november in the gardens' is the wordplay.
'november' becomes 'N' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'in the' indicates putting letters inside.
'gardens' becomes 'Kew' (Kew Gardens in London).
'n' put into 'kew' is 'KNEW'.
(Other definitions for knew that I've seen before include "Was cognisant or aware of" , "Had learnt; sounds like modern" , "Was conscious of" , "Acknowledged" , "Understood" .)