Week 43 21 - 28th Oct

Things you can do this week
The largest prunings of gooseberries, blackcurrants and red currants are easy to propagate from this years wood. If you're sure your stock is disease free take pieces 18 inches long and making a slit into the soil with a spade, insert the twigs up to three quarters of their length into the soil making sure that the top of the twig is the right way up and not buried. Leave until next year when they can be stripped of any growth apart from five or six buds at the top and the roots below ground, and transplanted to grow on for a further year. After two years you can begin prunning your new bushes to shape.

Gardening diary 43

Diary week 43 October 21st - October 28th

Links to weeks throughout the year 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52

2022

28 OCT Youtube video - Wild bees, weeding leeks, rotten apples, finding pests.
26 OCT Youtube video - Compost heap turned, lettuce planted in the rain. Four poles cut out of hedge.
24 OCT Youtube video - Moving plants and making space for the shallots.
23 OCT Youtube video - Planting gooseberry bushes>

2008

Winter has arrived this week and we have been experiencing the first frost of the year. In the allotment the Dahlias are black and need cutting down. In the back garden the Nasturtium have been only half wilted but their days are now numbered.

I am keeping a record of my bee keeping a saparate blog now. Please see Patrick's Bee Blog

2005

Weekend October 22/23 2005 The fine weather continued over the weekend and on Sunday I opened up half of the bee hives and checked that they had laying queens. I still need to feed some of these hives it appears as although they have been making Ivy honey mixed with sugar syrup they haven't been filling all the frames in the supers. I took the strips out from some of the hives as they had been in for nearly two months. In one hive only I still had strips to put in. The sad effects of the virus was evident in this hive with a number of wingless bees wandering over the comb.

I sowed two rows of broad beans and planted out one hundred Crocus Chrysanthus Saturnus from my consignment of bulbs that arrived a couple of days ago. Most of the bulbs I have bought are Tulips that I will plant in November so I have begun preparing the ground for those.

2003

The ground is still very dry under the surface, the top two or three inches are now moist but below that the soil is still dry as dust. I still have potatoes to dig, apples to pick and ground to manure and dig but have already sown broad bean seeds and planted out the spring cabbage plants and cloves of garlic.

Urban Jungle Sell exotic and jungle plants including cannas, gingers, bananas, tree ferns, palms, bamboos and aroids by mail order and from their nursery in Norfolk.