And I haven’t posted for week 3, and now we are on week 4. In my defence, for the last week I have had no Broadband connection: It’s very difficult to use the internet when you can’t get on it except on a mobile phone.
But it is the end of October, and even with 2 weeks of work, there is fortunately not much to do.
- Lift your gladioli bulbs, well corms technically. If you have some you really want to keep, lift them, knock off the damp soil, tie the tops together and hang them in a shed or garage until they are dry and the tops are withered and dead; then clean the corms, cut off the tops, and store corms in a cool, dry (but frost-free) location until next spring. Alternatively, treat them as an annual and just lift and dispose of the whole lot. Baby corms should be kept, as although they may not flower next year, they will grow and in time give you more and more corms.
- Dig and lift your Turnips: Cut off the tops and pile them up. They keep in any frost-free location, but are best if you can also cover them in dry sand or clean ashes.
- Cut the tops off any asparagus or globe artichokes you may be growing. Cut off all the tops with shears, collect and dispose of the tops cleanly; Mr. Hellyer suggests burning them. Of course, in this modern age of low-carbon emissions, of course we wouldn’t burn them… Who am I kidding? Burning destroys the bacteria and fungi that accrue in the annual growth of these plants. Don’t compost them and put them back on the ground, unless you have a love of using chemicals to save your crops. I’m no organic champion, just use your common sense. After you have removed the tops, lightly fork between the crowns of the plants.
- Plant your tulips and hyacinths for next year. Add bone meal to the soil as you plant to give good flowering.
- Anything you may be growing on the green house for next spring, pot it on into the next size pots: seedlings into 3″ pots.
- Re-pot any deciduous shrubs you grow in pots that need to be moved into large pots. But don’t disturb the root ball, just put the root ball into a larger pot and fill around the edges with new compost.
- Grow your own winter mint: Lift roots from outside plants, and lay them in shallow trays of compost and cover them. Place the trays in cool, frost-free location and keep them damp but not wet. Take a tray at a time, putting them in a warmer place (such as a kitchen window sill) and keep watered; this will stimulate growth, the rate of growth being affected by how warm or cool they are kept.
- Plant Lily of the Valley. Make sure you include lots of humus (leaf mould, fine well-rotted wood chip and other well-rotted garden waste) as they love free-draining but moisture-retaining soil.
I hope you forgive my delay in posting, and of course, next week is the change from October to November, so November’s 1st week will be in October’s last week… Confusing huh?
I hope the weather stays fine for a few days at least! Happy gardening!
Leaf Cutters 