Gardening blog

Week forty three October 22nd - October 28th

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.