Tag Archives: organic gardening

Monthly things to do

THINGS TO DO AND WHAT TO SOW IN OCTOBER

October is really a great time to forage for wild damsons,sloes,elderberry and Blackberry’s to name a few all great for making a variety of fruit Vodkas and Gins which will be ready in time for Christmas.Its also the time for harvesting apples and a great way to use bruised apples which wont store is to make cider vinegar its really easy and far superior to shop bought.

Still lots to sow and plant really important to get garlic planted as it needs the cold to split the bulbs,and if you don’t like garlic try elephant garlic much milder,you can still sow salads and lettuce Meraviglia inferno will cope with the coldest weather as will ‘Lunga delle Cascine’ broad beans

 

 

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Fruit growing, How to grow soft fruit

RASPBERRIES – HOW TO TRAIN AND PRUNE

Raspberries are easy to look after if you follow some simple rules for pruning them to make sure you get maximum crop which also helps to reduce there chance of disease as there not as congested.Your Raspberries will be either Summer fruiting called floricane types or Autumn Fruiting called primocane and as i grow then next to each other its easy to see the difference.These Raspberry were all planted earlier in the year and its important to get your stock plants from a reputable nursery
After you have pruned you raspberries its best to either burn or dispose of the trimming but dont add them to your compost heap as you may spread disease spores

I have been as asked which secateurs I use  Okatsune Secateurs
from Niwaki who have a fantastic range of superb pruning tools

The Nursery I use for my fruit is Blackmore fruit

 

 

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Growing annual flowers

GROWING ANNUAL FLOWERS WITH HIGGLEDY GARDEN —- LATE SUMMER

In this late summer update Benjamin Ranyard from Higgledygarden shows us just how much colour his hardy and half-hardy flowers are producing,some fantastic Zinnias and Scabious which along with the cosmos have been a fantastic source of food for the numerous bees and hoverflys,which i believe have had a massive effect on the bumper crop of beans in the veg garden next door

higgledygarden.com

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Beans, Climbing beans

CROPPING RUNNER,BUTTERBEANS AND CLIMBING BEANS

Without doubt the highest yielding vegetables you can grow in the garden and really invaluable for Winter use dried these Butter beans and Borlotti beans are growing in a tiny No-Dig bed in my mums small urban back garden and the soil preparation is now really paying dividends

The Butterbeans I am growing are FAGIOLO DI SPAGNA which are the only ones I have ever had much success with and the Borlotti are LAMON  both from seeds of Italy

http://www.seedsofitaly.com/

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How to grow soft fruit

HOW TO GROW MELONS

Although having a wonderfully exotic taste musk melons and their derivatives are no harder to grow than a cucumber.  Easy to grow outdoors as they will scramble across the bed, a better use of space in the greenhouse to grow them up supports.  If you do this you will really need to support each individual melon and this film shows you a simple way to do this.

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