It's a funny kind of month, October. For the really keen cricket fan it's when you discover that your wife left you in May. ~Denis Norden, 1977
The Anglo-Saxons called October ‘ Winterfylleth’ a word made from ‘winter’ and ‘full moon’. And they thought that winter started on October’s full moon. So according to this, winter starts on the 23rd. And I haven’t got used to it being autumn yet.
As the nights get longer it seems to be feeling more wintery, with nights getting colder too. But we have had some sunny days recently. I was surprised to find some of last year’s crocus left in the raised bed were up already. They obviously think it’s spring.
We worked in the yard this week, mainly potting up bulbs into tubs ready for next year. We have been donated lots of bulbs, which is great. So we used these and some of the bulbs saved from last year. We have labelled the tubs so that we remember they have bulbs in. It’s easy to forget when you have to wait so long for them to pop up. We have also started to put geraniums and fuchsias in our cold frame to protect them from the frosts. Hopefully keeping them protected means we won’t have to replace them next year.
The kale in the veg garden is doing well and has doubled in size this week. It looks like 2 of the broccoli plants are also kale. It was hard to tell the difference when they were small. Did you know that kale has been found to be a favourite food for ducks? It’s best not to feed them bread, as it’s not particularly good for them or the water where they live. So I like to feed them oats. But apparently a recent survey showed ducks really like the taste of kale. So maybe we can use our kale to feed them, but we will have to wait till it gets even bigger.
I’ve noticed a lot of ladybirds in the garden this month. I’ve been putting them on the cabbage that has whitefly. Hopefully the ladybirds are very hungry.
I’ll be looking upwards on Sunday and Monday. There will be Orionid’s meteor shower on the 21st and the 22nd. This is the tail of Halley’s Comet and there’s a chance of seeing it in the sky above Orion. Let’s hope we have some clear skies. I’m going to be busy next week. Sky watching, and making poppies and doves from plastic bottles too.
The Blooming Old Gardener