Pruning

Yesterday was a day for pruning the soft fruit bushes. The currants and gooseberries are now looking much healthier with a more open structure. They've had one mulch of compost but they'll get another in spring with a couple of handfuls of wood ash for each bush. Hopefully it'll be bumper crops again next year.

I pegged down two low branches from currant bushes last spring to create new plants and they now have a healthy growth of roots. These will be severed from the parents and transplanted but for the time being I'll leave them where they are as the ground is completely waterlogged and not suitable for planting anything. Layering seems to be the best way to propagate currants as it gives a strong healthy plant straight away rather than waiting a couple of years for a cutting to root and develop.

Out on my travels the other day I stopped in a lay-by and in a corner between two walls the wind had blown leaves into a pile nearly three feet deep. Being a born forager I always have a selection of plastic bags and containers in the car so I filled two large sacks which will be used to top up the leaf mould cages.

 

Not sure that many people find sacks of leaves interesting so here's something a little more picturesque. 

'belties' (belted Galloway cattle) sheltering from the wind. Note the thick coats to survive up here!

snow-mantled Criffel on the Scottish side from Campfield Marsh on the English side of the Solway