What I did today 2020

[self-contained]

I've pruned my gooseberry to keep the centre nice and open. It could really do with being moved into a bigger pot with some fresh compost this year. I also snipped a bit of wood away from the poor new gooseberry and kiwi plants that I bought around 18 months ago (if not longer) but have never got round to potting on. They are still in the tiny containers they were in when I bought them, but both have twigs with nice green centres so I haven't killed them!

I should really try and pot on the parsley I bought last week and sow some more peas and microgreens, but I've spent most of my day so far on other household chores, so it may have to wait.

[Can the Man]

Finally got to sow some carrots type Amsterdam, and also sowed some English lavender seeds. I want to put lavender at the base of my perimeter fence. Also sowed some giant flat leaf parsley seeds.

[FBI]

3 more pallet fence panels and a herb planter. Bought more nails. Ran out of pallets!

[Bonjour]

Mended the broken vent on my greenhouse. It joins its pal in having polycarbonate instead of glass. Had enough of the wind shaking them off the stays, flipping them over the ridge and smashing the glass. Also straightened up a few panes that had gone squiffy. A few cracked ones will need replacing but I'll wait till winter's out the way to do that.

Sowed Corno di Toro Rosso pepper seed.

Edit: Nearly forgot, planted a load of sprouted left-over Accord potatoes in 12" pots in the greenhouse, one to a pot. not expecting masses but hoping for some nice early baby new spuds.

[Harry998]

Sowed the first carrots of the year
4 hours of war with brambles so the hedge row can breathe
Mused over where half of my winter onions have gone and why the pigeons look so coincidentally pleased with themselves

[Can the Man]

Welcome to the vine Harry998
I sowed my first carrots of 2020 today as well. Still eating last years. Don’t envy you working with brambles .

I don’t think it’s the pigeons taking your onions, I grow onions every year outside, I am plagued with pigeons who decimate my cabbages if I don’t put nets on them, but they have never gone near my onions.
Can’t say the same for pheasants who dig out my potatoes and leave them on the top of the soil to go green from the sun.

[bario1]

Pruned various things, both edible and non-edible.
Dug up lots of docks before they get going.
Emptied out my water butts, boring job, but needs doing to prevent my polytunnel floor from getting waterlogged.
Cut back raspberry canes to the ground.
Cut last year’s dead growth from the peonies - noticed new shoots coming already!
Did a bit of tidying - this year’s goal (as was last year’s) is to reduce plastic on the plot to the bare minimum - more for aesthetic reasons than environmental, but kinda kills two birds with one stone.
Emptied some potato pots - Jazzy all spoilt, but some useable Anyas.
Weeded under the plum tree.

[ameno]

Dug some more of the bed I was digging previously.

Uncovered the patches I had dug earlier for planting my new trees. The soil was still prett sticky (although better than it was before I covered it), so today I dug in lots of sand, spent hops, used compost, and also some crushed-up plasterboard (i.e. gypsum). It's gping to be dry for the next few days, so I'm leaving it uncovered and will check again Saturday. If it's not too bad, I'll plant the trees.

[Plot12c]

Planted fruit bushes that I bought from Tesco and planted some Shallots. Weeded a couple of beds and spread around 6 X

[muck lover]

I’ve dug up four quite large blueberry bushes from a raised bed and put them into pots. Today I revamped the raised bed with partially finished compost from my rotary composter and a bit of leafmould. I put the compost in layers with the old ericaceous compost. Just have to decide what to grow there. It needs to be something that can tolerate the extremely well drained conditions although I’m hoping the compost will help there. Also my chickens have free range in this area so not brassicas which they devour. Maybe potatoes followed by leeks.... or a dressing of wood ash and then onion sets... or broad beans.... decisions decisions.

[Mamzie]

Sowed my first 2 bags with early potatoes, Sharps Express in the greenhouse. Also a tub of peas for some pea shoots, along with some broad bean seeds to plant out in a month or so.

Have sown some salad leaves in modules in propagator to then move out into tub in greenhouse when germinated,

[ameno]

Dug the area I set aside for transplanting my strawberries (they're all over the place at the moment), and dug in some sand and used compost. I shall probably start moving them tomorrow.

[Bonjour]

Sowed the first short row of Douce Provence peas outdoors. Stuck a few peas in modules in the greenhouse for spares. Aiming to do peas properly this year and sow little and often to avoid glut and famine.

[Aberdeenplotter]

fitted replacement drive belt to my old rotavator and although it was perfect lengthwise, the profile of the vee belt was too narrow and it didn't work. Growllll. Never heed, I'll exchange it and hopefully have better luck next time.

I also fitted a new gutter to my plot shed and routed the outlet from the gutter into my IBC. However, I'm going to have to redo that as well because I had to fit a piece of wood between the back of the shed and the gutter brackets as otherwise the rain running off the roof would have run over the gutter without touching it. However, my bit of wood was too thick and the rain will probably run straight off the roof and not get as far as the gutter. Who said practice makes perfect?

Seriously though, I should really have checked everything out before I started instead of trying to make do with what I had available at the plot.

[ameno]

Replanted some of my strawberry plants. About 2/3 done, I think.