What I did today 2020

[ameno]

Planted my onion sets. The bag of 50 didn't go that far - wondering if I should buy more.

Put yet another load of coffee grounds on the compost bin. That's the fourth load now, and each is around 8-10kg.

Dug over some more of the potato patch. About 2/3 done now.

Sowed my chitted peas in a length of gutter, and put that in my conservatory.

[Small pumpkin]

Potted up some more chillies into 1lt pots.
Set up the heat mat & heated propagator in the polytunnel.
Sown lot of seeds.

[bikermike]

Got pallets! The good thing about this wfh malarkey is I can see things in skips when there are builders to ask, and I'm not wearing a suit. Round our way, green bins are going to be charged for, and I've now got 4 I'm going to take, so I'm going to build another bay on my compost heap...

[Bonjour]

Forked over a bit more of my roots patch in my lunchtime and stuck a thermometer in my hotbed that I got finished at the weekend. The muck/straw mix is now up to 31 C. After work, I sowed 2 3"pots with 2 seeds each of Crimson Sweet Watermelon and put them in the propagator with heat mat under, and 20 modules of multi-sown Ishikura spring onions which will live in the greenhouse until they are big enough to go out.

[Bren In Pots]

Tidied up my GH replaced the shelving on the racks then had a sowing session.

[Bonjour]

Sowed Golden Zucchini and Midnight F1 courgettes in pots to start indoors. Sowed my third short row of Douce Provence peas.

[self-contained]

I had the day off work today as I'm on-call over the weekend. I've set up a new seedlings and microgreens station in front of the window in the spare room, using bed slats and boxes. I can rest various trays and pots there, for reasonable light. That roughly triples my indoor growing space, but compost will be the limiting step. I'm going to try and make a Lidl compost run around 8pm, but will retreat if it looks busy. My parents were going to bring me a big bag in time for potato planting, but I'm just going to have to shuttle smaller bags home when I get the chance.

I've sown a few seeds too, but most of the day has been devoted to getting as up to date with the latest COVID science as possible and getting some rest.

[ameno]

Dug some more of my potato patch. Pretty much done now. Just need to do about 6 inches more, then dig in some poultry manure, and then it's ready for planting the spuds.

As of yesterday, I'm off work now for who knows how long (I work in a cinema), so at least I've got plenty of free time to get things done at the allotment and in my garden.

[Nicos]

Did loads of weeding and cutting back in the sunshine

[bramble]

Planted up my 6 Edzel Blue potatoes in a half barrel.
Dug over the bed where I will be planting out my Sweetpeas.
Did some weeding and digging.potted on the last of my peppers..

[bikermike]

As I'm working from home, I nipped to the plot at lunchtime and got my Desiree chits in.

only need to put my pink fir in and that's my spuds in for the year.


Moved a pallet to the plot to start a third bay on my compost heap.

[Small pumpkin]

Finally finished clearing bed 4. Put 5 barrow loads of manure on it. A little late, but last minute decision to use that bed. Pruned the herb plants that live at either end of bed 4.
Took a big trug load of compost off my carrot bed ( or bath if I’m being factual ), replaced it with manure, mixed the trug full of compost with blood , fish & bone and put it back on the top. It felt very wrong, but as courgettes not carrots are going in there. It’s all good.

[ameno]

Went out and picked up a whole load of sand someone was giving away. Now I have another 150kg or so of sand for my allotment to help the clay soil.

While I was out, I also bought some tree stakes, and popped into B & Q to look at the plants. The had 20% off all outdoor plants, and I picked up a quite good looking Morello cherry for just £9.60.
I did want to get a kumquat in Lidl, as they just got their citrus trees in, but they seemed to only have lemon and calamondin. I shall try the other Lidl in town, to see if they have kumquats there.

[Bonjour]

Pricked out aubergines, peppers and chillis in my lunch break. Sowed a row of Green Beauty Snow peas after work. Checked the temperature of the muck in my hotbed, still climbing nicely at a toasty 34 C today. Bought a pack of parsnip seeds (White Gem) to replace the miserable failure (but in date) Javelin. I've had good results in the past with White Gem so hopefully these won't let me down. I'm setting them to pre-germinate almost as I type this.

[Nicos]

All onions and shallots are sitting in trays of compost in the blowaway.
Loads more weeding and cutting back done.