The 'What I Did Today' Archive - 2007

[sewer rat]

Got phone call last night, lorry with my polytunnel due to leave Lancashire this morning. Should be here tomorrow !!. Absolutely pissing down here all day - went out to "The Field" as Iona has christened it, arranged for lime to be spread by local contractor as soon as weather allows - pH only about 5.5 at the mo, then dropped 500m of fencing, rolled up all the wire, removed all the posts, got fed up with water running down my neck under my jacket and up my sleeves, so finished that and came home. Coffee and The Vine !

[lyndap]

Been peeing down all day today,but sun has just come out now!Sounds like you are really busy Rat.Will keep fingers crossed for you for some decent weather so you dont have to get so much of the wet stuff running down your neck!!!

[sewer rat]

Cheers Lynda
To be quite honest though, I really didn't mind, and was quite happy most of the day - maybe it's 'cause now that I am self employed it was for my own benefit as opposed to doing it for someone else and getting paid two tenths of bugger all for it (only problem is now I'm getting paid less than that !!)

[sewer rat]

Just had 3kg of spring planting garlic delivered to the door - that's a shedload of cloves to plant out !!

[Two_Sheds]

Today, I have posted some seeds out to some Grapes and started hardening off my mustard plants ready to go into Lottie (free seeds with GYO - oriental spicy salad)

[sewer rat]

Today I marked out my paths/roads, shed foundations and polytunnel areas. And then my polytunnel arrived - doesn't look much lying in corner of a field in flat-pack form.
Measured out my "bed" areas too - have a bed just for salad crops (lettuce etc) and other miscellaneous crops that is 50m by 20m, then my 4 main "beds" - each is 65m x 61m. This still leaves me room for access roads right round the outside, and forming a cross through the centre,two more tunnels, a car park and a farm shop eventually !
Also got a letter from Electricity Board who want £7500 to connect me to the grid so I'm doing a deal with the farmer and saving myself £5k
Not bad for a Friday !!

[Peter]

Had the day off work to sort probate, which took alot less time than I thought, so I have got a long enough extension lead to reach the greenhouse.

Now I'm a happy Peter, I plugged in my diddy one tray propagator and sowed Chilli Peppers, Sweet Peppers and a packet of last years unused Butternut Squash in two quarter trays and one half tray respectively. The propagator went into shelf two (from bottom) of the plastic growbag greenhouse in the centre of the greenhouse. In the growbag house also went PigletWillie's Banana Shallots, directly above the "diddy" and some climbing french beans and finally a packet of last years unused Sweetcorn (50 seeds)

This is a bit of an experiment and I'm mostly using older seed as it would bin otherwise.

To finish off I addressed some of my bulb problems. Three two foot window-box type plastic trays with poorly growing bulbs, were emptied, de-composted and re-potted with fresh compost to go on the staging. The similar tray with garlic bulbils from last year that either birds or squirrels has a good dig in was emptied and eleven viable little beads with a few white and one green thread hanging of them carefully transferred to 3" pots also on the staging.

Final touch was to sow some Little Gem lettuce in a plug tray on the main house staging.

Before anyone says anything about extension leads, it IS on an RCD and it is temporary.

[kirsty b]

Haven't done much lottie wise over the last few days as its been raining n and off, and my clay soil is fairly sticky at the mo. Have been to Aldi and bought 4 x fruit bushes (1.99 for 3), should be able to get them in next week as I dug the fruit bed over the other week; and 3 of the trays containing the little 2" pots for seedlings/cuttings.

Got pots and trays of seedlings all over the house and they all seem to be doing okay. Plan to invest in another 4 tier mini greenhouse for the allotment so that some of they trays ca be taken down there, leaving more space around the house to fill.

So flippin frustrated, want to get diggin cos I have so much to do, but ground too wet!
On the plus side, have got my stepsons' bedroom decorated and finished.

Kirsty

[sanman]

Just had about four ton of manure delivered. I managed to shift about half before fatigue made me call it a day

[johnty greentoes]

Stick that in your pipe...

Cold, wet and very, very soggy, perfect digging weather.

Everyone that passed me today ("Go and look at the idiot that's digging in this weather!") had useful advice. Strim it and douse it with weedkiller. Problem is I'm determined to get something from my wasteland this year, and to get it by the sweat of my brow. So my strategy is to slice of the grass, dig to 1 spade's depth (after that I hit reddish, dryish clay), get on my hands and knees and pull each sod apart and remove the perennial roots (see previous posts about docks) and throw on plenty of rotted organic material and sharp sand.

Then I'm planning on leaving it all for a month or so and then turning it over to put in 1st early spuds (currently chitting in the garage).

Digging always reveals buried treasures. Today loads of hariy moth caterpillars and a tiny toad (2cm) - and lots of clay tobacco pipe fragments, evidence of people working the land over the centuries. And presumably they did things the organic hard way, one spade at a time, which offers me tremendous encouragement. If they did it then so can I.

Thanks guys (and gals?). And you strimmer types - stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

(The link below will take you to othe reated posts on my blog).

[HappyMouffe]

In a triumph of optimism over experience, I've sown some cabbage, celeriac and mixed lettuce seeds. I've also sown my 'Orange Banana' tomatoes, and moved my hyacinth pots to outside the front door, as a cheery and scented welcome.

[Hazel at the Hill]

In a triumph of optimism over experience, I've sown some ....

Glad that I'm not the only who who can't resist the urge to sow!

I went to the Hill in the drizzle - then beautiful spring sunshine complete with rainbow - and sowed parsnips (with radish markers....except I'd nearly run out of radish so they are somewhat sparsely sown), a row of beetroot, peas and put in a couple of rows of early potatoes (rocket).

Back for Saturday afternoon batch cooking (coq au vin and beef in black bean sauce)

Of to the gym for a swim later.

[Jan]

typical! - unexpected weekend off & flu Managed to drag myself outside in the drizzle but couldn't do any digging as too wet - very dissapointing. Anyway, set first container of early nantes carrots, transplanted a few all year round lettuce seedlings into pots and under plastic bottles (well you never know!), made a cage and netting to surround the raised beds carefully watched by neighbourhood pidgeons (lining the fence like a row a vultures) and caught up a bit on the vine - no bacon sarnie in bed though, OH doesn't recognise flu (unless it's 'man flu!)

[Earthbabe]

Today I managed to make sense of the patio It now looks much tidier. I shelled some beans that have been sitting around and sorted out the lobby so Mr EB can put my long awaited shelves in. I've posted some stuff on Freecycle and had a small fire in our BBQ. I cut into the pumpkin yesterday as it was starting to crawl out the door but it looks disappointing and I'll have to make soup probably rather than the marmalade I was hoping for. Still the shell was nice and thin so a good carving pumpkin methinks. Seeds were huge.

Off to the seed swap with Miss EB tomorrow just for a mooch. Don't really need anything but since when was that the issue.

[mazel-bee]

It has been an upsetting day today . I have a toad that is pretty much stuck in my garden as we are cut into a cliff/rocky hill with the house front on a road which is through a big wooden gate.
I went to work this morning and my poor toad has managed to escape and he is as flat as flat can be nasty car tire tracks and toad parts.
My OH laughed and wanted to take a photo of the decimated toad!