The 'What I Did Today' Archive - 2007

[sewer rat]

Well I've been and gone and done it again - back to having three jobs again !!
As well as my market garden business and my weekends as a bouncer at the local club, I am now gardener for a local estate !
Anyway, I am as happy as a pig in doo-dah, so no worries - bonus - I can use any of the estate machinery on my site whenever I want, and they keep horses and ponies so Iona is gonna get as many free riding lessons as she wants, so she now thinks I'm just the bestest daddy ever - think my OH is slightly p*ssed as she never sees me now - you think she'd be happy !!
Tunnel is full to point of growing out the door - plants for local GC start to move out on Sunday - will be able to issue my first invoice then !!
Know I keep promising photos - they will be here soon, I promise (again)

[Seabreeze]

More rain this morning, and after only three days of not much sun I am already beginning to get the shakes. That'll teach me to reduce the anti-d's so soon in the 'summer'.

Anyway, the weeds are starting to germinate, so today I'll need to get out there hoeing before going away.

Last evening I checked out the broad beans and there isn't any blackfly. I did squash a few bean weevils(?) though - those nasty little hard things that I am sure are responsible for nibbling the edges of the leave.

I am still getting off very lightly with the neighbours' watering this week, as it has been so dull.

The blinkin canary we are looking after is becoming a pain. He is drinking far more than I think he should be... with obvious consequences. There is a slight pong in the air... and I'm sneezing day after day.

I have been nipping back unwanted shoots on the grape vine planted last year... and the flower buds as the books dictate. I also had to thin the nectarines yet again - it's only a small tree, but they are coming out very close together, so it would seem to be necessary.

We'll have some more strawberries from the indoor crop on Sunday. Let's hope the sun will reappear soon. This greyness is not for me.

[Sebbster]

Dropped into poundland and picked up 4 6m x 1m stretches of fleece, of course for £1 each. Cant believe how cheap this is compared to GC's. Not very wide admittedly, but good enough to put over a few rows of carrots after I've thinned and attracted carrot-fly.


Another job on the list...

[Kimbo]

Dropped into poundland and picked up 4 6m x 1m stretches of fleece, of course for £1 each. Cant believe how cheap this is compared to GC's. Not very wide admittedly, but good enough to put over a few rows of carrots after I've thinned and attracted carrot-fly.


Another job on the list...

it is good stuff, i got some and stuck two pieces together with wonderweb to get some width.

[TonyF]

So busy really don't know where to start. It's so bloody hot here atm, over 30 every day - 36 yesterday - so afternoon work is difficult. And not sure what I've done today, done so much. Past few days finished organising raised beds and planting them up - courgettes etc - moved the JAs to their new home, organised my pots, bought some new shelving for them for the shed, planting out, weeding etc etc. And I finished the fruit cage, all well pinned down.

This morning used swimming pool repair kits to repair small cracks in water butts.

Back to chums tomorrow for more planting and organising - and somebody else wants me to do their potager also!

[shirlthegirl43]

Spent an hour in the greenhouse potting on my chilis and peppers and planting some squash seeds - Piglet's carnival squash, some spotted swan and some courgettes. The spotted swan were bought as I went through Amsterdam airport last week - decorative only. If they grow I will save seed and give to anyone interested (advice on saving seed for growing will be investigated once I get fruit).

Hoped to get more planted but just ran out of time.

[wellie]

No time to 'catch slugs' this morning..... Girlies had to go SHOPPING !..... Wedding Reception (not mine) in two weeks' time, so, we measured the beds, went to the garden centre, looked at what they had, sat down on a sofa with large frothy coffees, and just 'planned' till we'd done.
We had a smile the two of us 'from ear to ear', and a very scary look in our eyes, with a 'twinkle' all at the same time.
And then we 'bit the bullet'..... By 6pm this evening, we'd got most of them planted: Handful of Blended Farmyard Manure Compost, generous sprinkling of Growmore, and a Liquid Feed an hour or two before planting....
We're smiley confident with an added dose of 'positive thinking' and huge amounts of TLC for a superb display on 12th May. Her bloke returned from work, and was more 'blown away' even than we were.... (not possible!) just how lovely is it be to really appreciated?
What a truly enjoyable day I've had today....
Thank you for listening,

[Seabreeze]

It's daft really because we haven't actually had ANY rain to speak of. I just saw it looked very wet the other morning and assumed it had poured down for hours.

There's hardly anything in the water buts off the greenhouse roof - and the lawns are cracking up again.

I don't actually care a bit though, because after three days of murk, the sun is back!!!

There is subsequently lots of watering to do this evening to keep the new fruit trees on form.

Bits of bindweed have been appearing here and there, so I sharpened a hoe - mega sharp. I have this 'thing' about sharpening things... and most times I do manage to cut myself in the process. Why I need the hoe to be SO sharp, Lord only knows!

(The canary's owner has just phoned to say she's back - yippee! I have a little Cadbury egg, cake decoration that I'm going to chuck in its cage as 'revenge' just before she collects it... )

Good gardening

K

[wellie]

Oh Seabreeze made me laugh there with the Cadbury Cake Decor-Egg.... That's just SO wicked!

Another day of planting for my clients' Wedding Reception in their garden.....
Bright Rose Geraniums, Violet, White and Mauve Impatiens, Silver Helichrysums, Silver Beacon Lamiums, stripey deep purple and white Petunias and soft feathery Brachycome. It's finally finished, and we're suitably 'Cream Crackered'.
Back home, as is usual every evening, a wander round Holly Cottage Garden, with a glass of Pinot, to see just what has germinated, flowered or fruited in my absence. Annoy the cat for a while (who always meets me at the gate when I get home), and then watering and liquid feeding where necessary, whilst catching up on the days' news with Trousers.
And especially, these days, adding a few more entries to my TO DO LIST!
Thank you for listening,

[TonyF]

Brill day yesterday, weather warm/hot but overcast, bit humid so could work right through.

Was at chum's all day, put the stakes and heavy strings behind all the fruit bushes, planted some lettuces and spare JA's from my potager, put in peppers (hot and sweet) and aubergines, long and round courgettes and melons.

As they are open to the public, sorted out signage and then put bark over some of the beds for weed control and water retention.

Afternoon was putting bags of compost out on their terrace and planting out the house tomatoes and peppers.

Had a long planning chat, looked at another area with which they want help, organised another pair of hands for next Tuesday to help prune trees and dig over and weed the third bed for me, they agreed to have their own hives for Domain de Peyrecaty honey for next year and planned the next few week's work.

AND a chum of their's who's seen their new garden certainly wants me to put a new potager in for her!

Don't you just love gardening! Pricking out plants this morning, lunch out and pictures this afternoon - I need a day off to recharge.

[heebiejeebie]

Still too busy with my other hobby to do much in the garden or allotment (marathon tomorrow - must save back muscles!) but I'm spending a couple of hours pricking out and potting on until I (a) run out of compost (b) run out of trays and pots and/or (c) run out of seedlings.

Actually, (c) is not likely!

[laura g]

Enjoying seabreezes posts - portland is one of my most favourite places and reminds me of my aunty eileen just down the road in wyke. Years ago I lived and worked a summer season there. I handed on an old battered potted yucca plant that i abused/ignored/neglected for the summer.

it's still going strong in her beautiful garden!!!

i've been away working for the past few days. terrible drag BUT how amazing to come back and see the changes in the garden after just a small length of time! They say a watched kettle never boils.... but now i can really see that what we've been doing in our cack-handed-amateurish-complete-beginners-way is actually working.

Toms in greenhouse are completely mad and flowering everywhere. Lettuces actually look like lettuces. Spring onions are, well, springing and the cucumber plants look huge. PLUS i planted salad leaves and more toms from seeds given away in mags and they have actually come up! yay!

we planted peas out last weekend and they looked like they'd failed...went all limp and pathetic. however they've rallied over the last few days so you never know!

much more interested in veg than flowers - its a new garden to us so we're using the 'lets see what comes up' tack. however the sweet williams my mum planted out for me in all the front garden containers are doing what they should be. she (mum) is actually gardening hero right now.

she came to stay why i was away - trust OH with kids but he's not got the patience for our mad old cat and lunatic young lurchers!! as well as animal care, she's cleared a 30' x 10' patch of weird stuff which i think is called elephants ears. cant remember the proper name. no idea why it was planted where it was and in such large numbers. apparently it was evil to get up and what we thought would be nice soil underneath is old broken bricks and hardcore.

i'm a little calmer and confident now about the garden stuff. have read so much and got bogged down in doing things 'properly'. very commendable but has made me a bit boring i think.

shall shut the books for the weekend and try the 'gardening by red wine' approach. few glugs in and everything seems like a good idea. go for it, and all that!!

[pigletwillie]

I arrived at the plots today hot from the quarry at 7.30am to be greeted by proffesor Yaffle ferreting about between my broad beans. I was transfixed watching him hoover up ants only for him to be scared off by a female pheasant that came a sauntering up the path.

After this dose of nature it was out with the kettle and a swift cup of coffee before planting out Jalapeno peppers in the side by side greenhouses now that it is emptying out of plants and seedlings. A bonus was that three cape gooseberries have overwintered successfully and are sending up shoots like there is no tommorow.

My mixed lettuce, lollo rosso, red salad bowl, australian yellowleaf and little gem have been planted into a raised bed with half going in a tunnel to bring on faster.

The last banana shallots went in with a tray full going to Potty potter who came a visiting to collect some plants that were spare.A pleasant bonus was a gift of perrenial flower seedlings from her daughter which will be planted out with great care tommorow. Its always nice to put a face to a name.

Last of all it was rhubarb time as I am going to make a big batch of rhubarb and ginger jam tonight. A big trug full of stalks were pulled along with some leeks, and spring onions to go in a chicken stirfry for tea.

Cheers peeps

[tai haku]

today I harvested and ate my first tomato of the season (Juliet if anyone's interested, thick juicy flesh on a grape shaped cherry tomato). I'm now waiting for the cricket to start before headed off to a mates for a curry featuring my first chillis of the season this evening.

Tomorrow will probably prick out the next rotation of tom and chilli seedlings.

[Pottypotter]

After a quick trip to the allotment to water the seedlings in the greenhouse we went to see Piglet who very kindly showed us around his plots (very impressive, put mine to shame) Left with Banana shallots, stripy tomatoes, chillies, peppers, aubergines and gooseberry bushes looking forward to trying them all. Thank you very much Piglet .
Then into Leicester for shopping and lunch.