The 'What I Did Today' Archive - 2007

[JennieAtkinson]

Oh Wellie - fondant icing - you are brave!

I battled with repotting a clematis, first getting its tendrils off the obelisk, then planting it into its new pot, then trying to get the old obelisk back on again. Just didn't have enough hands! Lost great chunks of the clematis. Dived up to the nursery to see if they had another obelisk - no - then back to try canes and a fancy top I'd bought earlier in the year. That just fell apart on the lawn before I had a chance of getting it near the pot. So back to trying the old obelisk - eventually, got it on and the clematis sort of back, but it is probably now so traumatised it will just keel over. I was nearly in tears too.

Oh well ................ didn't really get anything else done!

[greenlung]

Went out to water the allotment before work this morning - mainly the peas, spinach and early leeks which I planted out last week. Sat by the pond, frog watching, worried that the cat's been doing the same.

Someone's stolen a planter, the size of a large suitcase with legs, which a neighbour made and I filled with compost, daffodils, tulips and gladioli corms and placed inside the gate of our back alleyway. Can't believe anyone could be so mean, or desperate. What's worse, it must be someone with a key to our alley: Human slugs !

[shirlthegirl43]

Sorry about that Greenlung, people are so inconsiderate sometimes.

Today I have decimated a gorgeous old honeysuckle as we need to clean the patio and put up a new trellis for the honeysuckle to grow on. It got a really serious haircut but I have left one long 'branch' so that I can try to get rooted cuttings to replace the parent plant with when we re-do the patio (anyone able to advise best way to do this and how long it will take for me to know I have viable plants?)

Also gave my rambling rose a severe haircut (darned thing bites back though) and started weeding my heather bed which I am considering removing to make a space for herbs and salads to grow (heathers were planted there to catch the kids when they forgot there is a drop at the house end of the lawn - they are now old enough to suffer the consequences of forgetting) Still trying to find energy to plant out my peas and sow more seeds.

[LostthePlot]

I dug. I watered. I weeded. I dug. I watered. I weeded. I dug........................... now I know we all like a bit of sunshine, but I think it has forgotten to rain!! What with a burgeoning allotment plot getting fuller everyday with delicate seedlings and my garden at home I feel like a slave to the hosepipe/watering can at the mo'!

[Mrs Dobby]

Had to run some errands this morning, so didnt get to the plot until after lunch, but we did spend a good 5 hours on the plot today, but dont seem to have accomplished much!

Built the other Brassica mesh supports, so both the brassica beds are now protected with 13mm mesh from the dreaded cabbage whites!

Then we built a cucumber ramp, basically an angled support of mesh for the cuces to grow up, the idea came from a post on here by Geo, quite a few folks came over for a look, and several thought it a good idea!

Next we planted some more 'spring' garlic and onion sets, on offer at the GC today, so thought we'd give them a punt!

Then watered and weeded for a bit!

Did want to do some more sowing of carrots, pickling onions and one or two other bits n bobs, but just ran out of time! (Mind you it wasnt helped by the arroval of two friends for a visit, who stayed for about an hour talking, great to see them, but with weather like this and whilst I'm on holiday we want to get as much done as possible! Ah well, at least there's another 3 days before I have to go back to work!)

[Pyewacket]

What I Did Today

I am on holiday this week (HURAH!!) so I have spent the last 2 days at the allotment and in the garden.

At the allotment I have dug over the rye grass again, if anyone is thinking of using this as a green manure beware!! it may put nitrogen in the soil but it fights back when you try to dig it over, so far it has taken me nearly a month and it still won't completely die down. Anyway also weeded and hoed till my fingers hurt. There are flowers on the strawberrys and what looks like baby gooseberries and blackcurrants. At last the raspberries have some leaves and dont look like dead twigs stuck in the ground. Thinned the turnips. That pesky mouse had eaten my peas but luckily not touched the broad beans which are growing very quickly now. Also planted out some french beans and gladioli bulbs. In the garden cleaned out the pond and planted a new water lily. The cannas made nice big shoots today, unfortunately the cat thought they made a nice soft bed.
Pyewacket

[pigletwillie]

I am shattered after a very productive day on the plots. First off 80 calendula plugs (2" pots) went into our flower beds, the tunnels and greenhouses as companion plants and for cutting. A whole raft of cornflower plugs also went out in an attempt out clear the greenhouses of pots before our hols.

In an attempt to get everywhere watered to the max before we go, the blueberries were well soaked as were the strawberries, the garlic beds and the salads. A brucey bonus was seeing the size of our bloody butcher tomatoes. We will be eating home grown tomatoes before the end of May.

[JennieAtkinson]

Prayed for the wonderful weather everybody else seems to be enjoying today.

[heebiejeebie]

I've been cropping - the last of the leeks (nearly) and the first of the overwintered broad beans

[TonyF]

Nothing for two days, after taking neighbour to airport Monday mid day and doing a bit of non-gardening shopping, it's been raining, virtually nonstop and very heavily since.

Mind you, the garden looks a treat, wonderful and green, butts are all full, spuds, grapes, all the soft fruit and kiwis are growing away like mad as is everything else including all the last seeds that have been slow.

Something about sense of wonder comes to mind for some reason.

[Flummery]

Sometimes we envy your sun, Tony. Now we envy your rain! Yesterday I sowed some pre-soaked oregon sugar pods directly into the garden. The previous sowing was done in a drainpipe and went out about 3" high last weekend so a bit of a succession I hope. (Of course, they will catch up and we'll be in glut again.) Weeded onions. Gave everything a good watering at teatime then spent a cold windy evening with the local Natural History Society where we found our local colony of adders tonge - a very small fern.

[Prickety-prackety]

I like the idea of Rubarb and ginger, do you have the recipe? Pigwillie ?

[Alison]

Rhubarb and ginger jam is lovely, have will post my recipe in the relevant section. Am very envious of all your gardening today, will be out watering the greenhouse and picking a bit of lettuce for tea but that's about it today.

[Sebbster]

Earthed up my earlies for the last time, weeded some more and watered my brassicas in again this hot weather is making them wilt a little.

Pics on Blog.

[Mrs Dobby]

Great day on the plot today!

Got down there for 1030am (ish), taking with us lots of growing seedlings, 3 toms and 3 chillies to plant outdoors (first outdoor sowing, so we'll see how they get on!), 5 each of butternut squash, ghostrider pumpkin, 'saved' pumpkins, 24 minipop sweetcorns, 10 more broad beans, 24 rondo peas, 3 each of 2 types cucumber, 3 gherkins, 3 each of two types of courgette and some more rondo peas that had been soaked in water ready for direct sowing (we put them into a tub that has held garlic salt, so they smelled all garlicky, it may deter the mices from digging them up methinks!), so all the windowsills and staging in the back bedroom are a little less full of plants!

First job was to rotorvate (push pull manual rotorvator, not a powered one) the salad bed before planting out the 3 toms and 3 chillies in the bed next to the greenhouse, staked with bamboo canes for support and to help prevent any wind damage!

Next we planted the butternut next to the ones we planted out on Monday, and the ghostriders in the other half of that bed, again next to the ones planted out on Monday. This was then interplanted with minipop sweetcorn, its far enough away from any other beds we are going to be growing sweetcorn in that we shouldnt get any cross pollintation in, and its 2 of the 3 parts of a 3 sisters bed! By the end of the day both the squashes and sweetcorn looked very happy and seemed to have grown about 1/2" each!

Next we constructed the pea supports for the rondo, using netting and bamboo canes, this type of pea only grows to 3' or so, so we constructed a normal row of canes with the pea netting going over the top to about 4' in height (see the piccies for details), then we planted the germinated / growing rondo out to the northern side, and sowed the 'soaked' rondos to the south, in the hopes that we'll get successional growing and cropping!

Next we constructed another cucumber ramp, although this time we made it double sided, so we can grow cukes up both sides and still grow some catch crops beneath! (piccies below), then planted out 3 gherkin seedlings, and the 3 each of two varieties of cucumber, all one per side of a ramp! Nest we planted out the 3 seedlings each of 2 varieties of courgette, if they all survive methinks we are going to need some help eating them all!

After that we sowed a row each of 3 varieties of beetroot underneath the mk1 cucumber ramp, then fed and watered everything, did a bit of weeding and harvested a couple of baby leeks and some bunching onions.

I know we are very early in planting out some of the frost sensitive plants, but the frost risk hereabouts is for the end of May, the long range forecast says that we shouldnt be getting another frost, and the plants are more than ready to go out, so we're just going to have to risk it! Mind you, we've plenty of fleece ready, just in case!

All in all a busy but productive day, we finished at 7pm and its now bath and food time!

Tomorrow its back to the plot again, sowings of pickling onions, maincrop carrots, lettuce, more radish, more spring onion and some swede and turnip on the plot, and some more sweetcorn, squash, broadbean, french bean, melon, pumpkin, broccolli, cabbage, and cauli to germinate for some later sucessional plantings!

Hope everyone elses day has been as good as ours!

Piccies show the following :-
1st one is the brassica netting and the pumkpin / squash / sweetcorn bed
2nd one is the greenhouse all planted up (the long trailing pumpkin you can see in the foreground is Audrey Too, a pumpkin we inadvertantly germinated in October and which has been growing in a pot on the bedroom windowsil for the past 5 months!)
3rd one is the Mk1 Cucumber ramp
4th is the Mk2 cucumber ramp
Last is the inverted pea support that we've got Mange Tout growing up!

Hope you find them of use!