The 'What I Did Today' Archive - 2007

[wellie]

What I Did Today

There's always been 'some debate' on removing the leaves below the first truss of fruits on a tomato plant, but that's one of the things that I did do today. The benefits in my particular instance here, are that there will now be more air circulation, it enables the first truss more chance of ripening, gives the Aubergine, Pepper and Chilli plants more even light, allows more accurate feeding/watering, and allows me to weed the beds more effectively.
I can hear all the plants heaving huge sighs of relief as I type.

I popped into The Forest of Dean Forestry HQ today to source more bark chips for my potager paths. I learned, rather surprisingly, that they were not able to supply them to me, and even if they were, they couldn't sell them to me, because they are non-profit-making. Indeed, if they themselves need bark chips for any of their 'play areas', they have to buy them in. See Wellie choke on her Cadbury Flake in complete disbelief at what nice lady said....

No, it's true. Whatever shreddies they have, they have to leave them on the forest floor. Which is, actually, hugely sensible with wildlife in mind....
However, I came away with loads of names and numbers to source the bark, because I just refuse to pay �3.99 a bag, and the nice lady was of the same opinion as me, and I'm really grateful to her for her help.

And whilst I was there, I bought us an Annual Permit to pick up and carry out of the woods as much kindling as Trousers, Me and The Cat can manage, providing it's 3" diam or less. Bargain price of �5. Without it, it's called 'Stealing' or something...?

(I also renewed 'Elderly Next Doors' permit, and he's exempt because he's so incredibly old, but now has a current permit to prove it).

I've just had a 'LightBulb Moment'. Pick up as much kindling as can carry. Borrow Garden Shredder. Shred Kindling. Homer Simpson Moment: DOH!
Now, who do I know with a Shredder?.....

Thank you for listening,

[Flummery]

Yesterday I went with 2 fellow retired chums to the Helmsley Walled Garden. Inspirational place! It belonged to Duncombe Park (the Big House) and had 19 full time gardeners before the 14/18 war. Now rented by a charitable status group and run with 2 full timers and volunteers. Had a brill lunch there too, saw their new raised veg beds, marvelled at 'trip-over' apples (a bit higher than step-over!) and thought about them for the division between my patio and veg potager. Need to buy a couple of decent variety but small plants - any ideas anyone?

Bought a few ornamentals for the front garden. Swapped 3 of my aubergines for a few of my chum's spare calabrese seedlings. Great day!

[Kimbo]

Today I potted on some more of my tomatoes, thinned out my beetroot (and planted the thinnings even though the book said not to), also thinned out some more snowball turnips. Sowed some more spinach, and some coriander, lemon coriander, dill, cumin and mint, more sweetcorn, and two more types of pepper.

Tomorrow a trip to either homebase or wyevale is a must to get my organic slug pellets especially with all the rain that is forecast, it is definitely going to be Kim 1 Slugs 0

[madmax]

A Shirley

I went to the garden centre today and actually bought something I wanted...

A Shirley to go with the one I married. Except this one is a tomato plant not a human - you can't plant them successfully. As I am the only tom eater in the family and we have another 11 tomato plants in the greenhouse I foresee an interesting and varied diet over the next few months... Gotta earth up my spuds now.

Still learning this horticultural stuff...

[veggieginger]

This is a what I did yesterday (24.5.07) we picked and ate our first 2 courgettes They weren't that big but tasted fantastic and were a nice treat for Mr VGs birthday.

Watered well and checked for bugs today, everything seems to be growing well a weekend of repotting and weeding beckons.

Happy gardening all.

[rustylady]

Picked two pounds of strawberries from the lottie! Gave some to the lady next door who takes my parcels in when I'm at work, going to have some with ice cream for supper. Re-arranged the greenhouse yet again - too many plants. Some are fine outside now, but it got really windy a little while ago, so took some back inside. Weeds are growing faster than the plants on the lottie.

[DirtDobber]

rain ...rain...rain...it has been raining since yesterday...I went to the market in the rain so I would have that chore finished so I could play in the garden when the sun came out...finally this afternoon I went out and picked radishes, spinach and checked all the plants for rain damage...It all looks pretty good...

[pigletwillie]

The pink brandywine and roma tomatoes are going into an outside bed and the (bought in) cucumbers are now in the tunnel and greenhouse.

I think this week will see the first strawberries and new potatoes harvested, something which I always look forward too.

[TonyF]

Went to chumlette 1's place yesterday, very hot still after the storm. Did some weeding in the potager, put in more seeds - really NO more room now.

Wandered round looking for good places for the sunflowers and the rest of the toms (Marmands and Roma), managed to find places for both.

Was way over 30 again with dreadful weather being forecast for the weekend. Managed to pick two marg boxes of strawberries from my patch, gave one to neighbour's offspring.

And massive storms all night! And it's still raining now tho it is almost 20 degrees.

[Kimbo]

Today

1. Went to homebase and purchased organic slug pellets, along with 2 aubergine plants, 2 sungold tomato plants (a bit bedraggled but at 49p each it doesnt matter if they dont survive) to replace one cut in half by slug/snail last night, and 8 sweetcorn plantlets. Only went in for pellets but it was 10% off day and couldnt resist.

2. Will be applying said pellets to courgettes, tomatoes, french beans (they got one of those last night as well), aubergines and raised beds where necessary.

3. Watch the weather to see if I can get anything else done in the garden without getting wet, hopefully get some more carrots sown and check the radishes.

[Salina]

haven't done much *yet* today. did a bit of weeding out in the front yard, they spring up when it rains lol.
later on if it dries up I plan on doing a bit of strimming.
I got a nice big plastic windowbox yesterday which is perfect for my french/runner bean seedlings, so I'm going to transplant them into that. also have a few more spuds that have ''eyes'' that I'm going to plant in pots if I don't run out of soil lol.
might also plant a few courgette and radish seedlings into bigger, individual pots. (they are in trays at the moment)

[Hazel at the Hill]

Went up to the Hill this morning and:

• Did some weeding - one thing about dry weather, there are fewer weeds!
• Sowed swede (thank you Wellie!), turnip, asparagus pea (thank you, Serenity!), some marigolds, Radish and beetroot
• planted the Largest Pumpkin Competition plant out in heavily mucked area
• planted the Tallest Sunflower Competition plant out by the JA's (for support). Sunflower looks poorly already - did it get too dry in the pot?
• Watered both plants in with high Nitrogen feed (otherwise know as........?)
• picked radish, lettuce, spinach and THE FIRST OF THE BORED BEANS!

Have had bath, off to make STG millionaires shortbread, then update the blog and eat my produce!

Good day!

[GeordieVik]

I spent 3 1/2 hours on my new plot today - cleared a few more weeds, and planted some dahlia & dutch iris bulbs, some left over seed spuds, and 2 of my 3 sisters (first lot of beans were far too early, got really tall in rootrainers, then trashed by weather when hardening off, so I have some more germinating now). It's looking good.

Have just checked on metcheck for the next few days weather, and we're forecast for ground frost tomorrow night, so my tender little courgettes & corn will need snuggled in a fleece - typical, I thought we were safe!!

And the forecast says it will chuck it down for the next 3 days anyway, so unlikely to do much more up there this weekend.

I also checked on my first plot, and a lovely & very well meaning neighbour has been in and weedkillered a patch of nettles, which i was saving to a) help wildlife and b) to add to the compost heap for a bit of a fertiliser boost later in the year - now i'll just have to chuck them in the bin!! He would've thought he was saving me the trouble of getting rid of them, but didn't ask me first!

Vik

[rustylady]

Grey and windy today, thermometer said maximum 15, but felt colder. Been in the greenhouse potting things on and moving things around. Was going to go over to the lottie, but didn't make it. Heavy rain forecast - hope it's not too heavy, and nice steady period of rain would do nicely for the crops.

[Mrs Dobby]

I've got the whole weekend and BH off, so hoping to spend lots of time on the plot, weather permitting!

Went to the plot today, weeded (lots done, but lots more to do!), fed toms and chillies with tom feed, fed brassicas with fish, blood and bone and then fed / watered the brassicas with rhubarb leaf stew and fed the aliums with potash!

Ate the first 3 ripe (almost ripe) strawbs, lots more nearing ripeness, picked about another 40 stalks of rhubarb and then was amazed at the size of some of the crops! The largest onion we've got is about 3 1/2" diamter of the bulb, the largest Naga chillie is 15 cm long, the largest Big Jim Chilli is now 10cm long and the cucumber plant now has an 8" cucumber on it! Took some piccies of everything, which I will try n post later!

All in all a good day, now got friends round for tea, so we're doing baked trout with cous cous and then rhubarb crumble for afters!