The 'What I Did Today' Archive - 2007

[Hazel at the Hill]

Went to the Hill and did an overdue job of leveling the front of the plot. Repositioned the slabs at the front so that standing on them does not induce vertigo.

Sowed hungarian rye as green manure in rows so that there's room for the spade when it comes to digging in (thank you Monty Don)

Took home a heap of runner and french beans, sweetcorn, beetroot, turnip, parsnip, a cabbage, swede, a turnip, radish, a few carrots and a baby pumpkin. Sweetcorn not in photo as it went from plot to pan to my gob too quickly. Mmmmmm! I have been seriously Cooking tonight, and will be 'preserving' tomorrow!

[skegblade]

After promising myself to try my hand at jam making, I bit the bullet and made a batch of blackberry and apple jelly and I'm very proud of my first attempt. I had no trouble finding the setting point; I inadvertently doubled the sugar content Good job I've got a sweet tooth

[Flummery]

Went for a walk down a muddy track and picked 5.5 lb wild, free-range plums and 4 lb apples. (Not crabs, bigger but lovely and sharp.) Having a preserving session or two - plum jam and apple and plum chutney.

[Woofster]

Today I discovered that what I thought were cabbages are in fact cauliflowers - and very lovely ones too ! I bought 50 brassica plants from either Dobies or Marshalls of which there were supposed to be 10 cabbages and 10 caulis which have turned out to be 20 caulis (not a problem as we all love caulis). Discovered one of the brussel sprout plants is infested with some grey stuff like greenfly a bit. Will have to dig out books and find out what it is.

[heebiejeebie]

Yesterday:

Removed some dead trunks and roots from the ex-jungle at the bottom of the garden and did an "oh that'll do" fix on the fence using the roof panels from the old cat-run and some chicken wire. The existing fence stops just before the worst of the jungle started so there was a large gap.

Started putting chicken wire along the gappy fence separating my garden from the lottie since the chickies are coming in a couple of weeks and I want them free ranging only in the garden - not amongst the veg! This is a slow annoying job because the leylandii have put some quite sizeable branches through the gaps in the fence and need to be trimmed back before the chicken wire will fit neatly.

Removed a tree that I thought was dead then found that the very top bits were still alive. It was too big for the space available and was probably dying anyway from lack of water and sunlight. I think the jungle was planted about 20 years ago with lots of small stuff then left so it ended up overstuffed with large things. The clearing is nearly done - I need to order some topsoil (or just even out what's there - when the pond was dug I think the soil and rubble was dumped and planted over so there's a hill behind the pond) and get planting.

In the lottie - cleared the bolting lettuces and a few handfuls of weeds, picked a cabbage and one (1) spear of PSB, removed some strawberry runners (they're going a bit mental) and noticed that one of the plants is flowering and has green strawberries on it. The borlotti beans look fab - I'm going to grow lots more of them next year! The leeks are doing well but the garlic has withered so I'll dig it up and plant more in another bed.

Today's plans: finish the chicken wire, put the chicken run up, build a brassica cage out of the rest of the bits of old cat-run.

[Vegmonkey]

came back from a weekend away and got stuck in. Cut loads of sunflowers for display indoors, dug up all the parsnips to find that some look really gnarly, like they have been eaten, but most look fab, and one was about a foot long! Didn't water anything as it is raining...again...

[sewer rat]

This week I picked the last of my broad beans. I sowed 1.5 kg of Witkiem Manita variety and the total saleable yield has been 277kgs. Highly recommend this variety to all and sundry. I have also started to lift my onions in earnest - variety Jagro and another bumper crop - current estimates are 2 tonnes of onions from 25kg of sets. Dunno where I'm gonna store them all!!
Made up some drying racks but they are full already, as is my storeroom roofspace.

[pigletwillie]

I made 6lb (and a bit) of strawberry jam after work, Kazzi will be taste testing in the morning

[Farmer_Gyles]

been a while since last post .... so skip the last couple of weeks ....
trimmed the hedges out the front - long overdue
picked, sliced, blanched and frozen another couple of pounds of runners and a pound of french beans
picked a few toms
weeded carrot patch - long overdue - pulled up last 30+ radishes, all oversized, all munched by slugs (why can't slugs finish one radish before tucking in to another? no manners ....)
picked and frozen 9 sweetcorn
picked 7 red cabbage - one rotten - 2 more left in the ground
planted out 7 swedes
filled the compost bin with waste radishes, outer leaves from cabbage and waste from sweetcorn and a few of the yellow leaves from sprouts - chucked some dying pepper and cucumber plants in there as well
neighbour gave me several lavender cuttings - now shoved in pots of soil and hope for the best

took the red cabbage to mother so she can pickle it - gave her some sweetcorn as well - and she gave me a bean slicer ....... after i'd sliced all the beans with a knife ...... oh well, there's always next year ....

I'M HAPPY
very pleased with results from my garden - lovely eating it - gonna have the rhubarb on weds night!

[vegnut]

Popped down to the jungle "i mean lottie" evicted the pigmies, and carried on with the digging and weeding of the couch grass. Ugh a never ending nightmare on a new plot. Still i gotta get one bit done, for the overwintering onions and garlic. There's an incentive to keep going.

[Winged one]

On Saturday, the toddler and I harvested the green toms from the plants that needed removal for builders. Put a couple of pounds on the window ledge to ripen (hopefully) and grated 6 lbs for chutney, leaving another 5 lbs in a spare tub (and some more on plants that can stay in ground another week or 2).

Then we went over to my gran and OH cut her lawn and cut back her shrubs - the toddler carried clippings out to the compost area.

Yesterday, I went to the plot:
Put tomato plants from home into plot composter (home one full)
Dug over cauliflower bed and filled it with herbs from the house (saved from builders too) - pulled lots more couch grass roots.
Sorted out netting over july sown peas, which are now flowering and should be harvesting in a couple of weeks.
Put the last cabbage into compost as it had rotted
Harvested:
4 cauliflowers (all very small, but starting to shoot, still tasty last night)
handful of peas and mangetout
handful of brocolli spears
8 spring onions (there is enough for 2 more weeks harvest)
last of the lettuce
large handful of parsley

Then came home, and spent the rest of the day in the kitchen (apart from a half hour to do my ironing).
Made 6lbs of green toms worth of green tom chutney - ran out of kilner jars so had to raid the recycling bin for curry and tom sauce jars.
Sorted out plot harvest - podded peas with toddler (result - yields down as she has speeded up her podding technique dramatically), got cauli ready for dinner, put rest in fridge for during the week.
made roast dinner - tarragon chicken (free range - oh the difference!, and the herb butter was our own tarragon, parsley and garlic) with gravy, roast potatoes, and cauliflower.
Ran out of time so changed today's menu from spaghetti bolognaise (will do tonight for tomorrow instead) to leftover chicken stirfry.

Oh, and finished cleaning out the garden for the builder's imminent arrival (it looks bereft!!). Today - I need to sleep as toddler had a very bad night with teeth coming.......

[Sebbster]

Watered a little and weeded a lot.

Planted out 2 rows of Spring Cabbage next to the peas which are now flowering so should get a nice late crop.

Picked a load of runners and was suprised to see they have started flowering again. Not sure whether or not to be happy about this. Got enough frozen already but I'm sure it will be someone elses gain.

Spinach, beetroot and Kale is ready for harvesting so will look forward to that this week.

[Farmer_Gyles]

took 15 gooseberry cuttings from 3 varieties - fingers crossed they grow!
did about 12 lavender cuttings stuck in a couple of big pots - no ground ready for them yet - see what happens ....

[Flummery]

Went out last evening (early, before it came dusk) and picked up 2 carrier bags full of walnuts in their husks from under a civic planting which no-one seems to have noticed. Some corporation workman planted them, yonks ago, but as they are seeding into open ground nearby it seems obvious no-one's colledting these (till now!)
However, as a person who HATES rubber gloves, I am now sporting absolutely disgusting BLACK mitts. I suspect they will be like that for weeks. It's a strong black dye and the skin will have to grow out, I think. Walnuts taste superb. Pic on blog. There were 2 trees of the American black walut in the grove. MUCH harder to shell.
Made crab apple and wild plum chutney yesterday. Today going to make Chilli Jam. I love autumn!

[scared55]

Made a balustrade around the terrace.

KK