What I Did Today Archive 2008

[shirlthegirl43]

Squelched up the garden this afternoon to check that all the glass was okay in the greenhouse - thankfully it was, but noticed bits of roof felt from the shed all over the place. Phone call to mk1 son at work to ask if he could come home early to make some emergency repairs for me. Madmax had flown back to Holland this morning and I can't get on the shed roof without a crane!! Got cold and wet helping mk1 son, but hopefully shed will be fairly waterproof until we get new felt on it at Easter.

[Jenny22Cumbria]

Today I got back from a weekend in Bristol with my uni mates - and the first thing I did was run and look at my propagator and paper pots to see what else has germinated (I get ridiculously excited when all those little shoots appear!) Nearly wet myself with excitement over a cucumber seedling cos I've never been able to germinate cucumber seeds before

Then I barrowed and dug in some (very heavy!) bags of compost and manure on my plot (didn't manage to manure in time in the autumn cos it was so wet and i had to lift the turf on it) and split my largest bed into three for three of my four sections.

I put up the supports in the bit where all the legumes will go and put in the first lot of pea seeds that have sprouted in their paper pots. Before I go to bed I'll plant some mange tout and sugar snaps. I filled the pots earlier so I just have to dib them and sow - the paper potter was such a good investment! I've sown all my peas and beans in them so far.

Still got loads to do but I feel quite organised and very excited! x

[whigger]

Well more like what i'm trying to do today. Went out and checked the seeds in the tent greenhouse thingy and all seem to be doing well. Trying to construct an arbour today but not all going to plan, seems that nothing is working out, now having to wait on the drill charging up again.....deep breath, have a cuppa coffee and back to it i guess.

[JohnVisual]

Planted my first row Pentland Javelin this morning and my first courgett has started to sprout!

[veg4681]

The weather was so mild and pleasant today that I had a quicky tidy up in the garden/patio. Moved the potted dwarf peach tree into the greenhouse after noticing it had started flowering with more buds, vaguely recalling that it's important to protect the flowers from frost or else no fruits.

To make room for the peach tree, had to move out all the window boxes of strawberries which are now placed on the garden table, covered up with fleece to keep them warmish for early harvest hopefully. No idea if they have been infested with vine weevil eggs but the plants look reasonably healthy. Don't mind losing them (Cambridge & Honeoye) so long I'm able to rescue 2-3 plants for their runners for a sample of those 2 variety. Gonna put more emphasis on the tastier strawberry variety (Mara des Bois & Darlisette) that are on order and which will be made physically vine weevils proof this time.

More than likely at least one Sarian F1 will survive (a huge relief and yipee) after hellish time raising from seeds, all due to my own fault for being totally clueless/unconfident on how to handle microscopic seedlings. Mignonettes on the other hand are thriving, very resilient, they were allowed to germinate in pantry with the lid on in a Chinese takeaway plastic dish but moved to the window sill for growing on.

The experimental cuttings taken from a GC's garden last Summer are doing just fine although not sure what to do with them, yet haven't got the heart just to throw them away either. Land, I need more land! That's 3 different silver foliage plants, two unknown plants with red flowers that I fancied, plain and pinkish variegated Rose of Sharon, Vinca minor, Iberis? and at least 4 different rock rose in different shades, tiny Scenecio but Houttuynia died on me, just as well have lost the enthusiam over a water feature garden. Freebie Hebe Heartbreaker from J Parker may have died too due to neglect.

[hawthorns]

sown some more parsnip seeds into kitchen rolls.

[yoanbob]

sowed some toms, I know its early yet up here but I couldnt resist. they are vying for space with bobs chillis on the window sill

[whigger]

Well reasonably happy, got my arbour/gazebo type thig built and the OH old garden swing hung from it as well. Hopefully will get some decent weather tomorrow so that i can get some plant work done although it's not looking too promising.

[Snadger]

Managed to spend a couple of hours at the allotment after work tonight.

Lit the logburner to keep warm in the greenhouse. I was surprised to read on my max/min thermometer that it had been down to 25 deg F but thankfully my potato sprouts are still intact.

Sowed Tomatoes F1 Shirley, tomato Tamino (which i've never tried before, they are supposedly a new potato leafed variety!), Roma (which i love dried!) and some Jalapeno peppers.

Covered up the seed spuds with opaque polystyrene sheet, similar to underlay for laminate flooring, which should work similar to fleece.

My self saved seed brussel sprouts are through already and my sweetheart cabbage are just breaking the surface, both are in 8" pots in the greenhouse.

Decided that my Gladioli corms were more hardy than my spuds so didn't bother covering them.
Because i still had 1/4 hour of daylight I decided to put some paint stripper on one of my whitened glass panes and managed to rub off the majority of it to let a bit more light in. Whitened with oil based undercoat (not by me!) I hasten to add, so it's a bugger to get off.
By that time the light had just about gone, although the stove was blasing as I took the tray of sown seeds home to put in the propagator.
Once i got home i had to go out in a storm to get some sand from a heap I have for the bottom of the propagator.
Once the propagator warms up i'll find out if any cats have been using it as a toilet! Poooooooooo!

[Winged one]

Yesterday I was at home with the toddler (conjunctivitis so not allowed near the creche - gone today though thanks be!!). So we managed to get a few things done.

Bigger plants went out into minigreenhouse to start hardening off (but forgot to transfer out again this morning!).

Potted on the large tomato plants - 3 gardener's delight and 4 moneymaker. Also potted on the green courgette that came up.

Sowed cabbages (savoy and greyhound), brussels sprouts, brocolli and cauliflower (all year round) in large modules (these were rather over enthusiastically sown by the toddler and will definitely need to be pricked out or thinned later - hopefully I'll manage pricking out ok ).

Als noted that the tumbling tom tomatoes have come up (4 of 6 seeds), the yellow courgette is germinating (1 of 2 seeds), most of the beetroot (bolthardy) have their first leaves out, and the legumes in toilet roll holders are doing ok too - mange tout are at 75% succes rate, the borlotti beans are all opening, the french beans are opening too (maybe 60% success) and some of the sweet peas are coming on (2 types, the third not doing anything yet). And the seeds that feel down the sides are also coming on - but will have to grow a bit before I can distinguish what the toddler managed to drop down the sides!!

Happy with that lot as the weather was fairly foul. Over the weekend we had managed an hour on the plot - planted the blackcurrants, raspberries and gooseberries, and the rhubarb, weeded the onions, sowed a very few carrots in the onions (was too windy to do it really so only took out a couple of seeds to keep toddler occupied) - and had to thin out some of the autumn sown lettuce which accompanied the lasagne on Monday!! Oh yum yum yum!!!

I had hoped to sow some more tomatoes (have lots of interesting varieties but wanted to wait for better weather for the good seeds) and peppers, but didn't get a chance - will do that over the coming weekend.

[kirsty b]

Today I have potted up some tomatoes that I germinated in the airing cupboard onn wet loo roll. (Marmande, Supersteak and Tigerella)

Finished moving the blackcurrants to their new, permanent homes, carried on digging some more.

Fixed the greenhouse, its a bodge, but it'll do for now. Blog update planned for this evening

[Flummery]

I've sown 2 trays of 24 cells of oregon sugarpod pea with a view to putting them in the new half lottie in a few weeks time. My Black Kirm toms seeds are well germinated.

[veg4681]

Finally took the plunge to sow flower seeds in the usual Tiramisu tray in columns and rows but not holding out much hope for those with tiny seeds namely Petunia, Lobelia and Anagallis. Counted 12 variety of flowers in all plus Sweet Peas (Sugar n Spice) to be sown tomorrow after overnight soaking. Don't think I'll ever bother with flowers with tiny seeds, testing even for a short sighted .

Yukky weather (too cold) so hardly much garden work done outside except for a quick pruning of last year's Clematis from Morrisons, if it could be called pruning for plants of that size! Still no hurry for Clematis as vegetable/fruit growing has kinda taken priority. Only 3 Radish repoted from last Friday sowing, today is Wednesday. Itching to sow assortments of courgettes and winter squashes and to get going with potatoes.

[Snadger]

Lit the stove and potted on some leeks and onions. Sowed some mixed annuals and annual chrysanths in trays in the greenhouse. Need new batteries for my Brother labeler and wonder how long it will be before I need a new spool.
Weather attrocious so banked the stove up and had an early night!

[whigger]

No real inprovement in the weather today.....still very windy and cold but decided to bite the bullet and go out and get some sowing done anyway. Beetroot, Spinachbeet, carrot, onion, leek, Rocket, Mizuna, Land Cress, Lettuce, Lambs Lettuce, and some Mustard Oriental Red. Also planted out some of the sprouted Garlic from the coldframe and planted some out. (will be interesting to see which does best.