What I Did Today Archive 2008

[TrishY]

TrishY, how are your ladies settling in? any eggs?!

I went and checked them this morning, very relieved to find them alive YAY! didn't see any eggs. I am keeping them in their house for a couple of days before letting them in the run. just got to put a wire roof on the run tomorrow but they seemed happy enough this morning thanks

[heebiejeebie]

Bought and potted up some shrubs from Wilko and Woolies. They were in the sale and look like they need a bit of TLC but are very much alive.

Sorted out my herb bar. Split the peppermint, repotted nearly everything else, chucked out the things that were showing no signs of life. Might try moving the herb bar to a sunnier spot this year.

[veg4681]

Ooop...got posted twice do deleting this one.

[veg4681]

Potted the tomatoes into 3" pots after they were started off in a heated propagator in a shallow plastic dish. All 8 variety toms except for one did not germinate and I may have been a little hasty in emptying out the dish but the other toms were crying to get out. Guess it's called survival of the fittest. Tried retrieving the tom seed that didn't germinate from the compost (only 1 spare seed left) but no joy finding it either, probably got sucked into some cosmic black hole. The transplanted tomatoes had their first outing today in the unheated greenhouse.

A vacant left by the tomato's tray in the heated propagators leaves me wondering what to fill the space with now! Have now filled the tray with cuke (including a White Wonder), courgettes and 3 different variety melons that were started off in 3" pots on window sill but wouldn't germinate plus further new sowings of Swiss Chard (Rainbow & White Silver), Calabrese Sprouting Greens and Kale (Pentland Brig & Sutherland).

[Hans Mum]

went to plot this morning and finished pond area, weeded round currant bushes, put some rhubarb crowns in, dug over bed for spuds, chatted to couple of lottie neighbours, and then this afternoon collected 3 water butts i got on ebay for a fiver each (new) well pleased with those.

[hawthorns]

stained the raised beds.
transplanted some autumn sown cornflower into lawn borders.
sieved some topsoil into the raised beds.
oiled teak exterior dining table.

[veg4681]

What glorious sunny weather and only Feb and thank god a Saturday for our usual weekend trip to the farm. Double dug the patch but this is only the 2nd time digging. Must be getting addicted to digging unlike the last weekend when I was in a very foul mood over the tedious digging task. No more swearing this time .

Have decided to take the easy way out of clearing the patch by removing all the big chunks of soil (with grass intact) and piling them in one corner (safely away from the patch). Frankly they will take as long they will take to break down but it ain't my problem sorting and sieving through them by hand (might cover the pile to prevent the grass from flourishing, again). Intend to scrape off the lumpy/grassy top soil as much as is practicable to enable me to see how far down the grass roots are buried.

No more seeds sowing for today.

[heebiejeebie]

Dug over half of the far end of the plot and removed yet more bindweed root - but this is a war I am winning! Definitely less of it this time. Had a bonfire with some hedge trimmings and the stalks from last year's JAs and brassicas.

[Snadger]

Lit the woodburning stove to warm the greenhpouse up a bit. Potted up four pots of Winston early spuds for indoor growing.

Planted a gooseberry which now gives me a bed of three goosegog bushes!

Planted a climbing rose to try and hide my abomnation of a shed!

Lifted the last of my turnips and consigned them to the compost heap. Mucked the 4'0" X 12'0" bed. Planted 100 garlic plants , sown at two different times to give me a succession. After planting, applied a straw mulch to bed.

Had to break into my own shed as I forgot my keys!

Broke up into segments 8 garlic corms giving me about 50 cloves to plant later! (I like garlic)

Did some repairs to one of my greenhouses, i.e taking a hinged glass door that led into my shed, off, as it served no useful purpose.

In the middle of all this and after i'd broken into my own shed I went out for lunch. came back to find the main gates locked and with no keys still had to return home to get them, so I broke into my shed for nowt!

Noticed the allotment committee must be having a clean up campaign as we actually have a skip at the gates, which we've never had before! The skip is full to the brim and apparently it's only bean there two days!

[Hazel at the Hill]

A glorious, if rather chilly day at the Hill -

• admired the Roof Fairy refelting handywork on the toolstore
• put the hinges on the doors and attached to toolstore. Ran out of screws
• asked man down the bottom end of the Hill to help get the lid off the 3/4 used green fence paint which I want to paint the toolstore with.
• When the lid eventually removed, found the tin was actually 3/4 full
• Paint toolstore with very very thin paint, and conclude that the water has leaked in the top of the tin. Toolstore will need about 8 coats of paint at this rate.
• Dig over plot A and leave path up the middle
• Ditch old cauli into compost bin
• pick pak choi (now bolting), a portion of kale, the last swede and a turnip

Now making steak and kidney puddings. Mmmmm

[crichmond]

just planted 50 mammoth oinions, 50 mammoth red onions and 30 mammoth leeks.
Taken cuttings from the rosemary in the front garden and put into the aeroponic propagator to root.

[Flummery]

Finally removed the last of my pampas grass with a view to using the site for compost bins. Now I've just got to empty the 3 daleks and sort the compost. That's easy then! (?)

[nick nack]

Changed the edging in front of my fruit bushes, accidentally cut through the root of the raspberry, but noticed it had 3 shoots growing off it so there potted up.

Dug out one the grass paths between raised beds ready for laying my surplus bricks next week. Grass sods laid to one side to let the frost get to them, will remove the soil and roots off them next weekend and top up the beds.

Split some logs for the fire.

NN

[seasprout]

Today in me garden.

Added grit and rotted leaf mould to my raised mini bed, mixed it all in. Its now ready to be a herb bed.

Filled raised fast salad bed with soil, put plastic cloche over it to warm the soil.

Put together new Bird table from Aldi, had to re-drill several holes, hammer and push other bits to fit. Got bits left over, will be fine as long as no birds go near it.!

Too cold to be out now.

[heebiejeebie]

More digging and couch grass/bindweed/dandelion root-removal. Ooooh me back... but only a quarter of the far plot left to do. Then I'll start on the near plot! Spread bonfire ash around.