What I Did Today Archive 2008

[seasprout]

Planted out sweet corn babies, planted out polish gherkins in between corn.

Made up 10 hanging baskets, two of which are edible, then discovered i only have 8 brackets available. (bugger).

[gojiberry]

Planted out goji berry onto allotment has been in a pot since I got it. Only had it just over a week but it has put on so much growth and had some good roots going when I upended the pot I deceided it could go out in its permanent place. The other two are doing well but not as well as the one. Planted out two achocha on the lottie after first making a frame for them to grow up. Also planted out the last of the climbing beans so all the frames are now full. also planted out a selection of chinese vegetables, don't have much sucess with them as they always go to seed on me, no matter what I do.

Ian

[Newbie]

Went shopping in town this morning but this afternoon i cut the grass in the glorious sunshine, then hoe'd the weeds starting to sprout in the veg plot. Noted my potatoes are starting to peep through the earth which reminded me to move my tatties in pots from the garange to outside. Walked the dog & met a bloke who was walking a giant tortoise round the local park - not something you see everyday!

[Snadger]

Glorious weather here today and I was able to work with my shorts on and my shirt off all day.(not a pretty sight!)

Put a few more timber batons on my Pergola and squared it up the best I could. Very pleased with it so far as it frames the path leading to the herb wheel. In the centre is a Sunset apple in full bloom!

Filled my pond from three water butts which already had weed in them so pond looks natural already. Stuck a few rocks and logs around it and made sure the ramp in it was clear in case anything fell in it and couldn't get out.

Planted up a bed of red ham onions and watered them in.

Had a further onslaught on the weeds getting four wheelbarrows full which all went on the compost heap

Showed a prospective plot holder around the last plot availabe and took her details. She said she would have it and would be back with the money. We shall see.

Put more stuff out to harden off and finished the day by watering everything that needed it!

[wellie]

Trousers and I went to the Lottie. It was WAY too hot to work, but serious results were achieved and we're dead chuffed with the new raised beds.
Back home, Wellie's been trying to get as much as possible pricked out and potted on.
Knee Deep and Armpits come to mind?!
Thank you for listening. X

[Winged one]

Hi all,

Not been on for a while so lots to report.
Thursday 1st May - recce to plot which was mainly weeding. Also sowed some peas to fill a gap, and some mixed cos lettuce. Only 2 hours.

Friday 2nd - forced OH to tak e a day off and dragged him to plot (after putting the toddler into creche - bold mammy!). we got the brassica bed dug and removed a fair bit of couch roots from it. Planted the brussels sprouts (8 plants) and some cabbages and leeks for summer eating there. I did lots more weeding, we moved netting from the overwintered brassicas to cover the newly planted ones, planted out a bag of yellow onion sets and a module of iceberg lettuce seeedlings (about 10!), and harvested 2 cabbages (1 each for our mammies) and some PSB (for our own dinner!!) before departure. After collecting the toddler and having dinner, we then drove to Cork for the weekend and both were tortured by inability to stop en route so very stiff night....

Bank hol monday - I think this was the day that the toddler and myself sowed some climbing french beans in my takeaway coffee cups (will go to plot later). I also potted on 1 pot of leeks which will be for winter harvesting - again, I hopelessly over=sowed earlier. The second pot was done later in the week and both varieties (Musselbourgh and Castor) will be going in when the 1st early spuds come up.

Tuesday - had people in working in the house, so had to stay at home. Sowed a couple of short row module thingies of peas, 15 cos lettuces in individual mods (see I AM learning!), another large pot with mixed salad leaves, 21 loo rolls of parsnips, a large tub (which I usualy have peas in) of sunflowers, and 2 pumpkins "Dill's Atlantic Giant" and 2 of another pumpkin, as well as 2 butternut squashes (all in individual pots). Did the other pot of leeks as well.

Wednesday - back on the plot by myself. I more or less finished the weeding, apart from winter brassicas - they can wait till I clear the bed totally at this stage. I planted out 4 cauliflowers and 16 brocolli plants for the summer (I think they should be summer harvesting anyway?!) in the brassica bed, and now only have the space at the back for the winter PSB and 2nd sowing of brussels sprouts left there.
Amongst the autumn sown onions (which I will have to start harvesting in about a month, having taken the last string of 10 from last summer's harvest in from the shed last night) I sowed a very short row of carrots as an experiment. I also sowed some spring onions amongst the herbs (rapidly running out of space really). And planted out a pot of perpetual spinach at the end of the fruit bush bed, a pot of spring onion seedlings elsewhere in the herbs (but I don't have great hopes for those really), and 3 tomato plants (2 moneymaker and 1 gardener's delight) between the herbs and garlic. And 2 courgettes amongst the winter cabbages, where a couple of harvests had created a small gap!!

Not much other gardening the rest of the week (had lots of other jobs to catch up on as well, including a run to Newry and Banbridge on Thursday!). Although I did potter a bit yesterday afternoon while listening to "Gardener's Question Time" - planted another 10 iceberg lettuces in the garden, and a module of "spicy" salad mix. And I gave my mother 6 brocolli, 4 cabbage and 4 cauliflower plants, as well as 2 toms (harlequin and sub arctic), a golden courgette and a summer squash to plant in her own garden. I need to pot on a couple of tomatoes (in 2 1/2" pots as ran out of larger ones) and clear some more space for planting squashes (from pots) and sweetcorn (from seed) on the plot. Only 1 more bed undug at this stage, and I have had lots of plot neighbours coming over during the past week to chat which was nice (didn't see too many last year but it's mich busier and friendlier this year!).

Oh, and I forgot to add that OH and the toddler helped me to get the hanging basket of toms up on Sat as well - he had his drill out hanging other things so put in the new hook for hanging basket, we bought the water retaining crytals, and put in 3 of my 5 plants. Might put a smaller basket with the other 2 on the shed as the sweet geranium needs proper earth for a couple of seasons to recover. Sorry this si so long, but I did have a lot to report.....

Sorry - last edit (I hope) - also forgot that OH turned the dalek in the garden on Sat (2 days ago). We only started filling it again in march 07 from scratch and it seems a much better result so far than previous attempts (the previous version had been spread over the garden when we got a row of leylandii removed, hence our "compost surprise toms last summer!). There was loadds of steam coming off it, lovely "humussy" smells, and it was also full of worms. So we should be able to start using it in the autumn.

[shirlthegirl43]

Finally finished changing my heather bed into a salad bed. Pictures below - before and after. The bed is now heavily slug-pelleted against the obvious (it is surrounded by walls so the most effective method of control) and netted against the birdies and the darned cat.

[pigletwillie]

Finally planted out the Madiera maroon and red and white climbing french beans plus the first 40 sweetcorn.

Lots of courgettes are going into big pots and pumpkins are going into the ground at a rapid rate.

[Flummery]

Erected a couple of long A frames and some more wigwams for the bean feast. Planted out some Goldfield climbers, Soldier dwarf, Cherokee Trail of Tears climber and Violetta broad beans. More climbers to go in shortly. Potted on lots more toms and planted up the greenhouse borders. Harvested first spuds from greenhouse pot - so different from the shop ones! Planted out first achocha alongside the lottie fencing. Expecting a few curious queries about that!

[deezyb]

Planted out two courgette plants into large pots and two butternut squash into deep raised bed (have spares in greenhouse if these fail due to cold) - bought a pot of climbing bean plants (Blue something - can't quite remember as lost tag), put out some more Cosmos and sowed some Rudbeckia for later in the year. Cut some tulips to take to a friends house - lovely colours and am really pleased as my tulips tend not to grow that well!

[middlefield]

Picked the first of the salad leaves that were grown under a cloche last night and have brought them in to work in a salad - so thats the first of this years produce!

Watered last night, put in chicken wire support for the peas and sugar snap peas that are growing strongly and generally tidied-up.

I've had my best-ever germination of parsnips this year and have a really healthy row of good size seedlings now that will keep us going all winter. I was pleased to see that we've also had a good germination of Salsify - thats a new plant for us and I'm looking forward to trying that.

My major concern at the moment is wondering where to put everything now, everything is pretty well planned, but seems to have 'spread' further meaning I've run in to my squash area - and I've had brilliant germination of pumpkins, squash, patty pans and courgettes - oh well, a good full allotment is better than an empty one!

[syanide]

what can i say.... a bit slow on the lottie front, but that's because of the weather and the sheer size of the thing. Have planned on covering most of it and digging a little patch towards the bottom end. Hoping to get the spuds in in the next few days (I know i'm running late). I have 2nd earlies and main crop.

But, at home, I have 3 aubergine plants and 3 tomatoes...also 2 courgettes and 2 pumpkins (hardening off). They're going in the lottie under a massive sheet of cardboard with holes in to grow through. This i will hopefully do today or tomorrow.

sy

[jackie j]

Today I have weeded and dug till im k------d planted swede, parsnips, purple sprouting broccoli, made a coffee, sat in my chair, caught the sun and watered the plants.
Picked some more spinach OH eats a lot of it as its good for the eyes.

[Mrs Dobby]

Mr D spent most of the day clearing beds on our new plot today, we've now got 7 1/2 of the 17 beds cleared!

I was stocktaking at work, but had a major systems crash, so ended up abandoning the count and am now taking my normal day off tomorrow instead of the one I arranged for Friday (because of the need to be in store to carry out the stocktake investigation!) So will now get a day off with Mr D, and will be down the plot early to start moving the recently planted stuff from our old half plot to the new full plot, whilst Mr D continues digging, then I'll have to hoe the weeds on plot 1, which seem to be coming on almost as quickly as the beans are!

[pigletwillie]

Finally, the small pile of reclaimed bricks that were outside the front door have now been turned into a BBQ in the back garden by the outside fireplace.

In the home greenhouse 5 goji berry seedlings were pricked out, lots of leeks potted on, calendula pricked out and lots of blackcurrant cuttings that have now rooted were potted on individually.