What I Did Today Archive 2008

[Snadger]

Phew! Busy day today.

Took the mutt on a 2 Hr walk to try and tire her out so she would give OH a bit of peace while I shot away to the allotment.

Put a new door (second hand!) on my shed as the other was falling to pieces.

Pulled up two rows of garlic to make way for my January King plantlets. Took the fleece off the calabrese and planted the winter cabbage in same bed. Made some supports and netted the lot!
Tidied my brussel sprouts bed and transplanted a couple into gaps. Surprisingly the sprouts grown from my own saved seed seem to be looking better than the F1's that I planted. Only time will tell.

Side shooted, tied, and stripped some of the superfluous leaves from the tomato plants.

Finally with the diminished wind I was able to retrieve half of my other hut roof from across the allotment, put it back in position and screw it down. Hopefully it will stay put this time!

[Wren]

Took a historical walk around the old town an had great fun peeking over the sandstone walls at the tiny little courtyard gardens while exploring the numerous passage ways and twittens.
Harvested the last of the first earlies to make potato salad tomorrow and most of the second. Moved the old mint into the herb garden along with a neglected old rosemary bush, lemon balm, and planted the two horseradish plants into a semi shade spot.
This evening we have been cutting logs to top up the log pile ,

Oh the joy of a bottle of wine and a Sunday afternoon pottering .

Wren

[Winged one]

Over the weekend, I sent the OH to the plot to weed the onions and harvest some spuds and brocolli as he hadn't been in about 2 months at least. I'm glad I sent him as he DID enjoy it, but he also too the netting off the brassicas and put it over the pumpkins and squashes when there was a spare net he could have used for that purpose GRRRRR!

I didn't do much over the weekend, watered the garden, swept it out for visitors, and harvested mangetout and baby carrots.

Anyway, last night, I spent about an hour watering everything at home. The tomatoes in the hanging basket look like they are starting to feel some sunshine (still another few weeks before getting any ripe ones I'd say though). A summer squash is almost ready, and I harvested another handful of mangetout, a lettuce and a handful of other salad leaves, and 2 courgettes (they could have grown a bit larger, but they were starting to be attacked by slugs :0 ).

I tidied up the older mangetout vines, just to be able to get into the thick of them and also to find the ground underneath them. And then I planted out my 5 coffee cups of new mangetout seedlings - 3 under the old ones and 2 further up beyond the courgette plant.

I also pulled one more lettuce that had bolted (silly me - concentrating on the single leaves on other plants!), and there is another that is in danger of same so need to take that tonight. The cos lettuces are also starting to shoot, so I will be finishing those this week - they have been great though as 2 modules of plants (admittedly rather thickly sown) have been giving me lunches on average 3-4 days per week for the past 3 months!! I am going to put my 3 coffee cups of peas in that gap for a surprise (I hope) when we get home from hols in 5 weeks. And 2 coffee cups of dwarf french beans in front of those.

Lifted the lid on the compost so the birds could wreck havoc on the fruit fly population, and headed indoors. It was so nice to have a fine evening for just pottering for a change!!

[Newbie]

At the weekend i edged around the 2 veg beds and by doing so gained at least another foot of planting space as the grass was getting so long around it & the mower just doesn't do the job! Harvested all my 1st sown turnips ranging from golfball to tennis ball sized and also weeded the flower bed - think once things have died back a bit i will need to be doing some re-shuffling as things are getting so big. Planted out my Canoe peas where the turnips were before & sowed a 2nd batch, also planted out my yellow courgette plant which was lagging behing a bit.

Today I potted on my 16 purple & white sprouting broccoli plants - i have no idea where to put them as the beds are full, so they will have to wait till the spuds are done (and fob a few off to friends/family!). I also noticed that i have 2 baby pumpkins/squash on my plants - Wee be Little & Festival, i am so excited!

[Mrs Dobby]

Yesterday I was stocktaking at work, started at 7am, was going really well, then at 130pm the system crashed and everything ground to a halt! The same thing happened last time - and we had to cancel, wasting a lot of time, effort and money, so I was pretty determined not to have to do it again, so kept my cool and waited! At 515pm it came back up, and with 42 (out of 107) departments still to count we set to it!

Unfortunately we started to loose some of the staff that had come from other branches to help out from about 6pm, and with a few problems (that meant we had to recount a total of 24 of the departments - some more than once - as the puter lost their data), we actually finished counting at 1138pm last night! I paid for pizzas (for tea) for the 4 staff from other branches and the 6 of my staff who stayed, as a thankyou, and let them all go as soon as the counting was complete, with just myself and my Deputy Manager waiting until it had completed, at 12.38am this morning! After a quick 25 mile drive home, I was back just after 1am, totally knackered!

Mr D did a lot of potting on yesterday, plus strung up the garlic, sorted out more strawbs and rasps for the freezer and fed n watered on the plots! Then he went to work, and was waiting for me with a large brew when I got home!

I'm taking most of today off as payback lieue hours for yesterday (I dont get paid overtime!), but I have got to go to Cannock branch later for a meeting, but after that I'm plotward headed for the rest of the day and tomorrow!

[Snadger]

Weeding, watering and applying woodchippings to paths. Been given a slot together strawberry planter which I need to find a place for. As it's circular I need to find somewhere where I can get all round it! As it's likely to be there a long time I'm not quite ready to position it as yet.

[Winged one]

Watered the back garden, and picked another few mangetout and a handful of bolting cos lettuces (not bolted so badly that I can't eat them today).

Between work being so busy, and OHs work being absolutely bananas, the toddler having a dose of something, and OH's uncle in hospital nearby (us being the only family in the vicinity), we are pretty worn out at the minute so while gardening would really help unwind us, we just don't have time to get to it.....

Will go to plot at weekend purely to dig spuds and harvest brocolli before it flowers.

[Two_Sheds]

Pulled out all my rubbish onions (golf ball size ~ prob. soil is too poor) and sowed Buckwheat as a green manure. In the rain.
Harvested loads of big Maris Peers. Yum.

[PurpleBecca]

Today in Limerick we.......

Well - it rained on and off all day AGAIN - (I have abroken foot at the moment and am not supposed to be out in the garden but.......)

Went down and gathered a few carrots and some cabbage leaves. a Large trug of Pink Fir Apple - these were in the tunnel - the outdoor ones must be ready too now. A couple of courgettes fromthe tunnel too - although I notice the outdoor ones have a couple coming too.

We put the canes in for our runner beans which are pitifully small - only about 2 feet at a stretch - they are strong enough looking but I think the temperatures are just so low here at the moment (we are all in jumpers and boots!)

We have a cloche over the dwarf french beans as they just were not growing - but they seem to enjoy the protection and are growing well now.

The outdoor Strawberry bed is still croping although a lot of fruit is rotting before ripening. Raspberries continue to crop well too.

Have spotted a couple of spaces (one where the dwarf beans didnt come up and another where early potatoes have come out - will out in some more carrots where the beans were and get some perpetual spinach in the other gap, once all the salad potatoes are out I will sew a few more turnip and some swiss chard.

[Snadger]

Went to lottie..............chucked it down all day...........had a bit potter in the greenhouse.........one thing led to another.........finished up nigh on totally defoliating my tom plants!:eek

Wish I hadn't done it now, but I'll just have to see whether I've ruined them or I still get a crop!

[SarzWix]

Today, I harvested 2kg of Harlequin potatoes from one of my Spud Tubs (still 2 more growing on ); plaited my autumn planted Shakespeare and Electric onions; tied up lots of unruly tomato plants in the Bottom Plot greenhouse, fed & watered, & harvested a handful of Sungold, 1 Tamina & 1 Amish Paste; hoed Plot-Next-Door & picked the last of the gooseberries; watered Top Plot greenhouse & hid from torrential rain; picked half a medium-freezer-bag of raspberries; struggled home with bag full of above produce & wished I'd taken the trolley

[kentvegplot]

Yesterday harvested about 3lbs of earlies, lots of slug damage so I might pick the whole lot this week. Put up 'humming tape' to try to salvage some of my apples but also trimmed the hedges near the trees so the birds have to cross open ground to get at the fruit (well, it's worth a try!). Planted out my leeks and removed enormous (7'6") Angelica which has finished flowering in the herb bed. Cooed over the cukes and sighed at the amount of pruning which the Broad Ripple tomatoes need - I just can't keep up with them.

[Beyoyock]

Yesterday I did loads of weeding. Also put wire netting round the pumpkin/squash bed as one of my pumpkins has tale-tell rabbit teeth marks in it

My Mum paid her first visit this year and offered to transplant the rest of my leeks I watered everything.

Harvested my first ever courgette!

Sorry to hear about all the rain you lot had yesterday - I got sunburnt (despite the sun cream!)

[Flummery]

What I did YESTERDAY - was enter the village show with my double bed quilt, a jar of gooseberry and elderflower jam, a jar of crab-apple and damson chutney and loads of fruit, veg anf flowers. I decided I would just enter anything I had the right produce for, regardless of whether it looked particularly good. Result! I got 7 Firsts, 5 Seconds and 2 Thirds. Fourteen place cards altogether - and I entered 16 categories. I then got the Handicrafts cup for the Quilt (get to keep these for a year and have your name engraved on them), The Produce cup AND the challenge shield for most overall points. Can't get head in through door now!

Chuffed Flum

[sewer rat]

Flum
What can we say - a superb achievement, I'm not at all surprised that you are so chuffed. Well done.
Just gonna call the wife who is away with my daughters for a few days break then gonna go and dig up a heap more potatoes as the evening is so pleasnat uip here. Be back on later though.