What I Did Today Archive 2009

[solway cropper]

Apart from the usual pottering about that we all do at this time of year I thinned out some carrots growing in a tub in the greenhouse and they’ve come along nicely. Although small it will be nice to have fresh baby carrots with christmas dinner. These were sowed in a deep tub in late summer and brought inside at the end of October. This was a bit of an experiment as I normally grow them in the ground but i'll do more next year to take the space occupied by toms and cukes when they've finished. I think I'm developing Snadger syndrome and hating to see an empty space with nothing growing in it

[sewer rat]

Today was my last veg box delivery run ever - boxes contained Rooster spuds, Charlotte spuds, greens, Tundra Winter Cabbage, Winterbor Kale, Black Tuscan Kale, Cayenne Chillies, Jerusalem Artichokes (Gerard variety), Red Drumhead Cabbage.
Bought Kelsae onion seed.
Delivered 2 x 7ft Nordmann Pine Christmas Trees.
Picked /pulled veg for Farmers Market tomorrow, loaded van, fed six Arab hors4es for a friend, came home, made supper, now off for a shower, then off to club - will be very busy tonight as the work Christmas parties are in full swing from now til Thursday, and there's bound to be a few who have imbibed slightly more than they should have.

[pipkins]

Braved the lottie in the snow to dig up parsnips and harvest the sprouts for some peeps at work.

Yep I was the only one there

[kentvegplot]

Yesterday I went to see what the very cold weather had done in the greenhouse. It is heated by a paraffin heater, but we had 2 nights of -10 (and I'm in the south east of England!) so I feared the worst.

Happily, although there are a few scorched leaves, most of the cuttings look OK (a layer or two of fleece has helped), but only time will tell if any permanent damage has been done.

On the way back, disturbed a pheasant who was having his tea at the bird table

[bobleponge]

Surveyed the damage the snow had done to my winter onions, but I think a few more days of sun like today should get the leaves back up straight again.
Weeded around onions and garlic.
Stuck a mole killer down one of the million mole hills I have.

[RedThorn]

Picked my brussels from the garden

[FionaH]

Ate parsnip and apple soup with home grown parsnip, from a Vine recipe. Had roasted parsnip and our own grown leeks with lunch. Everybody suitably impressed

[zazen999]

A week ago I sowed onions, leeks from bulbils, and transplanted tomato cuttings.

Today the first onion seeds are showing.

Today I also sowed some garlics at the lottie, and pulled some leeks for risotto tomorrow; and grabbed the last but one box of spuds from storage.

Ate chilli with home grown beans. And made Bakewell Tart using home grown and made Raspberry and Strawb jelly.

[ladylottie]

Had home grown roasted potatoes, leeks, winter cabbage and sprouts with lunch today.

Couldn't get up the icy hill to the lottie to get parsnips for roasting. Anyway they would have been under a big layer of snow and well iced in I expect.

Hope my winter onions will be ok - first time I've tried growing them but they're supposed to be very hardy, aren't they.

Will have to wait for the weather to improve a bit before I can get up there to see what's what.

[Two_Sheds]

A week ago I ... transplanted tomato cuttings

I just composted mine, they died
- planted 20 cloves of supermarket garlic into modules, on sunny windowsill until they sprout. Then they'll go outside in the cold greenhouse
- watered my Razzmatazz chilli which is still going strong (and fruiting) on the kitchen windowsill. I posted the other one to Shirl, so I hope hers is still OK too
- stapled all my trellis back to the fences
- admired new buds on the apple tree, which I thought I'd killed
- did an hour's weeding up the lotty
- sowed a few more broad beans to fill the gaps in rows (something pulled up a dozen young plants - pigeons?)

[BarleySugar]

Today I planted some chilli seeds inside, in the heated propagator. The pots of compost had been inside for a few days to warm up a bit, and I watered them with lukewarm water before sowing the seeds. Just 2 each of Hot Lemon, Scotch Bonnet, Purple Japapeno, Chocolate Habanero, Naga Morich and Dorset Naga. I have more seeds for later sowings if these are not a success, but if it takes 160 days from sowing to picking, I might pick chillies in June, like I did this year.

[Brengirl]

We have just returned from daughter No 1's house where there is a birthday celebration going on. Little George is 1 year old today. His baby brother was born on 23rd December.
Whoops! my grandaughter is sure going to be kept busy lol

[gojiberry]

Have been meaning to make a herb table for several weeks and have finally got around to doing it this morning. Have it nearly completed just got to fix the floor in place and fix legs on. Its about 6' by 2' so a nice size. Haven't decided what herbs to put in yet.

Ian

[louisesgarden]

After quite a busy christmas day, boxing day, we are just having a relaxing day ! as tomorrow will be a full on house tidy day ready for the next visitors ! went up to the shop and got a paper, and we put a couple of horse racing bets on ! nothing mad ! just good fun having a few beers and shouting the horses home on the tv ! i think we need luck though as picking horses for their names may not be the way to do it !!!

[Snadger]

Today I realised that the RAT I've been trying to catch for the last fortnight at the allotment was actually a mouse!

Collected 14 eggs today, chooks have finished molt and started to lay again.
For some reason my little paraffin heater I have in the greenhouse to stave off the frost, went out for no reason last night.
Filled it with the last of the paraffin I had and re-lit it. Must try and get some more from the allotment shop tomorrow.
Once I have enough paraffin to last a couple of weeks I'll start transpalnting my leeks into individual containers.

Just wish the snow and ice would melt!