What I Did Today Archive 2009

[bramble]

Sowed flower seeds today.
Sweet Peas, Petunias, Ageratum, and Cosmos..

Sowed radish and spring onion Furio.

[Socks]

Dug my hole ready for the raised/half sunken bed, checked my aquadulche are protected from the inpending cold spell and covered the small bed with fleece.

now to cover my hop shoots, and get the parsnips in the propagator.

ooo its spring!!

[Nes]

Bought and planted some more garlic in pots (inspired by the garlic thread running at the moment!). Sowed globe artichoke seeds in tray on windowsill. Moved germinated parsnips, onions and leeks into the shed to harden off a little and free up indoor windowsill space. Itching to go to the allotment to carry on digging up couch grass and get the beds ready for tatties, but both children off school with the lurgy. May have to wait for the w/e when OH can look after them for a couple of hours...

[selfraising]

Today I have sown tomato 'lollipop'. Not going to get much done today I don't think, as it's been raining here on and off and that means I'm going to have to be on slug alert!! Started to put together a gardening shopping list, need to stock up on labels and bio pots.

[janeyo]

Today I painted 2/3rd of another raised bed (rain and running out of paint stopped play), planted 6 Jerusalem artichokes, and 2 troughs of strawberry runners.

stop press, OH got me more paint and rain stopped, thwe sun shone so I finished the bed. Got to get them in position now

[Flummery]

Had a pea sowing day - 12 each of the following - that's 2 each to the leg of a wigwam. They're all tall growers.
Magnum Bonum
Golden Sweet (Ta Birdie Wife)
Ezetha's Krombek Blauschok (puts back teeth and thanks Birdie again!)
Caruthers' Purple Podded

Also sowed a second pot of my F2 Sungold seeds - so these plants will be F3.

[Noodles]

Today I danced around with excitement when my new greenhouse was delivered!!!

At the weekend I:

- cleared most of the area where the greenhouse is going to go, it just needs a bit more levelling now

- dug over one of the empty beds and mixed in some odd and ends of compost I had lying around in pots leftover from Autumn.

- painstakingly sorted through the 3 rows of perpetual spinach which is still going well from last year. There were lots of windfall leaves around it providing holiday homes from slugs so they were removed and the little pests promptly dopped into salt water. Remaining spinach was then tidied, dead leaves moved etc. With the last few days being warmer and sunnier it's already perked up and is sprouting new leaves at an amazing rate.

- planted leeks in toilet rolls which have gone in a makeshift propogator on the windowsill. I sowed leeks direct last year and they never got much bigger than spring onions so I'm hoping giving them a headstart this year will help.

- planted another dozen broad beans to join the ten that are already growing well in the temp greenhouse.

[Printemps]

Visitors all day, so nothing got done!

But did manage a trip to the supermarket to buy a replacement sweet potato, the original shrivelled up through neglect - well I thought it would sprout just like seed potatoes do!

Also bought several ginger knobbly bits for growing, well that's my technical term for them!! Not only do they produce more ginger, but they make really inexpensive and interesting gifts once they start growing.

[Newbie]

Pottered in the greenhouse for an hour or so & sowed Sage, Basil, Lemon Balm, Onion - Hystar, Onion - Paris Silverskin, Yellow Chard, Radish - French Breakfast and Mixed Lettuce blend. Still need to sow Carrots, Parsnips, Peas and loads of flowers.

[Twinkle]

today it flippin' snowed !!! So I went in the polytunnel and covered my propagators with an extra layer of bubblewrap for the night.

[selfraising]

Today I pricked out Amaranthus and potted on. Took last years' cloche attempt apart and decided to do a proper job this year, putting struts in between the hoops etc. Now all I have to do is sort the cover out. Planted garlic and red onions and covered with netting as I could see the wood pigeons eyeing them up!!! Fixed fleece down again after last nights winds and tidied up garden. 8 woven willow edging panels arrived today which I have used to divide up my flower border and hope it might help support some of the plants.

[janeyo]

OH and me busy today. We got 3rd paised bed in position and I have dug it over and covered it with fleece to warm it up a bit and get the weeds to germinate. This will be the carrot and parnip bed.

OH has put the guttering round the greenhouse ready to install the water butt. He has also made a new butt and I now have great video of him inside the giant barrell - too funny!

I have: sown parnips into loo rolls, sown a few caulis, calabrese, leeks, brussels, spinach, mustard leaves. I am soaking some asparagus seeds in a pot. I also pricked out some calendula and sowed loads of flower seeds.

[Samwise]

i haven't done an awful lot today but one of my tomato seeds has germinated and my cucumber plant is doing much better on my bedroom windowsill than downstairs in the living room, also 3 of my tulips are up

[FionaH]

Sowed carrots (amsterdam 2) in the hail, yuk. sowed toms, (Armish paste and Garden pearl). Tidied greenhouse a bit till it got too cold

[sewer rat]

My Own Place
Got a tractor with a topper and flattened all the OSR and other weeds in the field, carefully avoiding the leeks, PSB, swede, kale, cabbages, chard and remaining JA's in readiness for ploughing. Need to decide on whether to apply pig slurry as I did last year or chicken sh#t which has been composting for a year - regardless, both will be ploughed in straight away.
Picked some of the last cabbages for this weeks boxes, dug up some perrenial weeds that were lurking under the polytunnel staging which is no longer in situ.
Worked out the space required for my strawbs, so I know how much groundcover I need to order.
Weeded round my chives.
Sowed about 1000 Leek Tornado seeds that I forgot I had !
The Walled Garden
Watered all the seedlings - Cayenne are 99% germinated but only 2 out of 54 Jalapeno so far . Toms all okay as are lettuces. Celery and celeriac now showing too. Rocket and Mizuna at first true leaf stage.
Sowed 60 sweet peas in loo rolls for the gaden I work in part time.
Sowed another 96 Lettuce Charita
Sowed 1 row of Radish Tarzan and 1 row of Radish Long White Icicle outside.
Tidied up the Chives, Fennel and Chard.
Lifted the last of the Leeks, Sprouts and Swede.
Spread the mounds of compost over the beds.