What I Did Today Archive 2009

[pigletwillie]

I finally got around to emptying the leafmould bin (its a biggie) onto several raised beds. One raised bed (13 x 5) is now planted up with desiree maincrop spuds, another traditional bed on plot 2 was planted with pentland javelin first earlies.

The apricot tree is coming into bloom so a plot neighbour and I moved it into the greenhouse to keep it frost free till fruits have set.

Leeks, celeriac, cabbage and carrots were all pulled for dinner.

Back to decorating the hallway now.

[coreopsis]

Sowed 108 cells of Spring Onion a la PW method

What's PW Spring onion method?
Are you sowing all the stuff outside or in the tunnel?

[Oleander]

Sowed basil inside, spinach and carrots outside.
Potted up some geranium cuttings.
Collected a compost bag full of seaweed and, after washing, put it in my compost makers.
Emptied all the tired compost from my big pots and planters - 15 I think - into one of my new raised beds.

[Glutton4...]

Jet-washed most of my big tree-pots, so I can grow veg in them outside the door, as an experiment to compare with those in the actual garden (got too many seeds lol).

Jet-washed all my Dad's seed trays and propagators, then dunked them all in a dutbin full of ***** fluid, just in case! Ready to actually start planting!

Weeded/dug-over another of my Dad's raised beds, with 'help' from the Chooks. My Mum emptied a load of old pots and grow-bags into the beds I dug yesterday, and the Chooks helped mix all the compost in - bless!

My back aches now, so I need a good long soak in the bath - the G&T is helping though!

[stumpy1972uk1]

well today we converted two camping folding shelves to a 6 foot long bench to put our pots on, took the units apart and welded the shelves 12"x 24" in size to each other. this now has our tomato seedlings on along with the chillis and peppers. built a raised bed and planted an apple tree from aldi. still working on the raised veg plot. still new to this but getting there slowly. this forum is so inspiring , so much knowledge on here. oh and started chitting the early seed spuds from poundland.

[spiderpig]

Today I planted out broad beans(The sutton) that i'd sown on window cill.Also sowed cauliflower,red and white cabbage,spinach,sun baby toms and cucumbers.

Also had a major "brucie bonus" when I found a rogue parsnip that had been left undisturbed when i thought i'd harvested them all in november(I must have removed the greenery at that time because the top growth was all very new looking and short when i noticed it today).....it was long,straight,firm and completely untouched by any pests.I felt like i'd won the veg lottery!!!

[sewer rat]

What's PW Spring onion method?
Are you sowing all the stuff outside or in the tunnel?

PW's spring onion method is to sow the seeds in the cell packs, about 4 or 5 seeds per cell then when the onion roots have filled the cell, plant them out.

All my stuff is sown in the tunnel in cell trays - I sow most of my stuff this way. The only veg I really sow direct are Milan Turnips, swede, carrots, peas and broad beans ( and tatties and JA's using the tattie planter). I buy 25kg of onion sets each year and these along with any garlic and shallots are also planted direct (by hand)

[Snadger]

Nearly have my octagon chook house roof finished now! Halleluya! Had to buy a roll of roofing felt eventually and being up and down ladders all day I'm knackered! Should be watertight now though and just some fixing latts to cut and fit and it will be finished.

And now for a nice hot bath!

[shirlthegirl43]

Planted 5 Colleen seed spuds in 10 litre flower buckets, also one King Edward (okay not great by most folks standards but wore me out). Sowed courgette Parthenon, Fidelis cucumber, Earlygold and Eldorado melon.

Onion sets are sprouting and noticed the first two shoots on the garlic.

[coreopsis]

Thanks,Rat
I'm...overwhelmed by your veg growing scale...
Thanks for the info(again)

[Newbie]

Planted out 11 baby perenials that i got from the local GC for £1.45each, planted out 5 bags of random bulbs that should have been done months ago, separated out all the bulbs from a mega-overgrown trough & re-planted them throughout the garden, chucked the trough out, checked on all seedlings & watered greenhouse, also edged one of the beds.

[Farmer_Gyles]

went garden centre got more onion sets
went allotment, quickly dug over 13x8ft bed and planted it with spuds
dug over a small bed and sowed 4 rows of carrots and a row of beetroot
scrounged red and green grapes from neighbouring plot holder and planted them along the fence
cooked lovely roast .......

[janeyo]

Planted the rest of my desiree (after you nice people tell me this is ok from yesterday when I was panicking about digging them up again lol), planted the rest of my salad spuds in buckets.
Potted on my chillis,

[sauzee]

Went to the allotment today pulled back the sheet of poly i had covering the ground i had spread leaf mulch on about 4months ago.Started to dig out the weeds and couch grass i would have been quicker removing the soil from the weeds than the weeds from the soil it seemed to have grown five times as much as before and the leaf mulch was about 5 to 6 inches deep So it took 5 hours to dig 4x12 feet three buckets of weeds and half a wheelbarrow of stones
but can look forward to tomorrow

[sewer rat]

Thanks,Rat
I'm...overwhelmed by your veg growing scale...
Thanks for the info(again)

No problem - glad to be of some help - as for the scale of my veg growing, you have to remember that I am growing for not just one family, but currently 46 weekly boxes, farmers markets , two shops and other casual call-in type customers. Sowing seeds is the easy bit - the rreal pain is when you have approx 30,000 brassicas to plant out by hand, 5000 leeks to plant out by hand, 25kg onion sets to plant out by hand etc etc, in between all the other jobs that running a one man business entails - and you can almost guarantee that the days you have alloted to plant out will be the wettest and windiest of the month !