What I Did Today Archive 2009

[Marthaclematis]

I watered in my nematodes. Too late for my shredded tulips but hopefully will save my other bulbs and my new peony.

[Newbie]

Had a productive few hours in the garden today. Emptied, scrubbled clean & refilled all the bird feeders (once they had dried in the sun) as they had all gone mouldy. Dug over the last 2 veg beds to incorporate the soil improver i spread over them a few weeks ago. Dug 2 tatty trenches in one bed ready for their planting. Planted out 4 broad beans plants, good few more to go in in a week or two. Planted out a couple of pots of Paris Silverskin onion seedlings. Pricked out & potted on 5 Red Cabbage seedlings and 7 Broccolli seedlings. Had a good seed sowing session...French Parsley, Coriander, Garlic Chives, Spring onions, White Fox Gloves, French Marigolds, Sunflowers, Candilabra Primroses...can't remember if there were others.

Tomorrow need to sow more seeds (carrots, parsnips, turnips, peas to name but a few), do remaining potato bed / pot prep, clear & mulch round apple tree bases and probably a lot more that i can't remember at the moment.

Good day in all.

[Pickle]

Dug up a load of strawberry plants and raspberry platns that would have been buried when the soil for my new raised beds turns up on monday. Whether they'll survive remains to be seen but it's worth a shot. Also cleared a load of bricks which had marked out the existing beds. Cut back a rosemary bush that was so woody and really not in good shape. Again, will it survives my butchering, I don't know but it looked awful as it was. Hopefully we'll get some nice new growth on it and I can tend to it to keep it in shape.
Cleared copious amounts of nettles and have the stings on my arms to prove it!
And finally was clearing my potato planters ready for my new seed potatoes only to discover that I had an entire planter of unharvested potatoes How that happened I'll never know!

[kentvegplot]

Washed down the polytunnel inside and out - it's amazing how dirty they get. Hopefully the plants will appreciate the extra light.

Removed the netting which one of the clematis used to climb the garage wall last year - I have other plans for that plant! Dug up some of the sweet rocket which I overwintered in the tunnel, and put them in the main flower border.

Cleared the last of the leeks, dug over part of the tunnel bed in preparation for some early salad. Planted a fennl root I'd been given. Picked PSB, kale and pak choi for my tea.

[wellie]

No.... What DIDN'T I Do Today...!

...is more what it feels like at this time of year - don't ya?!

In addition to that, I'm up to my proverbial armpits in packing boxes!.....

I can't say I've pricked out today, because I haven't, but I have sowed, sowed, sowed, and potted on, and potted on, because if I don't, I'll get too tangled up in 'moving house' and not have a single Leek, Shallot, Carrot, Calabrese, Lettuce, Beetroot.... (you get my drift!) to eat at all this year.

And that's my point really.... because one thing that I've learned over the years about growing fruit, vegetables, herbs, salad stuff?
If you put it off until tomorrow, you're likely to put it off until the next day, and the next day and the next day, and so on.

And before you know it, you've put it off for so long now, that you've completely missed the boat, and you'll have nuffink to eat, when you should have.

So. If my post here gets just ONE of you to do something tomorrow that you've been putting off all week or weekend, I shall feel like I've achieved something important today.


I'm actually NOT doing great in being able to follow my Biodynamic Calender, with any of the above either, but am not letting that stress me neither (I've got Trousers to do that!!)

Thankfully, I've had my other Rachie friend to keep me balanced, and completely insane. Which has been lovely, bless you my friend! X

Trousers very kindly mowed the lawn today. Once on a 'high cut', and then later, on a 'lower cut'. Not an ideal tactic, but better than doing it straight off on a 'low cut' and ripping the swards to shreds....

Thank You for Listening.
X

[greendean]

planted my potatoes today. all salad varieties. half into a bed that has been warming up under polythene and half into normal beds to see if it makes a difference. was going to plant onnion sets but a lot of them rubbish.

swapped two deck chairs for a couple of rooflights for coldframes with the guy in next allotment.

[Bazza]

Planted my second early potatoes (Charlotte) a row of beetroot plus a tray of leeks. This is the second year that my raspberry canes have been in so I should get a reasonablke crop from the summer varieties. There are a lot more new ones springing up this time around too despite the colder winter we just had.

[craftyslh]

Planted out some more broad bean plants that my parents bought this week, have loads growing in the greenhouse and packets to go in, bless them, they thought the plants looked great so got some. Also planted out some swiss chard in the flower bed, going to try and do some "Geoff Hamilton" style gardening this year, with his ornamental kitchen garden.

[Snadger]

Progressed with the shed roofing....nearly finished now. Started to draft proof the joints by nailing on vertical latts. Dug over one small bed and rescued a few wayward tatties. Tried to treat the scaly leg mite on some of my older chooks with paraffin. Managed to get more on me than on the chooks!
Watered some of my leeks and onions which were looking a bit dry. Not a bad day weatherwise for a change...........well it is supposed to be the first day of spring!

[coreopsis]

I played with some seeds today so the following went into compost:

Spring onion-PW method
Spinach
Brussel sprouts-2 kinds(has anybody grown Bedfordfill Basket before?)
Lettuce-2 kinds

It's blowing from north tonight and all the trays are outside-if they don't survive-tough luck.

[Peter]

Rotovated all this, plus quite a few other jobs.

[FionaH]

thinned spinach, sowed more night scented stock to replace the ones the cat slept in

[frankerooney]

I sowed carrots, parsnips, onions and leeks outside yesterday and put loads of twiggy branches over the beds and scattered lion poo pellets to try and keep the cats off. This morning I went to admire my beautiful beds and what did I find? Paw prints all over them... The seeds will be all over the place... Grrrrr. Guess I'll have to try putting net over instead.

[gojiberry]

Sown 80 (40 Each) dwarf beans the Prince and Nomad. Bought some Jeruselem artichokes and planted them out on the lottie today. Only 5 tubers but you have to start somewhere. Planted another 5 potato tubers (charlotte) Noticed the first lot that were sown are poking through the soil so will have to keep an eye out for frosts. Planted out 12 durham early cabbages and 4 small gutters of peas (feltham first) into the lottie. Only 4pm so time to go and do a bit more yet.

Ian

[selfraising]

Planted out 24 module sown beetroot. Moved peppers (not chillis) into unheated placcie greenhouse (hope they're ok). Moved spring onions out of gh and have left outside. Lightly forked over flower bed to incorporate last years cocoa shell mulch ready for top up. Brought stock out of gh for a couple of hours as part of hardening off. Sowed one pot of Dill. Now going out to tidy up the mess I've made!