What I Did Today Archive 2009

[Snadger]

Today I sowed indoors:-

Westland Winter Kale
African Marigolds
Godetia
Clapton clubroot resistant calis
Kilaton clubroot resistant cabbage
Atlantic giant pumpkin
Lavatera
Safari dwarf french bean

Planted outdoors:-

Charlotte spuds
Sturon onion sets
1 spray Chrysanthemum
1 Bergamot runner

Potted on:-
F1 Jumbo pepper
Marigold 'Citris'
Matador F1 shallot plants from seed

Let the young chicks out in there new run for about 3 hours in the sunshine. I'm a bit concerened about one of my 'oldie' chooks who looks very lacklustre and sits by herself.
Collected 10 decent size eggs, one tiny egg and one that had been dropped from the roost into a pile of poop. It hadn't broken but I broke it anyway and mixed it in with the chicks crumb which they enjoyed!

[wellie]

Trousers and I drove to our new 'Funny Farm' Home and unloaded yet more stuff?! The most important of which, was The Big Girls' Greenhouse, all in bits, and Trousers has performed an absolute MIRACLE in that direction, because with all of the glass for the 16x8 footer, he didn't break one single pane. High Five!
As he quite rightly pointed out: this is the third time he's moved this greenhouse, and he's Bl@@dy well not doing it again?! I agree finally agree!
Meanwhile, I started to tidy up the greenhouse that houses the Nectarines and Grapevine, both of which need huge amounts of TLC, or need replacing (the plants, not the greenhouse). I started with the basics of pruning, wot I was taught on my City & Guilds Horticultural Course, which is: the 3 D's: Dead, Diseased and can't remember the third one right now?!
I watered all my plants there in the Draughty Dutch Greenhouse: Bored Beans, newly dug up and transplanted Strawberry Runners, Hardy Annuals, new Asparagus Crowns, Dahlia Tubers and the new Herbs, and outside, the rooted Buxus sempervirens cuttings x 240 that I struck last summer, which I'm contemplating using in my new Potager - very exciting, and the Autumn Bliss Rasps, the Goosegog bushes x 3, the Whitecurrant and Redcurrant, (and Pigletwillie's Blackcurrant cuttings, which are making excellent progress now, what variety were they Piggie?) that I've rescued from Holly Cottage Potager before heading back to join Trousers at Holly for a well-earned Glass of Something: "Ooh! is that mine? Marvellous!...."

And Easter Sunday will see us both back at The Funny Farm once again and into its' beautiful, beautiful garden, to do a little bit more no doubt!
Thank you for listening. X.

[Demeter]

Planted out the last of the potatoes and with assistance from my Dad) the remaining asparagus plants. This was at the city farm plot.

Sowed loads of seeds at home - mainly squashes / cucurbits, a few flowers, a few beans and one of my experiments for the year - Japanese rice. Also set some parsnip seeds to chit on the fishtank.

Tomorrow we'll be going down to the lottie to prepare the ground for my shed which is being delivered Tuesday. Whoop!

[Welsh Wizard]

Sowed yet more oriental mustards (cant get enough of these IMO) in cell trays. 3rd sowing of Sutton broad beans now well advanced so removed from 3inch pots and into ground. 4th sowing also looking good, this lot were "Giant Exhibition Longpod", slightly taller growing than the Sutton so they have gone in the ground hard against the boundary. American land cress cells used to fill in shady corner of veg patch and slot in between leeks, had too many of these so was nibbling, very good stuff indeed. Thinned radishes, and ate the babies: delicious, another few weeks and I reckon the first batch will be ready to harvest. Lollo Rosso lettuce cells dibbed in anwhere they will fit, had planned on cutting and coming again, but the number I have in the ground right now I may as well just cut heads. Little gem cells from greenhouse added into drill where birds have "thinned" a bit too many of the direct sown variety. Threw a biro at a wood pigeon eating a pea plant. Pesky flying rat.....Direct sown mangetout peas have put their heads up and are being munched, while the plug plants are left alone.

Concerned some of my Polka raspberries in containers are not yet showing, but if they croak it's no biggie, just means more free pots for other stuff. Cherry tree has picked up some kind of virus: leaves look very mottled and crinkly plus red blisters on leaf stems, not happy at all. Destroyed last few red marconi seedlings, I have 5 plants well advanced already and there simply isn't going to be space for everything.

This years aims were to get a shed load of broad beans and of strawberries; so far proceeding well, with 70 strawbs of various varieties looking great, and 60 plus broad bean plants in the ground.
3x propagators now empty so 120 cells of something will need to be sown tomorrow, probably start on the annual flowers as most of the veg I want is either already in the greenhouse or ground. Very tempting to do the whole lot as broad beans though, they are so nice fresh or frozen and my favourite veg.... however wife wants sunflowers so I guess I will compromise (my January sowing of sunflowers unsurprisingly didnt work out!). 1 tray of 3 inch pots free also so will get runner beans in those to start.

I also took cuttings to propagate my indestructible rosemary bush, I only need 1 bush for food reasons, but a second backup would be nice and ornamental, plus any spare will make good pressies for the family.

[Two_Sheds]

Steady rain all day, so got a lift off Mr Sheds, and took 4 trays of pea seedlings and a tray of King Edwards to the plot along with various other bits & bobs. Saved me 10+ bike trips.
Had a sort out in the greenhouses, and stuck excess on eBay / Freecycle

[sewer rat]

Got in from the club at 2a.m, got up at 6:30a.m as the girls (well, Iona really - Niamh is too young) wanted to know if the Easter Bunny had been - which of course it had. Went out to posh walled garden, watered toms, chillies, globe artichokes, aubergines (just started to germinate).
Went to my own place, watered my babies, transplanted 148 lettuces, came home - now we're having friends round for Easter dinner.

[miffy]

This is for yesterday really as slept after i'd been up the plot!
Put in two more raised beds, weeded and had a good tidy up in other beds.
Put in lots of different cut and come again salad leaf seeds, some radishes, spring onion and beetroot seeds too.
Earthed up my spuds which seem to grow while you watch!
Measured out the space for a couple more raised beds, had a good old natter with a new neighbour who was very nice.
Came home and tidied up the back yard and then headed into my little greenhouse, i potted on my french beans, squash and sweetcorn for my three sisters bed.
Planted some celebration and white lady runner bean seeds, popped some courgette seeds into my heated propogator and watered all the other things i'd potted on.
Not been well due to a burst ear drum, so felt pretty tired out after all of that and fell asleep hence the post today.

[Professor Peabody]

Today Dad carried on with weeding the potato beds. I sowed sweetcorn, tomato, parsnip, radish and PSB and resowed the kale after the slugs ate my seedlings. Started preparing the ground for the courgettes.

As you can see it was all a bit too much for my Dad!

[selfraising]

This morning I went on a slug hunt and managed to find some which were dispatched immediately! Depsite the damp, drizzly weather we went to a carboot sale this morning and I bought rather a large amount of contemporary glassware (oops!). This afternoon lugged 8 bags of gravel weighing about 6kg each down the garden (how do I know my back is going to suffer tomorrow!). These were then laid between raised beds to top up what was already there. Checked plants in gh and all looking well. Potted on celeriac and poppy Blackcurrant Fizz and then pricked out Oregano.

[petal]

Today I made my norfolk tomato houses. It was like the Krypton factor!

[Newbie]

Not much today, topped up the soil in my 6 pots of potatoes in the greenhouse, sowed 15 modules of sweetcorn and 4 of pumpkin.

[Snadger]

Went to allotment today, as I do every day. with a vague plan in mind for an easy shift! Fat chance!
Even managed to get my shirt off for a couple of hours the weather was so good.
Had two spare doors left after my Octagon project and finished up nailing them sideways onto a derelict shed I have, just to stop it falling down! Quite pleased with that result.
When I shifted the doors which were covering my bean trench I made two nests of field mice homeless. The young were suckling the mouse like piglets on a sow which I've never seen before. Luckily they were advanced enough to have hair and just looked like mini fieldmice as they scampered away. I'm sure they'll take up residence near by and all will be well.
Planted Jerusalem Artichokes down the centre of where my bean tunnel will be as an experiment (and because I had nowhere else to put them)
Was given a couple of barrowloads of brick paviors which I am sure i will be able to use in a future project.
Potted my Bay Tree into a cast iron cauldren at the centre of my herb wheel
Finiushed breaking the grecian urn I had some rasps in (the frost had shattered it) and planted the rasps into a white stove enamelled round breadbin with blue handles on. Also moved and pruned a potted gooseberry bush to the edge of my herb wheel.
Had a major tidy up and weed of the top of the allotment and the pond area and finished off by putting the chicks back in there coop and watering all indoor stuff.
Stayed sunny all day, but my plans for an easy shift went out the window!

[pigletwillie]

Got 52 tomato plants into the new tunnel today and have another 20 to put in the old one tomorrow. Tonight as I am at last home from work will be sowing sweetcorn seeds and broad beans.

[Marthaclematis]

Dank and dull today so went up to GC 'just to buy compost'... well - we did order compost but we also bought two big buckets for my chitting potatoes, an Aster, a Veronica, some Pinks, some Geraniums, a Thyme and a hose with all the attachments. Its always the same, can't go there without spending a fortune each time. We did have a voucher for 15% off though so I suppose that was something.
Anyway as I'm living a new lifestyle (ie, denying myself everything I desire) we passed the pub with its lovely roasts and fullsome red wine and came home to weed, water, twirl, pot on and plant out. I put another 5 potatoes in a bucket, checked my carrots are happy, mulched the bed with ornamental bark and did a quick tidy of the shed. I'm whacked now and I've got the gym to look forward to in the morning. Before that though we've got veggie bolognaise for tea and its 'orrible - I know because I made it, it tastes like soggy cardboard soaked in oxo cube. I might persuade dh to cook something else. Beans on toast would be better. 'night all.

[coreopsis]

Moved the soil in 2 beds-glad I added some compost to it-and sowed:
Carrot-James Scarlet,St.Valery(anybody grew them before?)
Onion-Kamal F1(red) and Bedfordshire Champion(white)
Spring onions-the rest of the packet-Ishikuru-went to the ground.
Parsley-flat and curly leaved

I'm a bit behind with beetroots and toms but hope they'll catch up when it's wormer