What I Did Today Archive 2009

[Flummery]

Weeded my onions yesterday. Then after nearly a fortnight of drought I watered everything in the home veg garden with the hose. This morning it rained!

[Meschuee]

I pinched out the tops of the broad beans and washed off blackfly with washing-up liquid and water.

Penny

[Two_Sheds]

- sowed a pack of pre-germinated Gladiator parsnips (started on kitchen towel)
- sowed 4 rows of kidney beans (Canadian Wonder
- picked 2 bunches of Sweet William & Sweet Pea
- dug up 6 baby carrots, and sowed a pack of Tendersnax
- dug Charlottes for dinner, peas, lettuce and loads of broadies
- cut down lots of broadies that have finished now so I could
- plant out 5 Hooligan pumpkins (with newspaper mulches)
- rubbed off a few blackfly from the bolting parsnip (not many at all so far)

[Meschuee]

I planted Buckler leaved sorrel and more carrots ("Chantenay Red Cored 2).

Penny

[BrandNewDay]

Today I went over the rows my husband marked "beans" with a fork. They didn't germinate and I didn't find any trace of them... perhaps a bird got them? Anyway, I sowed some lettuce there, instead.

I thinned out some cabbage seedlings that was growing in clumps. Moved some of the healthier-looking thinnings over to some bald patches in another cabbage row. I don't know if they'll take but it's worth a shot.

Something is eating my strawberries as soon as they ripen. Something that is putting neat holes into the cores of them. As one of them also had a bit of slug/snail slime on it, I was wondering if they were the culprits. I don't think birds are reaching them so deep beneath the nets.

[solway cropper]

Another dry day up here but rain is promised tonight. All my water buts are empty so we really need it now. Emptied out a big yellow tub with spuds (Rocket). The five seed tubers gave me just over 6lb of gorgeous new tatties. After working over the old compost and adding a good helping of BFB I planted out some swiss chard into the tub. Once that's harvested the spent compost will be tipped on the heap and the whole process started again next year. Isn't recycling wonderful. Also sowed some spring onions into 9 inch pots and dwarf beans into a big square tub.

[SarzWix]

Yesterday, we went to the lotties and;
Planted - 30 celery plants
2 butternut squash (waltham)
2 pumpkin plants (jack of all trades)
2 courgette plants (tristan)

Hoed and hand weeded the Roots beds, being careful not to disturb the whole SIX parsnips which have germinated out of 3 short rows... Then dug out 4 trenches and filled them with a mixture of spent MP* compost/fresh MP compost/sand and sieved soil.

Sowed into the trenches - Carrots; Red Elephant (HSL), John's Purple (HSL), Ingot, Red Samurai, Yellowstone, Healthmaster & Honeysnack. Didin't attempt to sow in rows, because a) I couldn't reach, and b) some of the seeds are a bit old and not sure if they'll germinate. So I broadcast sowed them in mixtures over the trenches, covered them with MP compost, and we'll see what comes up. Didn't water them in as the compost was moist and rain forecast too. Then covered the whole bed with Enviromesh over cloche hoops to keep the evil carrot flies out. Fingers crossed we'll get some carrots this year
*MP Compost = Multi-Purpose Compost

Then I had an hour in the greenhouse fixing strings for tomato and cucumber support pinching out sideshoots etc. Was really tired by then, so took a few photos and headed home

[Two_Sheds]

- planted out 3 courgettes
- 2 Bonbon pumpkins
- 3 Cobnut squash
- 1 Joes Long chilli (chillies do well on my lotty)
- 1 row of Barletta pickling onions
- 2 rows of white kidney beans (saved seed, originally from an Asda pack of dry beans)
- 1 row of wallflower
- squished a couple of leek moth caterpillars in my onions
- squished a few blackfly on broadies and foxgloves (not many at all this year)
- weeded a bit more ... I've had to start a weed pit/trench as all daleks and heap are full

[sewer rat]

Started to rain here at about 7 this morning and didn't stop til about 6 this evening - really heavy and the sort that soaks you right through within seconds but hey ho - work to be done.
Collected another load of used tyres and started to plant out more courgettes til I ran out of tyres.
Weeded 50m of onions.
Checked last of the Spring Greens to see how many would be of sufficient size to make it into this weeks boxes.
Got too wet so retired to tunnel.
Watered, pinched out and tied up tomatoes and cukes.
Dug over the ground at the far end of the tunnel ready for whatever I decide to put in there.
Sowed 150 lettuce Charita.
Checked all the hanging basket strawbs - weeded those that had taken on thistle seeds when they were outside to chill earlier this year.
Retired to shed - swept floor, cleared out old boxes and had general tidy up - was actually looking for my watch which I seem to have misplaced - probably with one of my hand trowels at one of the other gardens I have. !
Got fed up - came home early - ordered a large vinyl banner for the business, two large car magnets advertising my box delivery scheme, T shirts for me and Iona, a baseball cap for me and some more business cards.

[bramble]

Rat you're a great worker. Read your posts all the time and don't know where you get the energy.
Keep it going.

[sewer rat]

Rat you're a great worker. Read your posts all the time and don't know where you get the energy.
Keep it going.

Neither do I, neither do I !! LOL

[taff]

Sowed some more dwarf and climbing beans, the other ones dwarf ones are still mostly sulking...

[sewer rat]

Strawberry Fayre

Amongst other things, today I collected a trailer full (and not a small trailer either) of strawberry plants - one year old, in the professional strawberry growbags, straight off a table top system. After making myself sick eating all the remaining ripe strawberries, I took them back to my place - gonna try and get some suspended tabletop set up erected (hanging from the crop bars) over the next few days in the tunnel.
There are probably 200 plants in all, but I reckon there at least 500 fresh air runners ready for bringing on in yooghurt pots of water before transplanting into 3" pots to root properly.

[Snadger]

Collected 10 eggs from my 14 hybrids (pretty good i reckon)......broody is still sitting tight.........spotted a grey squirrel on top of my coop.................took pity on my small self hatched flock of mixed chooks and after cleaning out run with pressure hose added some more bricks, sets and breeze blocks to just about cover there run floor. The feather legged varieties will hopefully not get ingrafted with mud now!
I had rescued a white belsen sink from a skip but after filling it with water realised it must be cracked!
No problem, I will still put it into the run but fill it with sand to give the chooks something to sratch about and dustbath in!

Went around tying up plants that had been blown down with last nights gales. Sunflowers seemed to have suffered the worst.

[Lulabellx1]

Weeds, weeds bloody weeds! I spent most of my afternoon weeding

Looks lovely out there now though

Lu x