What I Did Today Archive - 2010

[solway cropper]

Right on Wellie!!

I've got two twiggy mountains waiting to go through the shredder plus half a dozen bags of shredded material that won't fit in the daleks. My aim is to be self-sufficient in compost and growing media in time for next year. I'm going to try mixing shredded wood with grass mowings and just leaving in big black bags to rot down. Might bung some chicken poo in to get things going.

Compost rocks

[kentvegplot]

What a fabulous day yesterday! Spent about 3 hours in the garden, mainly sorting out the greenhouse ready for the new season. Cleaned of all the staging, threw out stuff that hadn't survived the frost , and got my shallots into modules to start them off.

Gave some of my cuttings a very weak feed, as they're starting to grow away and they've been in the same compost since September.

Inspected the potatoes in store - beginning to sprout now, so need to use them up.

Cooked butternut squash from the store for dinner, along with a nice piece of pork belly.

Very satisfying day all round

[Two_Sheds]

- sowed Red Baron & Long de Florence onion indoors (thank you JeanieD)
- sowed Cayenne, Anaheim chilli, lobelia, limnanthes, cerinthe seeds in heated prop
- turned the forced dahlia (pic 5): the cuttings are coming along nicely, bending to the light
- took cuttings from coleus canina
- dug up a Japanese anemone and took root cuttings to increase my stock
- planted rosemary & black peppermint in the new border
- planted out primroses & white limnanthes (were in modules outside all winter)
- cut cabbages, kale, leeks, mooli & French Breakfast radish for dinner
- pulled up some flowering weeds (Annual Mercury)
- took a load of bottles & newspapers up the plot for use later on


Not much else to be done, the ground is too sodden

[Bigmallly]

Ordered a new 8x6 greenhouse.........

[Bigmallly]

Right on Wellie!!

I've got two twiggy mountains waiting to go through the shredder plus half a dozen bags of shredded material that won't fit in the daleks. My aim is to be self-sufficient in compost and growing media in time for next year. I'm going to try mixing shredded wood with grass mowings and just leaving in big black bags to rot down. Might bung some chicken poo in to get things going.

Compost rocks

Be carefull with the shredded stuff, last year mine got really hot. It may soften your bags.

[Nes]

Ordered a new 8x6 greenhouse.........

What are you getting? I've been promised a greenhouse by OH, but haven't made final decision yet.

Went to lottie yesterday and dug over and weeded one bed and harvested leeks, parsnips, swede and brussels before being called home early to screaming baby (2 months old today!).

[pebbles]

Covered my rhubarb today. It's my first attempt at forcing it this year.

Also tidied out the shed.

[kentvegplot]

Harvested the last of my parsnips - I only grew a few as OH hates 'em, and we've got heavy clay. Next year they will be grown on a very raised bed with lots of sand to help the drainage.

Also dug up the few small leeks - and the friendly robin came to help,picking up worms I disturbed as I dug.

[piskieinboots]

This was done last Sunday, but my notes got buried under the cat

Seeds sown
- Tomato Red Cherry (heated propagator)
- Tomato Roma (heated propagator)
- Tomato Gardener's Delight (heated propagator)
- Tomato MoneyMaker (heated propagator)

- Chilli Cayenne (heated propagator)
- Chilli Thai Long (heated propagator)
- Chilli Hot Shake (heated propagator)

- Aubergine Black Beauty (heated propagator)

- Nasturtium Trailing Mix (unheated propagator)
- Silene Shell Pink (unheated propagator)
- Sweetpea Matucana (rootrainers)
- Sweet pea Heirloom (rootrainers)

Potted on HAs sown 27 Sept
- Centaurea Black Knight
- Candy Tuft
- Potentilla Fireball Mixed

[Bigmallly]

Put tatties (in eggboxes) in GH before setting off to work. Had a boring half hour at work so booked a Valentine weekend break to the Lakes.

[Bigmallly]

What are you getting? I've been promised a greenhouse by OH, but haven't made final decision yet.

I already have a 6'x4' but fancied something a little bigger.

Gardman 6ft x 8ft polycarbonate greenhouse - Summer UK Greenhouses

[sagegreen]

Cleared kitchen waste onto compost heap; dug some leeks (a variety called 'Bandit'); checked boundary fences and picked a bunch of wind and rain-battered, blood-red, anemone bordeaux

[wellie]

Oh it's all kickin' off here!

The Summer Savoury seedlings are collapsing and dying due to Damping Off disease (bu@@er: have to start them off AGAIN!)

The Russian Tarragon seedlings are leggy, but perfectly healthy.

The Bored Beans in a tupperware box filled with compost are germinating nicely and need potting up.

The Tomato seedlings: Sungold, Red Cherry, Ferline and Tigarella are ready to be potted on.

Surprisingly, the Cape Gooseberry (Physalis) seeds are germinating without heat. I didn't think the house was that warm, but that could account for why we've just run out of oil for the umpteenth time this winter my darling Trousers!

The two varieties of Parsley (Plain Leaved, and 'Big Mountain') have just popped their weeny little seed heads above the compost today. Aaah!

The 'Ophelia' baby & 'Early Long Purple' Aubergine seeds, and the multitude of Sweet Pepper seeds are just teasing me about coming through as well.

And lots of general tidying up has taken place in the garden (about time too Wellie!) yesterday, with an even more productive day the day before, when a whole new 3.7m square bed was single-dug over (by me), but not manured. Having located about three stones in there, I'm glad I didn't, because now that has just earned its' place on my plan as ROOTS!!
Thank you for listening.X

[solway cropper]

A good day in the garden today with things drying out nicely. Scraped the top eighteen inches off the main compost heap and dug into some rich, dark, crumbly goodness. I tipped fourteen bucketfulls on the main veg plot, piled some round the soft fruit and managed to fill three 60 litre bags. The bagged stuff I’ll mix with cheap grow-bag compost for my containers. Thick, home-made soup and home-made bread for lunch then back out to put one of the stick mountains through the shredder. Got 2 bags full of coarse wood chips which I’ll use on an area I’ve cleared for the containers. Anything over about 1 inch in diameter I sawed up as fuel for next winter. Washed and cleaned plant pots and seed trays in readiness for sowing and generally pottered for the rest of the afternoon. Looking forward to a couple of pints of cider tonight.

[sewer rat]

Had my first real day at my site since about mid September - what a mess !!!
Anyway, cleared the tunnel of dead chillies, tomatoes, aubergines, beans etc - removed the chard and spinach that was looking very very sick - put them all on the compost heap and covered it over with an old carpet.
Dug up and potted up about 50 x 1 year old blackcurrant bushes grown from cuttings into 5 litre pots.
Potted on some rosemary, sage, thyme and french tarragon that all came through the winter in remarkably good nick.
Planted out about ten rhubarb crowns.
Sowed cayenne chillies and another 108 Kelsae onions.