What I Did Today Archive - 2010

[Newbie]

Been away for a couple of days to London and to see the Chelsea Flower show - you wouldn't think so many weeds could grow so much in such a short space of time, would you?!

This afternoon i planted out Spinach, Chard, PSB x2 varieties and Red cabbage into the Brassica bed and netted it all. Did a wee bit of weeding too in there. Started earthing up the outdoor spuds but back was too pooped to finish it!

Afterwards i wandered round the garden checking out what needs doing, and managed to let myself get completely overwhelmed by it all, so i went inside for dinner and will go out again later to do the watering.

[sewer rat]

Today at one of my gardens (the one with the thoroughbred horses), cut lawns and put new edges on driveway after lorry mounted the grass to avoid the cherry tree branches.
Took girls to friends for a sleepover, spoke to wife on phone, painted one wall in living room, now off to work as a doorman til 2am. Up at 6am to help out at local horse trials until Iona has her Highland Dancing Exams at 11am. Finish helping her with that, go to Inverness to get windscreen chip repaired (MOT failure !!) on van, then off to Castle Garden to do a bit before going back to work as doorman again tomorrow night. Out to my own place on Sunday - unless it is raining as trying to occupy an 8 yr old and a toddler in the rain ain't easy for more than 20 minutes and then they get fed up and I get frustrated that I don't get as much done as I would have liked - especially as Sunday is the only chance I get to spend more than an hour looking after my own stuff.

[Snadger]

Planted out a tray full of sweetcorn plants into a couple of areas. Wheelbarrowed soil from allotment entrance to top up the bed in my main greenhouse. Turned over the bed and positioned my Jalapeno's, only to realise I haven't got enough.
Will try and source a few extra peppers at the GC tomorrow!

[susieq100]

Yesterday - it rained, on and off all day. Hurray!! So I 'played' in the greenhouse - potting on tomatoes, putting bigger tomatoes in their final position in growbags and sort of ring cultured them, potted on caulis, gherkins and the like. I had one stray courgette that I could not give away so thought s*d it, and planted it in the flower bed. The others are down at the plot, so this one will be convenient, if it survives. Today is a bright, sunny morning, so I am off down to the plot now - going to plant out my climbing frenchies, my dwarf frenchies, beetroot modules, potimarron squash and do loads of weeding! Then back to do more module planting. And it's half term.

[Snadger]

Cleaned out the remains of my carrot bed and fed them to the chooks. Turned over the bed and grabbed the worms for fishing on Monday. Hosed the bed down to get it really wet then added a watering can of Armillatox mix before covering the whole lot up with enviromesh. Will sow maincrop carrots midweek!

[Flummery]

Went out this morning with our village In Bloomers (!) and tidied up some flower beds. Then we stripped some turf and joined two beds together to make a large oval one. Another planting opportunity. We're planning a shopping day on Wednesday or Thursday! We also split plants from our own gardens, which gives a bit of a theme to the beds. Really enjoyed myself.

[Elaineb]

tasted my first garden pea...well actually it was at sugar snap stage. but have loads and loads of flowers. It's four plants in a big tub and they are about 5 foot tall now...so pleased.

Elaine x

[Flummery]

This aft I removed an elderly gooseberry that always gets mildew. It's next to a fence in the garden and I don't think there's enough air movement. It is already covered in the stuff whereas others, even cuttings from the same plant, are free of it. We've never had a crop from it so it had to go. Went for a shower after, I shall ache tomorrow!

[Two_Sheds]

- spent ALL DAY cleaning out the garage. Chucked a load of stuff I'd been saving "just in case" like loo rolls, cardboard, bottle tops etc. Discovered 4 secateurs and 5 pairs of unwanted gardening gloves. Sharpened secs, Freegled the gloves.
- potted up 15 tomatoes, have got a tiny fruit on one of them
- & chillies (the pots are drying out quickly now that the roots have nearly filled them).
- planted out a tray of vanilla African marigolds
- planted out 10 Wonder Wax, 12 'flageolet', 10 Black Croatian & 6 True Red Cranberry (thanks Flummery) French beans
- and even more sweetcorn
- and a row of pathetically small banana shallots
- acquired yet another Dalek & the well-rotted compost that was inside it, so:
- mulched spuds & peas with newspaper, compost & grass clippings
- bought weeping sedge at GC & split it into 4 plants
- thinned out violas again
- used edging tool on the lawn, it's superb
- cut lawn with shears, got 4 bags full for the compost heap
- somehow squeezed 5 green courgettes & 4 Gold Rush between 2 rows of broadies
- weeded the carrots & sowed some more where germination's been patchy (pretty good though)
- put white verbena (grown from cuttings) in my shed's planters
- bought a 7ft tall eucalyptus for £7 (its new pot cost more than that); lots of herbs too

[trolleydolly]

Just back from lottie, and today we planted out sweetcorn, squash, cucumber, and courgettes. These plants were taking up way too much space at home!. My OH cleared the back of the plot, and soon our cheap e bay poly tunnel, (or should I just call it the blow-away?!) will soon be in place. This poly has been sitting in our hallway for the past 6 months!

[Florence Fennel]

Potted on more tomatoes into final buckets, now got 31 on the go and some left to get a bit bigger in the blowaway. Potted on chillies and put in blowaway. Hoed weeds between the brassicas. Fixed an old fancy cane headboard to the fence and I'm hoping the sweet peas will climb it. Rooted some watercress from a bunch I bought a couple of weeks ago and that's now in a trough. Cleared away greenery from container bulbs. Off to garden centre tomorrow to get some cheap and cheerful annuals for the containers.

[Welsh Wizard]

Planted out 9x toms, sowed 48 sweetcorn, planted out 2x courgettes, 12x cucumbers under cloches. Now wringing wet!

[selfraising]

Planted out in containers Hamburg Parsley. Tidied up flower borders and planted verbena quartz mix. Organised planted up containers on gravel. Cleared area behind shed. Put chipped bark down by compost bins to suppress weeds. Removed winter flowering pansies from doorstep container and re-planted with stock and verbena. Pinched out sideshoots on toms, tied in peas and cucumbers. Set up water feature and did some weeding.

[wellie]

I did loads more weeding, because, until you've got yourself a 'Weed-Free-Window', you've not got yourself 'A Plot To Plant....!'


And I'm trying to train myself to 'Sucessionally Sow': and that means, to sow seeds of salad crops that you want 'all the time duriing the summer' so that you do try and 'Get It Right' (repeat after me: 'Try & Get It Right) !!!
I'm adoptng the Joy approach, and sowing more seeds once the previous batch have germinated, and the best I can do is to see how this works for us.

[Frana]

Weeded all my paths, earthed up my rocket potatoes and sowed some more courgette seeds as my others gave up the ghost for some reason. Sowed some extra savoy and primo cabbage to try to prolong cropping time.