What I Did Today Archive - 2010

[Snadger]

Just about made the new 'old' chicken coop habitable and gave it a good cleaning out ready for its new occupants.
Today I'll hopefully reclaim my greenhouse and get the chooks I have in their re settled in there new home.

I might even get a bit of GARDENING done!

[Two_Sheds]

- moved indoor pelargoniums into the blowaway greenhouse to start hardening off
- potted on Anaheim & Cayenne chillies (9 wks old now, and looking good)
- bought a white verbena for a quid and took 7 cuttings off it
- planted out the chitted French beans (Black Valentine & Tendergreen)
- sowed 6 rows of carrots (Adelaide & Touchon) under my new super-fleece (several lengths of voile stitched together)
- moved a load of blackthorn prunings that someone dumped on my plot
- pulled up the remaining kale (to make room for beans)
- weeded the new fruit patch, moved my overcrowded strawbs to it (looking all neat now)
- planted the salad mat that I got in the MoM pack
- planted some pretties along the perimeter fence

[Bramble_killer]

came home and got roped into doing DIY. looked at plants and saw some tomatoes about to flower....(see thread I started).

waiting impatiently for courgettes to germinate as nothing beats the first courgette.

[Welsh Wizard]

Found thousands of beetroot seedlings up this morning, gratifying to finally find some veg that likes to grow after the shallots debacle.

Carted my topsoil to its intended bed. Mulched my garlics with compost. Sowed yet more Lollo Rosso in 3 inch pots, then made first sowing of 24 pots of sweetcorn "golden bantam F1". Never heard of it but its all the garden centre here had so I assume it will work. Planted 2 seeds to a pot just in case its junk.

Also sowed 16x cucumbers "Chinesiche Schlangen", Chinese Snake to you and me. Anyone grown these before? Bit early really but I was in the zone! I lurve cucumbers, will be sowing more throughout the next couple of months. I have a great spot in mind to plant these out where the hot water line from the central neighbourhood heating system enters the garden, which means "undersoil heating" for my cukes and aubergines.

Read "Gardening when it counts". A very interesting and serious book, challenges a lot of hobby garden habits!

[Helgalush]

This afternoon, I sowed some coriander in to a pot, potted my red pepper seedlings in to bigger pots, sowed some Tumbling Toms (yellow and red) and put them in the heated propagator, and then I built a 'blowaway greenhouse' as Two Sheds calls it!!

Also put half of my leek seedlings (about 6) into a large pot but not sure if I have done it right and if it will be too crowded.

I did most of this with a pear cider in hand....it was quite warm this afternoon and it just seemed the right thing to do!

[womble]

Sowed sugar snap peas outside, also dwarf french beans (being optimistic) and marigolds, lettuces, spring onions in greenhouse.
Sowed all courgettes, cucumbers and squash inside.

Prepared plots for various things.

Put parsnip seed and dwarf pinto beans (zazen last year) on kitchen paper to sprout. Put parsnip on coloured napkins so I can see the shoots.

Beetroot still not come up, only one perpetual spinach seedling also, sowed a couple of weeks ago, getting worried now.

Plan to move tomatoes and chillies into new 3" pots tomorrow, sow maincrop peas.

The ground is much colder than this time last year.

[wellie]

I had huge plans of just 'planting stuff' that's waiting to be planted yet still already so soon my life already today....?
And then I remembered I needed to do The Monthly Shop, and by the time I got back, I'd somehow acquired two trays of rather nice Hyacinths dead knocked down in the Homebase sale (that hadn't even come into flower properly yet), and 3 rather unusual pots of Narcissi for the bed in front of the kitchen window. Which was fine, but 4 was what I bought, and one had been left accidentally back at the garden centre 10 miles away. I make no apologies for the rude word that got lodged in my brain on account of that, because that's a 20 mile there-and-back-journey for me to retrieve a £2 pot of Narcissi (I'll try and remember to show you how gorgeous they are on the blog at the weekend).

I've never sown/grown Turnips here before, and so I did yesterday. How cool do I feel now?!
Where there's a Positive, sometimes there's a Negative, and I'm saddened to report, that 'Down on The Funny Farm', Trousers and I have had a bit of a Salad Bar kind of catastrophe today.
No great shakes, no-one's fault, and the Decking Screws weren't man enough for the job. SIMPLES.
But a bit of a headache to rectify the situation maybe.
Hope that your What I Did Today went better than mine!X

[Rixy]

I now need to change my username to 2greenhouses . Yep today I completed the rebuild of my second "pre-owned" greenhouse, freecycle as was, freegle as is, is a wondrous thing .

Have had the frame up for the best part of a fortnight now, just been waiting for a break in the weather to be able to get the glass in which was accomplished todat, woo and indeed hoo. Tomorrow's job will be to build some staging for it ready to accept some tom and chilli plants, the existing greenhouse will then be used for some tomato and pepper plants.

Am feeling rather chuffed with meself as now I'm beginning to see progress on the plot. 2 years ago it was entirely covered in weeds and brambles of the over 6 foot high variety, now it is practically weed free and what used to be a plot like the North face of the Eiger is now well underway to being terracedad of course there is my shed and now 2 greenhouses to be considered too. Orfski for a bathski now with a happy satisfied smile on me face.

[jacob marley]

I went down the plots and cut some spring cabbage and picked some PSB yum yum.
And then put some anti bad weather panels around first early spuds that are just emerging 4 weeks to the day they was planted 8 inchs deep and just earthed up a bit .
So second week in may they will be close to being scoffed....jacob

[Flummery]

I planted the last of my spuds - my own 'Purple Heart' (see Duronal's true potato seed thread of a year or so back) and sowed Heritage Celeriac, leeks and some peas for shoots. Never tried it before but I have a lot of seed left from the short peas I grew last year.

Then I set to and made 2 more 6-cane wigwams with willow weaving as the 2 I'd already made I sold for our 'In Bloom' funds at last night's event. Well, someone made me an offer!

Then I planted out a dozen Sugar Snap (thanks SBP - you sent me some last year for a breeding project. I grew them but the one I was going to cross with it flowered ages earlier! - so This Year!) and a dozen Magnum Bonum.

Planted out some lettuce. Weeded part of the front.

Glass of wine tonight!

[HotStuff]

What a beautiful day! It's so good that Spring is here at last.

Spent most of the day in the garden. Mowed the lawn for first time this year. Powerwashed the patio. Cleared out & tidied the greenhouse. Discovered that one of the clumps of Lemongrass which I stupidly left over winter in the unheated GH is surprisingly still showing signs of life. Planted some tatties in Morrisons flower buckets. Then spent an hour sitting in the sunshine on the patio going thru my Chilli seed collection in anticipation of the seed parcel arriving early next week.

[binley100]

Went for breakfast at lottie and attended the meeting.
Planted 4 rows of parsnips and a row of early carrots.
Noticed Earlies are popping up .
Shallots and onions now well on their way.
Frogspawn has spawned .
Work stopped play

[Newbie]

Finished mowing the lawn as mower conked out yesterday before i got finished, edged all the flower beds doing a bit of weeding as i went along, Painted the shed with Creosote, Planted 2 tubs with Charlotte spuds & one with Vivaldi all in the greenhouse, planted out my Pink Fir Apple spuds in the veg plot - just one row. Pooped now, bbq & bath perhaps.

[Snadger]

Nice morning so decided to rig up a makeshift potting bench outside next to my seat and get some seeds sown and plants potted on.
Sowed Celtuce, Calaloo & Sprouts. Potted on loads of tomatoes and peppers (too many names to mention) and two different types of cuke. Potted on some annual flowers and All this whilst listening to the toon thrash Blackpool 4-1.
Chooks appeared to have survived there first night out of the greenhouse and it's a good job I got them moved yesterday as the temperature in the greenhouse rocketed today with the sunny weather.
Added two more chooks to the new pen to try and even out the distribution.
Was attacked by my Teddy bear Light Sussex cockerel. Thats two cockerels have attacked me recently so it must be the rutting season methinks!
Noticed tadpoles in my pond today........hooray!
Shifted some potted spring cabbage into the greenhouse the chooks had vacated.

Left allotment, did the shopping and I'm now having a well earned sit down with a cup of coffee!

[sarraceniac]

Went to cry over my asparagus patch which I was convinced had said goodbye. Noticed lots of little spears popping through. Went into the house and danced three (or was it four) times round the house with Lady S.

Came back to reality and went out to plant out the corn and courgettes, saw some other things appearing and wondered what the hell they are. Moved the toms, tomatillos and cucs into the greenhouse. Went and looked at the asparagus again. Danced four (or was it five) times round the asparagus bed. Opened a bottle of white and sat out with Lady S. toasting asparagus. She toasted the toms coming out of the kitchen. A good day.