What I Did Today Archive - 2010

[elsie-scot]

Moved 9 out of 11 little fruit trees from temp home to permanent place, then the rain got too heavy

[sewer rat]

At the walled garden reclamation / renovation today, I sprayed off one third of what will eventually be a terraced veg garden, (but that won't be til next year) which since removing all the shrubby growth and cutting down all the ash, sycamore and hawthorn, is now a sea of green - shame it's all willowherb and ground elder.
I then planted up about 200 herbaceous perrenial plug plants - some looked okay, others a bit iffy - not going to name the company yet - will see how many actaully do something first. Then I started digging over more of what was (and will be again) the fruit bed. So far I have rescued about 30 gooseberry bushes - these have been replanted in a corner til I have the space to set it all out properly. I want to rip out the dead and dying privet (see earlier posts) along the edge of this bed and use gooseberries trained along wires to define the edge of the border - but might have a battle - the lady of the house thinks my idea is great - the man of the house loves his privet hedges and reckons he could restore it - only by ripping it out and completely replanting it methinks.
Gave the cherry trees and the roses another blast with the, oil + soap spray.
First of the pear trees in full blossom. Apple trees just showing signs. First rosebuds appearing (okay, so there are only two but it's a start )

[Welsh Wizard]

Fab weather here in the Fatherland: 29 Degrees on my patio today!
Weeds are going bananas, so had a brief weeding session to keep their heads down. Direct sown broadies now coming up, and direct sown peas now tendrilling away, so need to get pea sticks in tomorrow!

Watered everything, spread a little growmore onto the new beds to compensate for limited humus. Planted out 8x cucumber "chinese snake". Stirred up the compost bin. Thinned out the artichokes which are currently looking rather triffidlike considering they are only a few weeks old! Loving the square foot gardening: amazing how really easy and quite motivating the grid system makes everything. Still no sign of direct sown carrots and sprouts, think they may have been munched by pigeons. Still only seen one slug in 4 months, brilliant! Sowed: Squash (Cobnut), yet more rainbow chard, spring onions.

[CaroltheCarrot]

actually got out today cos it wasnt raining for once,

watched the chooks squabble over one grape even though i had thrown handful in

[Llamas]

Sowed 6 each uchiki kuri and rouge vif d'etampes, plus supplementary peas (mystery muncher got the ones outside-have installed OH with .22 in hedge). Then dug 3 FULL wheelbarrow loads of *&$£*ing ground elder out of a disproportionate area of veg bed. Sowed a row of french breakfast radish, lambs lettuce, and little round paris market carrots. Planted some mixed giant pansies round the bottom of the bean pole teepee (.69p for 30 reduced at homebase she crows!). Planted out thrift and some sort of seedum by the driveway, hoping it makes big lovely mounds of greenness. Fed OH and cat who were both starving and underfoot, then went back out and potted on two chillies, sowed my psb and collapsed to contemplate and compair gin and tonics made with different types of gin. Both were lovely.

[Newbie]

Today i sowed White Foxglove, Purple Climbing French Bean, Cobra Climbing French Bean & Aquilega. Potted on French Marigolds & earthed up pot grown spuds in the greenhouse.

[Freaya]

Rain prevented any fun in the garden today which was okay as I am still sore from 16 square feet of double digging yesterday. Have just returned from a very productive slug hunt though as the rain had stopped, plenty out on the wet ground.

Why can't slugs be like maggots and only eat dead materials?

[Snadger]

Planted out three calabrese plants and two walking stick kale plants in a single 'pocket'.

Sowed a pocket each of Cosmos, Cornflower and Sunflowers.

Watered all indoor stuff and only stuff that was desperate for water outside.

Tomorrow is 'D' day......'destruction day' of old ramshackle shed to be supplanted with a new one. Off work for a week now so hopefully plenty of time to get it done!

[TonyF]

Weather very changable so put the 4 hazel trees that arrived this morning (bare rooted) in water ovbernight, into the nursery bed tomorrow until the space for them is finished, potted up the free fig tree that came with them.

Then I managed to get the 3 very large grasses in as part of the screen for the new compost/water corner of the potager (ground nice and soft cos of the rain) and then spent an hour clearing some of the bloody lonicera bushes that have the previous owners planted up everywhere.

And even managed to stack and tidy all the old pallets ready to take them off to the dechetterie nbext week, when the trailer is emptied of soil from chum's garden!

[elsie-scot]

Planted the 10th little fruit tree, can't decide now where to put 11th as slightly different style to rest.

Took 7 trugs of stones across road to beach, only about another 10 left ready to get carried - why did the barrow break the other week

Started removing turf from around where fruit trees are to get ready for interplanting

[NewbieGardenerRow]

I just did some browsing around my garden and watering the babies in the mini greenhouse today.
Pleased to say that more broadies have now poked their heads out of the soil in the garden and a couple in my pots in the greenhouse too. Whether the ones in the garden have been pelted by the torrential rain and been forced out I do not know but now I have at least a dozen through.
My cabbage, cauli and broccoli seeds in the greenhouse have also come to life but no sign of life in the carrot tray in the greenhouse or the garden.
My peppers in the propagator have also come through now too although tiny at the mo and in my tubs my spinach, lettuce and spring onions are also through.
I've had to put extra compost in my potato bags to earth them up on the Sharpes Express and Elgars that I didn't think were going to work as they didn't seem to chit normally, so I'm very chuffed there.
My only non starters so far are beetroot, beans, carrots and french marigolds but its only 3 weeks since I put them in so its early days yet....I think but then again I am a novice at all this with only last year to go on and I wasn't sensible enough last year to keep notes of what came up when and how long etc. Now I keep a diary as well as posting on here as a record.
I just need to be more patient....

[sewer rat]

Started at a new garden today - 17th century farmhouse and stables, 3 thoroughbred horses (the two youngsters are by the same stallion whose father won the derby apparently) 7 Bleu de Maine ewes (with 19 lambs between them this year !!) and a host of cockerels and hens.
Got a tour of the garden - quite a lot of damage following the winter but only to be expected. The veg patch had been rotavated already, so planted and sowed the following; Edzell Blue tatties, Broad Beans, onion sets, carrots, peas, mangetout, parsnips, spinach, beetroot and left space for her courgette plants, runner beans and tomatoes.
Dug out a raised herb bed which was beingtaken over by various mints, muscari and autumn crocuses. Lifted the oregano, marjoram, thyme, sage and rosemary plants si O could extract all the mint roots from the bed and from their respective root systems then filled the bed with 7 year old horse manure, mixed it through the soil and replanted what was being kept, leaving space for chives and French Tarragon.
Removed 2 x Tenerife Pines from their pots as well as two Junipers as the pots are required for plants for the Horse Trials on 29th May (at the place I am restoring the walled garden) of the other places I work). Started potting up troughs and tubs for the 4 x dressage areana and showjumping arena.
Delivered another 4 trays of tomato plants to the local Garden Centre.
Came home, had a shower & supper, took Iona to swimming, now on here for a bit then off to work again at 10 tonight.

[Newbie]

Went to B&Q for another 4 75l bags of soil improver & also 2 of large bark chippings. At home spread the soil improver over the large fence bed - this makes 10 in total it has been mulched with, hopefully this will make it pull it's socks up & improve itself this year. Also, i potted on 16 free hollyhock mini plants, pricked out 15 teasel seedlings and gave everything a good water in the GH. Then i harvested 4 sticks of Rhubarb - the first of the year - Mmmm!

Ooh, just remembered that i also planted out 19 lettuce seedlings! I don't seem to have quite got to grips with the successional sowing thing yet!!

[mrsironside]

Today i went and hand weeded around my tiny carrot, parsnip and spring onion seedlings so that they weren't competing with the snaky weeds that the hoe could not reach!!
Checked my peas and broad beans which are sprouting nicely and am about to pot up all my tomatoes in biodegradable newspaper pots for growing on and giving away.

[elsie-scot]

As now on local garden commitee ( group is more just to organise the yearly village show that anything else), went with four others to do some gardening at the church. Came home with two old whisky barrel planters - one without a bottom, but still useable, and some bulbs removed from them that weren't wanted anymore. .Too wet in afternoon to do any of my own garden