What I Did Today Archive 2011

[Loudbarker1]

Pruned overwintering Tayberries and balckberries. Teh blackberreis ar erather a cheat 'cos they are wild, but they get a bit of care.

[salilah]

Sowed more - Roottrainer of peas (Carouby de Marsanne) and sweet peas (saved Dark Mix) sitting half-covered in a heated prop; module tray in heated prop with Rosso de Toscano onions, Sweet Nardello peppers, Munchen Bier radish, Tigrina aubergine. To complement the chillis sown 1/1 (one appears to be up already, but I'm guessing it's a weed!)
S

[Crosby]

Ordered my carrot, swede and broccoli seeds.

Also asked some friends to save me their used toilet rolls, got a funny look until I explained why.

[Suky]

Fixed the bubble wrap in the greenhouse properly now I have the corner bracket thingies to hold it up.
Listed ALL my veg seeds on the spread sheet, only 41 packs, not nearly as many as I thought

[binley100]

Potted on my first toms, (2x amish paste and a pw french black) sinking them down to almost the seed leaves. Retrieved the hibiscus out of the airing cupboard where they had germinated in 2 days.....Gave the other seeds a good talking to .......Pricked out some onion seedlings .....and moved them to the conservatory where they'll stay for a couple of weeks before they brave the gh.

[Snadger]

Manages to get another couple of eight foot spars dropped off at the allotment for my new greenhouse roof.

Intend moving my wood burner to the opposite end of greenhouse and build a bit of a slate roof above it.
Need to get greenhouse externals finished so I can get on with building a new raised bed within and get a few early sowings on the go.

[Chopper]

Moved a lot of Primulas outside on the new shelving. Replanted the onion sets that the frost had lifted, same with the garlic.

Replaced the netting over my cabbages that the wind had blown off. Damn pidgeons had already destroyed one plant. Time to get the gun out.

Sowed 2 dozen Broad Bean "Aquadulce in loo rolls and put them in the greenhouse.

Got given a whole load of raspberry canes, so planted them in the new fruit beds. I dug a trench and lined the sides with weed membrane, so hopefully they will not spread all over the place.

Got given a load of strawberry plants and have planted them in the raised bed in the polytunnel.

The expanding foam I used to seal the lean to greenhouse has worked a treat. Moved my old snake tank into the greenhouse and sat it on the staging. Made a big timber support for the front of it. The plan is to make some racking in the tank and use a very small paraffin heater in the bottom of it. The wholeof the top of the tank is mesh for ventilation. I am working on the theory that any heat that escapes from the tank, through the mesh, will warm the greenhouse. Still waiting for the heater to arrive.

I can post some pictures if anybody is interested in seeing the way I have done it.

Chopper.

[Currysniffa]

Today I potted on some of the Cauliflowers I sowed on the 6/1/11, I didn't look yesterday so this morning some of the seedling were about a inch tall...

[Florence Fennel]

Finally managed to get some seeds sown. Sweet Peppers, Roma, Tigerella and Red Pear toms and another I've forgotten (glad I labelled them) and some AYR caulies. More tomorrow I hope. Himself's already complaining about the windowsills filling up, but not talking to him anyway.

[brad1001]

demolished the old rotton compost bin up the allotment and built 2 new ones with all the marine ply i had.
brought the last few chillies out the airing cupboard and put the on the windowsill.

[Sonata]

Potted on three tomato seedlings (2x Dr Carolyn Pink, 1x Gardener's Delight). Some sowing - but I'll but that in the sowing thread.

[arpoet]

Picked my Blind pal up and took him down the lottie for some veg. Its first time for almost 2 months he has been down.
Took all his kitchen scraps for the last month or so (very ripe) and added to the compost heap after i turned it. Then dug in a bag of shreaded paper and covered with a load of spent hops and put to bed with old sacking.
Pulled a couple of sprout stalks ( still alive with tiny white fly )
4 small cabbages
2 small sweeds
a few leeks each
and a handful of Jer artichokes
Enjoyed sitting outside supping tea and we sorted all the governments problems out for them. Temp was a nice 13c and sunny
Going down tomorrow to dig and split the rhubarb and plant it in a new bed.
Roger

[bramble]

Made 14 lbs of jam from fruit that was frozen since the summer and autumn. 8 jars of bramble jelly and 6 jars of mixed plum, cherry and blackberries, all of which I grew myself.
Visited my granddaughter this evening as it was her 7Th birthday.

[Currysniffa]

Today I potted on another 6 Cauliflowers, I have 18 seedling sitting in a unheated prop in the bathroom windowsill now, I think that enough for the early ones, going to see what I can sow in there place in the heated prop

[wellie]

Twenty Eleven Here I Come....!

Okay.... I've proverbially 'sat on my hands' for the last fortnight and NOT sown any seeds, but because we've rather unusually NOT run out of heating oil for well over three weeks now (so "Doh!....Well done Trousers, there's a first, eh luv?!"), I thought I'd take advantage of the warm Rayburn cooker and hence the general warmth of The Funny Farm Kitchen, to begin propagating some seeds that could benefit from being sown this early, without the need to use an electric seed propagator unit - yippee!....... And quite frankly, I'd be mad not to.

Incidentally, did you have a good Christmas?
Did ya? Did ya?!

Having proved to myself last year that it's perfectly possible to propagate one's Tomato plants via 'armpit cuttings' in June, I'm taking a restrained approach this year, basically sowing only sufficient Sungold to give me an early June crop of cherry tommies for salads, just because I've got the seeds already, and then following on later by sowing some newly-bought half-price blight-tolerant F1 Ferlines that'll be planted outside after last Jack Frost, and propagating then from their armpits to give a staggered crop into the Autumn.

Then after breakfast........(!)
I had such a cr@p stored harvest of shallots and onions in 2010 that I decided not to take any prisoners this year, so yesterday multi-sowed 200 Banana Shallots and 180 Red Baron Onions.

I've only really been growing here in our Funny Farm Kitchen Garden properly for a year, but 2010 was a fabulous year for Garlics, (see nobody come within yards of Wellie and Trousers now as she attempts to reduce the stockpile), and so I've saved the biggest of the various cloves for replanting in 2011, and only learned about Garlic 'scapes' from my friend Gloria because she came and photographed beautifully endlessly for the Photographic Library that her work contributes to in London, and told me of how they were regarded as such a culinary delicacy.

To be perfectly honest with you, the chilli and sweet pepper seeds that I've sown today are a 'lick your finger and stick it in the air' affair, because if any of them germinate it'll be nothing short of a miracle with the seed being as auld as it is. Which reminds me...... Trousers is 50 on the 5th of February, so don't forget to make a fuss of him, or I'll be forced to?!

As Always, Thank You For Listening.X