What I did today - 2019

[1Bee]

"I'm the fear addicted, the danger illustrated...." RIP.

Friday morning:-
Received a half truckload of woodchip from a very nice chap. I used to be a conservation officer, so very nice chaps like these used to be my tribe. Felt nostalgic.

Felt proud when he was immediately impressed by the willow den.

Amused myself by identifying the species of trees used to make the woodchip. Mostly sycamore, horse chestnut and birch.

Then had to move a very pile of woodchip from the site access track onto my plot. Before work. Moved woodchip, swore at knee*, thanked site manage with pathetic gratitude for loaning wheelbarrow and shovel. Confirmed MPC order with him.

Sunday morning:-
Distributed piles of woodchip over weed matting and in between new and existing raised beds. Two of the four new beds will have dahlias in them, the other two annual flowers for cutting.

Cut down raspberries. Better late than never.

Dug over one of the existing raised beds to remove weeds and transplant dahlia tubers. Covered again. Swore at knee.

Assembled new 'seedline cloche' which I bought dirt cheap at the end of the season last year. It's actually huge, roughly 1m x 2m and fits the existing raised beds to within an inch. Need to figure out how to fix it down, though. Didn't put the cover on until I figure that one out.

Monday morning:-
cut in edges of about 2/3 of Bed one as a warm up exercise. Whimpered at knee.

Lifted dahlia tubers and transplanted to one of the new beds. Resisted temptation to kiss Cafe au Lait tuber. Cursed knee.

[mcdood]

Finally planted my Asparagus crowns (Mondeo, Pacific 2000, Guelph Millennium) which I ordered and received earlier in the year - January - eejit. Top tip, don't order them until its warm enough to plant them, which I knew anyway but patience is not a virtue I possess. Hopefully they'll be ok, they look Ok. If I keep saying it they will be Ok, won't they

[SarrissUK]

They will be ok McDood

Today I got the approval from the council to have a polytunnel on my new plot - yay! And yesterday when I was up the plot, I think I spotted another polytunnel frame that's been abandoned. This will need investigating

[Dynamo]

I filled 6 bin bags full of leaves for making leaf mould from my usual collecting point which is a fence away from a road. There's still quite a lot there so I'll be collecting more as and when. :-)

[Dynamo]

I gathered another 6 bagfulls of leaves and used them and the ones I got yesterday to top up my 3 builders bags full of leaves. After that I took a car full of rubbish off my lottie to the tip.

[muck lover]

I sieved more leafmould and it was so nice I’ve sown a pot of carrots in polytunnel in the Great Can I Grow Carrots in Just Leafmould and BFB Experiment.
Nothing to lose if they don’t grow. Also planning an experiment to see if potatoes in a pot will produce anything in just leafmould and potato fertiliser. Again- nothing to lose.

[Lumpy]

12 broad beans (Robin Hood) shoved in. Line of turnip, strange oriental celery and two of mixed beetroot again shove into soil. Covered with large I’ll fitting cloche. I’ll see what happens.
Oh oh oh two pots of four mange toyte (they are purple padded but cannot remember the name) and two pots of four sugar snaps (Sugar Ann) sown.

[bramble]

Planted out about 50 sweet peas today.
Fingers crossed the weather will stay mild until they settle in.

[Bren In Pots]

Planted up some lettuce and weeded and tidied my GH.

[Scoot]

Pricked out some more of my tomatoes that have popped up in my propagator and putthem in their own pots. Still waiting on a few more to pop up.

Fertilized my strawberries, some are in their second year and some are first year plants which I grew from the plants which are in their second year now.

Also I'm reusing last years tomato compost for my carrots as i do every year. So tipped the compost out of last year's tomato buckets and into this year's 40 litre carrot pots. Added some blood, fish and bone to it to give it a boost.

Got plenty of other things to be getting on with this week too.

[1Bee]

Dug over a third of Bed 1 for the peas and broad beans. Chucked some BFB over and covered with black plastic.

Fitted the cover to my new cloche thingy that covers one of the raised beds. Fixed it down by bending the ground pegs and hammering some clout nails into the sides of the bed to hook them over. In my usual plot style, I bent the pegs with two planks and fined up the angle with the hole in a fork handle. I hammered in the clout nails with a stone.

Re-wove the new growth on the willow den.

[mcdood]

Planted 144 onions that had been growing in coldframe.

[Scoot]

Just sowed my wildflower meadow tonight. Had to fertilise and compost it first with it being an annual meadow.

[Gillykat]

Marked out 7ft x 3ft bed for the Stewart's Purple asparagus *5 crowns* I've ordered (and which apparently is on it's way according to an email I got today ).

Potted up 62 Onion sets (Centurion) and 15 Shallots (Golden Gourmet).

Back up there tomorrow to dig out & thoroughly weed the asparagus bed and add the compost & manure and get the ridges built up in preparation for my crowns

[bramble]

Planted my mixed salad outdoors.
Planted out 5 red cabbage plants.
Planted out three pots of spring onions and three pots of shallots.
They are now covered up under cloches.