What I did today - 2019

[1Bee]

Dawn on the plot and a frost. Ouchy fingers in spite of my new fleece-lined work gloves.

Shoveled some more sh... manure into place. Weeded and readied the raised bed I'm going to sow parsnips in and theorised that there might be room for a courgette, too. Sieved some more soil from the corner that's waste ground at the moment to top up the bed.

Dug a strip for the next round of broad beans, which may well overtake the early ones which are doing precisely nothing. I was going to plant them out, but they're snug in the covered bed and it was too cold this morning. Perhaps this weekend.

Weeded another metre or so of the raspberry bed and mulched with newspaper and woodchip. Happy to see that the Joan J rasp that didn't sprout when all the others did last year, and which I thought had snuffed it, has sprouted nicely this year.

Packed up, thawed out and went to work.

[Small pumpkin]

Helped Bob, milling up some elm. (one day they will be kitchen cupboard doors & book shelves).
Potted on 21 sunflowers.

[Chestnut]

Shifted last of manure round to back garden ;-)

[Gillykat]

Planted up 9 Strawberry plants into bigger pots until I get a new bed made for them.

Watered everything in greenhouse and moved a few things outside

Sowed a tray of Dill seeds

Sowed tray of Lettuce 'salad bowl red & green mixed'

Checked out overgrown plot four doors up from mine which I'm hoping to rent

Back home:

Sowed some cat grass

Sowed 3 x Water Melon 'Sugar Baby' ~ will keep in propagator on south-facing living room window until it's warm enough to transplant them up to allotment.

[kitty12345]

Was a surprisingly productive weekend despite feeling tired.
Harvested PSB, kale sprouts and garlic chives from their haircut.

Dug over cabbage bed and planted tree onions, spring onions and garlic chives after cutting clump into two.

Put netting on tall peas.
Put dwarf peas in ground.
Dug over part of bean area. Happy hour digging out couch grass, horsetail and bind weed.
Watered broad beans and spinach... No growth
Earthed potatoes.

[Chestnut]

Potted up 22 artichoke seedlings, sowed some turnips, met up with family for lunch and a game of hide and seek ;-)

[Gillykat]

. Happy hour digging out couch grass, horsetail and bind weed.
.

Now that's not a phrase you hear very often!

I know what you mean tho'

[Rosendalemark]

Started hardening off tomato plants. And wished, as I do every year, that I had more window sill. Or a garden. And wondered, as I do every year, how I’m going to cycle 24 tomato plants up to the allotment.

[1Bee]

Spent the weekend trying to catch up on the plot and get a head start before we go away for Easter.

It was time to tackle the mega bed, and although I expected a scrapheap challenge kind of adventure, it wasn't too bad. Lots o nails, glass, an axle, crushed enamel bowl, remains of a bucket and a great pile of nylon net, but not as bad as we've had before and I was able to dig the entire bed, which I wasn't expecting. I also got about halfway through the clod-bashing, root removal and picking over for rubbish stage, which was good. I ache all over, though.





All the weeds you don't want: horsetails, ground elder, nettles, docks... but it's good to get them out.

Sowed parsnips as light relief.

[bikermike]

a minor, but pleasing, win on the weekend - mowed the plot before the marestail came up, and got the mower with the grassbox. Got a nice big heap of grass for my compost heap

[Small pumpkin]

Plant juggling. Moved some trays of veg and 32 mystery chillies to the little tunnel.
Potted on 11 more mystery chillies.
Some re organising in first tunnel, ready for the April seed sowing marathon.
A bit of seed sowing.

[muck lover]

Sowed some squash, French bean and sweet corn seeds. They had to come inside as it’s bitterly cold.
I fed my three worm bins some of the (failed and not decomposed) compost from the tumbler which I think they’ll love.
Moved two of the worm bins - the ones with secure lids because of the high winds- outside from the polytunnel where they’ve been overwintering. And so freed up space to plant summer crops in the polytunnel raised beds.
Watered polytunnel beds in anticipation of warmer weather this weekend.
Then retreated to house to thaw out.

[Bren In Pots]

Put telephone peas to chit and filled guttering with compost ready for the peas to go in.
Potted on toms and peppers then planted lettuce into guttering.

[Greenleaves]

Funny old day!

Purchased two pairs of stockings to use over the plots...no, not for me to wear

One pair stuffed with nettles the other with comfrey and dumped in respective water butts. So much easier than constantly unblocking the taps.

[annie8]

Did some further prep of the raised beds ready for planting soon and covered one in black plastic. Sowed some carrots outside. Put some netting on the romaine lettuce and rocket seedlings I planted out yesterday. That might deter the pigeons a bit.