What I did today - 2019

[bario1]

Solid couple of hours on the plot this morning.
Planted out probably 50 odd onions that I’ve grown from seed - some red and some white.
Sowed three rows of Broad beans and two rows of beetroot.
Sowed 90 gladioli bulbs across 3 beds.
Sowed potatoes, some in the ground and some in bags.
Cleared out the polytunnel and started digging out some soil from the beds and replacing it with farm yard manure. The old soil filled the potato bags.
Burned some old rotten planks and all the fruit tree and bush prunings.
Picked 18 asparagus spears for our lunch.

[nickdub]

Solid couple of hours on the plot this morning.
Planted out probably 50 odd onions that I’ve grown from seed - some red and some white.
Sowed three rows of Broad beans and two rows of beetroot.
Sowed 90 gladioli bulbs across 3 beds.
Sowed potatoes, some in the ground and some in bags.
Cleared out the polytunnel and started digging out some soil from the beds and replacing it with farm yard manure. The old soil filled the potato bags.
Burned some old rotten planks and all the fruit tree and bush prunings.
Picked 18 asparagus spears for our lunch.

Which inevitably makes me wonder what you did with the rest of your time :-) (Phew!)

I went out and planted a Xanthoceras sorbifolium this morning which I grew from seed a few years ago. Found a spot down the bank from one of my bee hives, but when I was looking to return the bees were making an angry sounding buzzy noise - I scarpered down the bank again and found a different way back !

Followed by a visit to the local car boot - a few odds and ends of plants and some other bits and pieces including a strong looking trowel.

[Florence Fennel]

Finally made a start!

[SarrissUK]

I went to the plot with two large trays of green curly kale, purple scarlet kale and purple sprouting broccoli to plant out.
I also weeded the potato patch again, much less weeds this week.
I pulled bindweed and nettles all over the place and topped up the feed barrel. It's starting to smell.
I laid down cardboard in the greenhouse, and tipped out some manure in there.
I dug a bit more around the polytunnel, so it's nearly ready for the plastic now, which I ordered on Friday! Exciting!

[1Bee]

Dug over the megabed again, and then indulged myself by erecting the new bean tunnel, made from Hazel poles I harvested myself. Lovely bit of bending, tying and weaving. Will henceforth be known as the wibbly wobbly tunnel.

Pulled the old fleece off the potatoes and hoed. Popped some short canes with bottles on down the middle, to lift off the fleece, then put new fleece over the potatoes and put the old fleece over the raised bed.

Watered the covered bed. Erected a support for the newly germinated peas and tied strips of plastic to it to discourage the sparrows until I can get a net over them. Checked on the so far absent dahlias and saw a suspicion of life.... C'mooon cafe au lait!

Planted up another strawberry. Whispered sweet nothings to the blueberries.

[Small pumpkin]

Got two fish boxes ready for sweet peppers and planted them.
Planted the first random chilli into its final pot.
4 more chillies planted into final pots. Including Dorset Naga in the biggest pot I've got.
Sown some seeds.

[veggiechicken]

Ventured into one of the Lost Gardens of VC- Land. Many years ago I planted some spare fruit bushes there - as there was nowhere else to put them. It was a shady spot, beneath a tall wild cherry and sheltered, to the south, by some saplings of hazel and oak.
The cherry tree was diseased and had to be cut down a few years ago, the trunk left to lie where it fell and it formed the edge of Bed 22. The Lost garden, alongside the trunk, has been encroached upon by Vinca/periwinkle, brambles and other stuff and was starting to invade the chicken run.
One of the first discoveries I made was Mint! I remember planting it there alongside the fruit bushes and relishing the scent when I walked on it. Amazing that its still there, at least 15 years later - as were the gooseberry bushes and raspberries, all in flower and starting to fruit up. Isn't nature wonderful when you leave it to its own devices.

[Chippy Minton]

Sowed some carrots and salsify (complete waste of space but I've got the remains of a packet of seeds). Hoed and did the hands and knees crawl to get the weeds too close to the onions. Land holder had friends around, came on the garden tour just as I'd finished, all looking tickety-boo

Weeded the "spares" bed and put in the 5 spare potatoes and the remaining onions and the self-growing onions. Bit of space left for any other spares.

Started weeding the asparagus bed, pulled 5 spears, swore a lot

[bario1]

Cleared up this year's brassica bed - I left it empty last year so it'd turned into a bit of an impromptu compost heap for stuff that i didn't have time to chop up for the compost bins. Cleared that all into the compost bins (it'd broken down so wasn't a big job), pulled/dug out some raspberries that had crept in, raked it over a bit and dumped 4 bags of mushroom compost on top ready to rake flat.
An enormous wasp flew out of my shed when i opened the door, i instantly knew there would be a nest, and sure enough there was a golf ball sized nest in the eaves. I hate to have to destroy the poor thing's hard work, but I've made the mistake of leaving a nest to grow out of respect/fascination before... - a quick jab with a hoe, and a comedy door slam and sprint ensued. Hopefully she'll find a better spot for her second attempt.

[Nicos]

Sown beetroot, spring onions, radish and carrots direct.
Potatoes finally planted out.
Broad beans have started germinating in their bowl of water so will probably pot up later on, or tomorrow.

[Small pumpkin]

Put some more suff on the sales barrow.
Potted up 3 toms into final pots.
More stuff evicted to harden off.
Potted on lots of tomatoes
Put the saucepan flower pots out.
Potted up indoor Tromboncino.
Moved companion sage from bed 9 to bed 8.
Mowed the front garden.

[veggiechicken]

Had a little weed in Bed C and cleared some space to plant 6 carrot tops - 3 purple and 3 orange. The hope is that they will survive long enough to grow leaves, flowers and set seed as Bed C is going to be the self-perpetuating carrot bed. Will it work? You never know unless you try!
Also planted out some marjoram that I had uprooted during some clumsy weeding.
The big job of the day was seed sowing/throwing - lots of old, past their sow-by date flowers - Amaranthus, Aster and Alyssum. A pinch of each in the A Bed and the rest, randomly sown around the garden.
Tonight, I'll dig out some B seeds ready for tomorrow.

[bario1]

Emptied the wood ash from Sunday's fire onto the brassica bed along with the mushroom compost and raked it flat. Just needs a bit of a tread over to settle it and the cage constructed on top and it'll be ready to plant up with psb (someone gave me some spare plugs, I told myself i wasn't growing it this year, but i can't chuck healthy plugs in the compost ) and 4 varieties of kale.

[Bren In Pots]

Potted on kale and sprouts then weeded what will be the brassica bed.

[greenishfing]

Earthed up the first earlies in preparation for the frost forecast on Friday night. Some will need fleece or bubblewrap as well.