What I did today - 2019

[veggiechicken]

Weeded Bed 20 and scattered the contents of Lucky Jar R1 (mostly Rudbeckia).
Planted up the Oca Triangle in Bed 21. Imagine, if you will, a triangular bed, the outer edge ringed with random alliums. Oca in 3 shades planted in rows-ish across the pointy bit. When the oca ran out Chinese Artichokes took over and that brought it up to the Mulberry tree in the centre of the opposite side to the pointy bit. I'm sure you understand completely what I mean. Don't worry, there's not a test!
Nearly forgot, I scattered 2 bags of old carrot seeds over the lot.
Since its the start of Roots week, I also sowed radishes over the mangetout peas I sowed yesterday.
Planted out a few more rosemary cuttings.

[Bren In Pots]

Emptied a compost bin then planted out 5 courgettes plants.

[muck lover]

I planted out sweet corn under large cloches in proximity to two kuri squash and two courgettes.
I netted some brassica plants.
Spent ages catching slugs and woodlice to give my chickens ( they had a suitably enthusiastic response)
Planted out a pattypan squash and outdoor cucumber under a temporary cloche.
Cut some v old red chard for chickens.
Cut beautiful purple Dutch irises and some alliums for the vase. They look good with some wild cow parsley although I am deficient in flower arranging skills.

[bikermike]

Put bean, and pea seeds that are recovered (from 17 and 18 respectively) to chit (so i can see if they are valid). Also stuck some sweetcorn seeds out to try to speed things up.

Never properly tried chitting before.

[1Bee]

Watered, weeded the onions a bit (needs hand weeding now, but I was on the way to work) and netted the old raised bed with the carrots sown in it.

At home started potting up the sweetcorn seed as it chits and potted on some PSB and brussels.

[burnie]

Just manured one side of the greenhouse in preparation for the sweetcorn going in, still a couple of weeks away from planting yet though.

[bario1]

Planted out the last few kale plants I didn't have time to do yesterday, and a couple of dozen leeks.

[carolefu]

I inspected all the pots so far that have plants/seeds in them to make sure everything is 'behaving'. Washed a couple of pots to start planting 'companion' seeds. These will be placed close to my raised beds when they have the seeds in. Tried to 'sweetheart' hubby to sub me some money to buy more compost, seeds, pots & plants - hehe

[Small pumpkin]

Potted up 15 more mystery chillies. Only 6 to go and they're destined for pop bottles.
Swapped indoor tromba with a bigger stronger plant. Think I put him into a big pot to soon, he wasn't happy.
Did a bit of weeding and a bit of watering.
Tied up sunflowers in bed 1. Not to be confused with the sunflowers in bed 9 I tied up last week .
Potted up the cherry tree cuttings I took last month.
Did a bit of pruning to keep things off the tunnels.
Took some red currant cuttings.
Had to rescue the mint. All the pots were very dry ( I forgot about them, I always forget about them ! ). Now having an overnight soak.
Topped up little sales barrow again ( and it looks like more people can't add up)

[veggiechicken]

Weeded Bed 21.
Planted more DFBs in the courgette tubs. Spoke encouragingly to the courgettes and thought about picking a couple (but I didn't tell them that!).
Weeded under the peach and nectarines trees. They're not coping well without the PT cover. Lots of peach leaf curl. Maybe they're not worth growing and I should stick to something less vulnerable? I'll think about it this year.
Moved most of the herb baby plants out of the GH and onto the outside table.
Flicked the unfertilised flowers off the apple trees and picked off any fruitlets that looked small.
Watched a peacock butterfly on a forgetmenot flower. Either the butterfly was lighter than it looked or the flower stem was tougher than it seems.It hardly bent under the weight.

[ameno]

Put in some more bean canes and planted the runner beans I had started in pots.

Started digging the raspberry bed at my new allotment, removing the rather weedy looking old raspberries, in preparation for planting new raspberries. I got some bare root ones cheap because it's past normal bare root season. I think they should do fine as long as I keep them watered.
A lot of digging ahead of me, though. I've only managed to clear about a fifth of the bed. Those raspberry roots grow everywhere, and I really would like to get rid of all of the old ones if I can. I know from experience that they'll regrow from even small bits of root. I swear, they're worse than the actual weeds.

[SarrissUK]

I checked my trays in the greenhouse at home tonight and a few more beans have decided to pop their heads up - yay!

No need for watering tonight, so I had no excuse but to crack on with my uni essay

[Jay-ell]

Painted some modern abstract art. Recon I'm quids in for the Turner prize.

Took more bags of grass courtesy of the Compost Fairy down to the plot.

Harvested some of the comfrey to make comfrey tea.
https://youtu.be/4Ru9hS5meVI

Cleared the weeds out of the bean bed. Plants out the dwarf runners and the lupini.

Weeded the perennial root bed and the path around it. Discovered that the comfrey under the hedge is doing even better than I expected.

I had hoped that eventually it would create a curtain of roots and wall of foliage that would block out all ligt under the hedge so that the weeds would struggle for light. Well its growing I to the canopy of Hawthorn so the wall of foliage is there.

Behind the comfrey the ramsons also look as if they are thriving. Ramsons are an early spring plant and are up before the comfrey to grow flower and die back by summer. These are there to deny the ground to weeds early on in spring. We'll the leaves are still there and there are lots of fat seeds maturing. Hopefully with these seeds and the splitting of the bulbs the patch will thrive.

Mulched the path, the perennial root bed and the main potato bed. The spuds I planted in November are all up and doing well. Time will tell if there is any benefit in autumn planting rather than spring planting.

More weeding and some strimming.

Mulched the brassicas. I haven't even planted them yet but I mulched the bed anyway.

Harvested the flower stalks off the Welsh Onions.
https://youtu.be/2wVCu4BlaVA

Harvested rhubarb - also chopped off the flower stalk.

Pulled some scapes out of the 2016 Leeks.

[bario1]

Had 10 minutes at the plot this morning - watered a few pots in the tunnel, and did a quick hand weed over the asparagus bed.

[1Bee]

Watered, planted out two courgettes and sorted out plant supports in the dahlia bed.