What I did today - 2019

[muck lover]

Today I killed my pattypan squash and cucumber plants. I may have overdone the chicken manure....

[Bren In Pots]

Potted on my Kale, PSB and sprouts.

[Small pumpkin]

strimmed, mowed and did the edges in the veggie garden.
Sorted out seed for the random seed swap.
2 more mystery chillies into pop bottles.
Potted up 3 new chillies (thanks Mitzi).

[veggiechicken]

Did a small amount of weeding in Bed 22.
Planted 10 Beth Alpha cukes in their final positions in the GH. Trying something different this year, growing them behind the bush tomatoes, on the sunniest side of the GH. The theory being that the cukes will shade the toms - maybe?
Picked the first 2 cukes of 2019 while I was there.

Also planted out more toms so GH No 1 is complete.
Armpitted and tied in the toms in both GHs and put the armpits in a jar of water. No idea which is which but it doesn't matter as I'll plant them outside to do their thing - whether its to fruit or be blighted.

Applied for 3 rescue chooks from Fresh Start for Hens. Hope they accept me.

[1Bee]

Surprised myself and dug over an entire large bed in one go on last night's dusk shift on the plot. Watered, tied up a couple of sunflowers.

Dawn shift, watered some more, cultivated the recently dug bed and limed it, then dug a small trench and back filled with green material and then soil for the celeriac. The rest of this bed will be sweetcorn and either leeks or courgettes.

Potted up some leek seedlings I don't want to plant out yet.

Weeded about half the onions.

[Small pumpkin]

Weeded all chilli pots.

[Bren In Pots]

Weeded and planted out my sunflowers then potted up my one remaining cuc into its final pot.

[ameno]

Planted out my courgettes, five of my squash plants, and four of my oca plants.
Then I went up to my allotment to sow some bean seeds I pre-germinated and to dig some more of the raspberry bed. I've got about 2/5 of it dug and free of weed and raspberry roots now.
Found some rather unexpected plants in it, too. What I thought were Spanish bluebells turned out to be agapanthus, and I found a whole mass of fleshy roots, all growing from a single point, but with no obvious leaves. They were about finger thickness, brilliant white on the inside, and smelled like a strange combination of horseradish and mint toothpaste.

[bramble]

Planted out more radishes.
Netted the outdoor strawberries.
Potted on some more tomato plants.
Put my cucumber and pattypan squash in their final buckets.
Potted up some more dahlia seedlings.
Sowed two packets of wild flower seed mix in a tiny vacant space.
Finished netting my huge gooseberry Bush.
Watered everything as we have had no rain recently.

[veggiechicken]

Weeded a fraction of Bed 23.
Planted out the sweetpeas that I bought from the corner shop last week.
Started emptying 2 sides of GH No2 ready for the remaining tomato plants.
Watched 2 baby Great Tits being fed by their parents in an apple tree. Hope they were feeding them bugs.
Heard that my adoption application for 3 chickens has been accepted. Have to be patient until the end of June. Gives me time to think up names!!

[happyhumph]

Not much (in my garden!), but got 5 pots filled with garden compost, each with a tomato plant in. Only 11 more to go, plus everything else....

[Jay-ell]

My EPIC art creation entitled "Fruitless Dreams"


You can see the making of documentary here.

Deployed the false strawberries. Big problem now is that every time my mother sees them she'll go "Oooh strawberries". Am I the only person going round attaching red strawberries to the plants this week ? When do you attach yours?

Planted out the French beans (Blue Lake and Lazy Housewife), the Zombie Beans (Runner bean Gigantes) and some Adzuki beans outside. That's the bean bed half full (including the lupini and dwarf runners) so what can I sow in the rest? Red Kidney beans, soybeans, lentils. If it's not full then I might have to nip to the shops and buy some organic chick peas from the health food place.

Dug up half the greenhouse floor to grow directly into the beds this year rather than pots. Pulled out tonnes of bindweed roots hugging the weed control fabric. Rehidrated the soil, dug it over - very clayey, added manure, dug it over, gave it a good soaking to prime it and get the manure juice soaking in. Now for the other bed tomorrow.

Planted out the Potato Bean (Apios Americana) in a potato bucket with a wigwam and wrapped the stem all the way around the pot so that the side shoots will climb the canes.

Found some Jerusalem Artichokes growing in a barrow. Moved them to a potato bucket with some manure and compost.

Planted out the last of my potato onions into a potato bucket.

Watered the garden, greenhouse and me.

[mcdood]

Love the fake strawberries. Glad mine aren't inter-planted with trees, I'll just chuck a net over

[Small pumpkin]

Watered chillies
Fed chilli grows.
Lots of other things I wanted to do but had to be sociable.

[veggiechicken]

Weeded Bed 24 which is the raspberry bed. Thought I should as the grass was as high as the canes.
Planted out some more toms in GH No 2. Not many left to find homes for now - until all the armpits root. They'll be going outdoors somewhere, randomly in any empty space and left to ramble - just as I am.
There are more ladybirds this year than I've seen for a long time. The honeysuckle is covered in blackfly so I hope the LBs make their way there and gorge themselves.