What I did today 2022

[ameno]

Potted up some sprouted watermelon seeds, potted up 12 rooted sweet potato cuttings, and repotted some 20 or more pepper plants.

[annie8]

Distributed two ton bags of compost- one in front garden and one in back border. Got about 5 rubble bags of compost left and will leave that to use later when I plant out peas, squash etc.

[ameno]

Planted my maincrop potatoes: 16 Stemster.
Dug up all of last year's runner bean roots to see what was still alive. Most were still alive, but some were a bit small and weedy. Took the good ones back home, and will pot them up in small pots tomorrow to bring on in my conservatory.

Also double dug a little bit more of the old comfrey patch.

[annie8]

Seed sowing, moved a couple of plants in the back border and potted up more tomatoes.

[Mark Rand]

How long have they been in a propagator? They will get leggy quickly if they stay on heat for long. I take them out of the propagator when they germinate and onto windowsills until they are ready to go out to the greenhouse during the day.

They have been in the propagators, in the greenhouse, since they were sowed in mid February. In the meantime, though, they've been grafted onto rootstocks that were sown at about the same time (Not the chillies, Haven't got any rootstock seeds for them yet). The grafting knocks them a bit temporarily and tends to shorten them!

The heat in the propagators is for germination at the start and for frost protection later. Otherwise it needs to be kept under control.

[ameno]

Did some more digging. Slow progress.

At home, I potted up the runner bean roots I brought home (20 in total).
And I tried to graft the melon plants onto squash rootstock I had been preparing. Things didn't go so well, as thr squash stems were far too thick (they ought to be the same diameter as the melons) and the grafting clips I bought are too tight and are crushing the stems. I've given it a go, anyway, and will try to look after them, but I rather expect a 100% failure rate. I have some more coming on, just grown on their own roots, as back-up, at least.

[Bren In Pots]

Erected my pea frame then planted out gutter sown Telephone peas, then potted on courgettes and cucs.

[annie8]

Put my pea frame netting up and planted out the first dozen or so pea seedlings.

[Jungle Jane]

Yesterday I repotted some of last years geraniums into bigger pots & sorted them all out,there’s about fifteen plants that survived the winter (it was a mild one) a few plants didn’t survive but all the plants next to the house & fence did. Weeded all the other pots & I got two large containers ready to sow peas & four potato bags ready to plant potatoes (using all old compost,planting peas in last years potato compost & I’m using 2 year old compost & older for the potatoes with BFB added) & then I ran out of time & got nothing planted there’s loads that needs doing I’ve written a list & getting through it really slowly but it’s nice crossing the things off

[Bren In Pots]

Pulled up my last years Kale plants good leaves have been frozen the rests been composted. Weeded what will be my new brassica bed and around the raspberries.

[ameno]

Did some more digging of the old comfrey patch. Comfrey and bindweed roots everywhere, so it's slow going. Double digging it makes things take a lot longer, too (subsoil is fairly compacted, plus a lot of roots go down into the subsoil).
About 3/4 done now, though. Hopefully finish it next time.

Also, my grafted melon plants are all still alive, so maybe some of the grafts might take, after all.

[Mark Rand]

Spent some time in the workshop and made some plant labels:-

[ameno]

Almost finished digging the old comfrey patch. Just one trench left to fill in.
Also potted up some sprouted watermelon seeds.

[ameno]

Finished making the new bed from the old comfrey patch.
Then I dug over the patch were the new peach tree is going to go, and dug over half of one of the small beds.

[annie8]

Planted out more of my pea seedlings, dug up a bay tree from the beds and put it in a pot, pottered around in the greenhouse with my tomoatoes, trying to get the greenhouse set up for them.