What I did today 2012-2014

[Loudbarker1]

Bargain selection of pregrown plants arrived from Dobbies yesterday -108 plants for £15 inclusive of postage rather than the extortinate £40 when not on offer (actually when I think about it even 14p er plant sounds expensive). I received:

6 Spring cabage Frostie
6 cauliflower all the year round
6 broccoli marathon
18 lettuce winter gem
18 mixed lettuce
18 chard rainbow mixed
18 kale cavalo nero
18 kale frizz

And while the brassicas are smaller than I would like they do look pretty healthy.

Aftrer unpacking I put them outside under a layer of fleece to aclimatise before the weekend. Where shall I put them??

[Thelma Sanders]

planted garlic after weeding the small raised bed.

[PyreneesPlot]

Planted out half a dozen modules of spring onion.
Propped up the sad brussels which have been undermined by the mole.

[Snadger]

Lit the woodburner in the greenhouse to dry things out a bit. Whilst it was firing up I decided to take the labelled tomatoes that I have kept for next years seed from the shelf as a few looked like they had been munched by mice.
I've now got them in a seed tray with a clear propagator cover over them to let them rot a bit so I can harvest the ripened seed.
Had to get up and leave the allotment as I was was starting to fall asleep in front of the woodburner. OH would have been asking some awkward questions if I arrived home bleary eyed and half asleep in the middle of the night!

[Snadger]

Bargain selection of pregrown plants arrived from Dobbies yesterday -108 plants for £15 inclusive of postage rather than the extortinate £40 when not on offer (actually when I think about it even 14p er plant sounds expensive). I received:

6 Spring cabage Frostie
6 cauliflower all the year round
6 broccoli marathon
18 lettuce winter gem
18 mixed lettuce
18 chard rainbow mixed
18 kale cavalo nero
18 kale frizz

And while the brassicas are smaller than I would like they do look pretty healthy.

Aftrer unpacking I put them outside under a layer of fleece to aclimatise before the weekend. Where shall I put them??

In a mixed salad sandwich............

[hamamelis]

Planted some broadies, and some more garlic 'n shallots, barrowed another two loads of leaf mould off the massive council pile, and trimmed up some of the grass round the edges.

Then came home and phoned the site rep to tell him I'd like to put my name down for the neighbouring half-plot (the two were spilt up when I got mine) if the neighbour has, in fact, given up. She's been down all of 5 times this year, and not planted a thing, so fingers crossed!

If I get it, I should be able to get bees next year!

[susieq100]

Thursday - cleared out the greenhouse, cleared one raised bed - emptied all the spent compost from greenhouse pots into the flower beds, cleared weeds and rubbish from 2 flower beds - not perfect but looking a bit more cared for!

[vikkib]

Saturday
Decided against an overdue trip to the lottie due to freeeeeezing cold rain! Decided to stay a little bit warmer well, at least dry, by sorting out the greenhouse instead!

• All the unripe chillies and tomatoes picked
• 4 chilli plants trimmed and potted up ready to bring inside
• Cleared rest of the plants
• Sieved the top 6" or so of the soil (something I didn't have time to do when I was filling the beds in the spring!)

Sunday
So far putting off going to the lottie as it's so damn cold! Preparing myself mentally and physically by digging out three pairs of thermal socks!

[hamesy]

My plan was to build two raised beds ready for next year but that failed so I ended up marking them up ready to build next weekend. I also covered up two of my beds with some very thick tarpaulin in hope to stop the weeds during the winter.

While rooting around the strawberry bed, I noticed a couple of runners that I missed had taken root, so I moved them to a more suitable location.

[marchogaeth]

Went round the tunnel picking up any dead leaves, pulling up weeds that were big enough to be classed as green manure and snipped off anything that was in danger of putting mould spores into the air on the tomatoes - a job so fiddly no one who's seen my house keeping would have beleives me capable of it.

Planted out mangetoute seedlings into the tunnel. (Last lot are already flowering )

Cut down aubergines in the "Can I get them through the winter experiment" to just a few small leaves.

Gave all the brassicas a pee feed.

Chopped up lots of waste material to put in compost bin. Gave same a good stir and then chucked some pee on that for good measure.

Stood and reminded myself how much I love my tunnel when it's heaving down with rain all day as it did today.

[stella]

Do brassicas like a 'pee' feed?

[marchogaeth]

Do brassicas like a 'pee' feed?

Asume you're punning. To answer seriously though, anything with leaves that isn't trying to fill seedy fruit gets it (the only limitation is how much we can produce and get in the bucket - sorry, probably TMI). In addition to the obvious leafy veg,I give it legumes when they are starting out and, following something I read, the tomatoes and peppers are getting a bit now to help promote leaf growth so they keep filling up the fruit they have already set. I have some French beans still producing pods but the leaves are struggling in the cold so they get a bit.

[Vince G]

Pruned the strawbs and potted a few of their runners up. Cut down jerusalem artichokes as I don't want them crashing dow in the strong winds forecast for next week. Trimmed back gooseberries - bit late really, but couldn't get to them previously because of strawb forest!

[Loudbarker1]

Bargain selection of pregrown plants arrived from Dobbies yesterday -108 plants for £15 inclusive of postage rather than the extortinate £40 when not on offer (actually when I think about it even 14p er plant sounds expensive). I received:

6 Spring cabage Frostie
6 cauliflower all the year round
6 broccoli marathon
18 lettuce winter gem
18 mixed lettuce
18 chard rainbow mixed
18 kale cavalo nero
18 kale frizz

Where shall I put them??

Well, over the weekend I planted out the spring cabage, cauliflower and broccoli. I put down about an inch of rotted sheep dung, cleared an area for the plant plugs and planted into these. I put a cloche over the cauliflowers (which was in between the cabbage and brocoli) and then a layer of feece over the lot as a tent, using the cloche over the cauliflower as a ridge pole. Slug pellets around them all of course.

I also planted out a small line of the rainbow chard, next to the perpetual spinage I planted out last week, and some of my own letttuce plants grown from seed: winter marvel (from the Real Seed Company) and Artic King. These were under cloche as well, also with slug pellets.

The spare chard, kale and lettuce all wnetto mother who has a lot more space than I do. I would have liked to keep the cavalo nero, but the authorities said the children were more liekly to eat the borccoli and caulliflower.

Cleared last few carrots (some too small to be interesting since I planted them too late, but a useful meal's worth, took my first swede (a good 5 inches diameter - I'm really proud of my swede though Mrs Loudbarker isn't impressed), and found a few lurking runner beans as well which Master, Miss and 5year old cousin Loudbarker had for tea.

Put down layer of light excluding membrance over a border infested with bindweed and nettles in hopes that it will be usable next spring.

Didn't manage to get to transplant corn salad - that is now outside greenhouse under fleece hardening off. Next week with ( I hope) gerninated aquadulce.

[Smug mode on] Still available to harvest over next few weeks are lettuce, beetroot, turnips, red cabbage, perpetual spinage and swede. Then once the frosts start kicking in, there will be parsnips and leeks with PSB following on. There are a few endive, including a couple of raddicaio. Wth luck all of that will give us tastes of fresh veg over the winter until broad beans, lettuce, corn salad planted out, perpetual spinage and the aforementioned brassica start coming in June. Not bad for 4 beds each 2.5m by 2.5m [Smug mode off]

[horticultural_hobbit]

just took a walk down there with a cuppa and my friend. Saw a single solitary green shoot, think it was an onion. Saw that the scrubland at the end of the site adjoining my plot had been strimmed -yay!- and that a big pile of mulch has also turned up from some place.

Grandad Mike hauled ten bags of leaves down there for me. So I will have to empty out as soon as I can.