What I did today 2012-2014

[traceys plot]

Moved chucks to there own bit of the garden planted for them had a job catching them lol Mr G had to do for me picked 5 courgettes planted out Toms, cucs and a pepper.

[StephenH]

My new compost heap, finished a few days ago, was resolutely refusing to show any signs of decomposing, so I decided to fork everything out of the bin, mix it up better (previously, it was mainly grass and sappy stuff at the bottom and mainly tough stuff at the top), chop it up more with the spade, and bung it back in to the bin. Hopefully, it'll now start to heat up.
The two other heaps are both past the hot stage and into the maturing stage. I had an exploratory delve into the older one, and was very pleased to discover a few brandling worms - not the great, heaving mass of them that I foun d in a heap last year, but if there's a few now, it won't be long before all their friends and relations arrive, so it's looking good. Of course, my disturbing the heap might have driven them away temporarily, but they'll be back soon, and now I know they're there, I'll leave them to get on with it.
Cycled to a spot a couple of miles away, beside the main Hemel Hempstead-St Albans Road, where there is a large stand of comfrey, with the trailer on the back of the bike, and filled the trailer bag with comfrey leaves, flowers and immature stalks. Back home, I packed them into two big plastic winemaking fermenters - I was pleased to discover that I could fill both, pressed down fairly tightly - and put them outside the back doors, with the tops on, for the comfrey leaves to rot down, to produce concentrated comfrey liquid - the dark, black liquid the leaves give off as they rot, which makes a great concentrated liquid fertiliser.

[Two_Sheds]

- got up on the shed roof AGAIN to try and get those little fixies to fix down. Superglued my fingers, but it didn't work on the Fixies
- spent 4 hrs weeding out seeding grass AGAIN
- planted out a tray of pinto beans
- and one of soya beans
- fed the courgettes & toms with comfrey tea
- "earthed up" the tomatoes with comfrey leaves (I had a surplus, even after starting another 10l of tea)
- tipped out the comfrey leafmold: it didn't work, just a slimy mess (not enough carbon)
- got the lotty waterbutts to siphon properly again: messy job but worthwhile
- cut the clover & weeds on the communal path
- netted the rapidly ripening blackcurrants (against blackbirds)
- ordered enough green manures for lotty, home & school

[Snadger]

Fed all my indoor toms and peppers with Tomorite.

I have a spare chicken run which is wasted growing space. I have Pumpkins,courgettes,kale,PSB, sprouts and leeks which need a good home and I have ran out of space.

With this in mind I dissasembled the solid part of the run roof. I then had to dig up all the crud encrusted bricks I'd put in the run floor (got a use for these in a retaining wall at my project house.)
I then dug over the inside of the run (not an easy feat as its only four feet high in places)
Having done a seven mile training run prior to this I was too knackered to do any more.
Hopefully the area uncovered will benefit from a bit of rain before I try and create a seedbed for my plants.
Part of the run is still covered with clear perspex and hopefully the cucurbits should do well in this area.

[eirish]

Planted out another squash and two courgettes, plus most of the French beans and sweetpeas that were still in rootrainers. They looked better than the ones in the ground. Sighed over the sad state of my calabrese and fennel seedlings. Took the fleece off the cucumbers and found that one had not been able to bear it any longer and had taken itself off to the great cucumber greenhouse in the sky. The other Crystal Lemon plants are not looking great, but the Burpless Tasty Greens look ok. Still green anyway, which is a good start.

I dragged the OH to the garden centre hoping for some lettuce plug plants as the slimeys have hoovered up ALL my Lollo Rossa seedlings and I.Want.Some.Salad. They wanted £2 for one 'strip' of about four sad little seedlings. Hahaha. Will just try starting some in guttering inside.

[VirginVegGrower]

Watered and made Lazy Garlic - I reek

[binley100]

Went to the lottie with some armpits to chuck in........saw Sid Singh who asked me if I wanted some courgette plants so I did a swap ......wow they are huge, and are now also planted with accompanying blue sweeties.
Planted out two cucs (with protection) peas, lollo rosso , romaine lettuces and some radicchio.
Planted out some runners that Sid kindly gave as well .
Weeded two beds
Dug up two earlies .......was surprised to see one of them had red tatties under it . Must've had an intruder in the rocket bag.....
Did some harvesting..,
Came home and fed the tom plants and flowering peppers and aubs....
Despatched a lurking slug that was brazen enough to show itself on a chilli plant......
Am now wondering if I can beat the birds to my cherries......

[Jelliebabe]

Planted out the last of the french beans - about 35 and then got the brussels out too and (just about) netted them some of the canes were a bit crappy so we're betting on how long it holds up.... 5 mins in the end but its still covered as theya re so tiny! It was raining and cold so its staying for now!

Dug up some new pots for dinner and picked more sugar snaps YAY forgot topick lettuce - will get some tomorrow!

[Dr Dirt]

Went to lottie and despaired of the devastation caused by pigeons and rabbits. So shoot the nearest flying rat.

[Andromeda]

Potted up peas
Sowed mixed leaved
Sowed radish
Sowed more fennel
Sowed swiss chard
Sowed kohl rabi
Planted last toms to their final places
Prepared seed bed for spring cabbages - I'll sow them next w/e hopefully
Potted PSB - my very helpful Aunt came back from Aldi with a tray if 15 PSB plug plants for me, I'm going to be swamped come March if they all grow!
Potted winter cauliflower (same story as the PSB)
Potted Leeks - ditto ^^^

I've never grown anything from plug plants before (I've only ever grown from seed) so I have no idea how successful or not they'll be.

[Loudbarker1]

Massive party over weekend distracted me from the important things, but I did manage to:

sow white beetroot and cylindira beetroot
sow Tompson and Morgannmixed lettuce - two rows - should cover salad from August until early October
sow third and final lot of french beans indoors in loo rolls;
Picked final lot of broad beans - verdict on Witkiem Mantia is that they are Ok in taste but I thought quite low yielding
Picked some tayberries - tip for attracting bitds to your garden - leave these unnetted.
Picked courgettes
Picked lettuce
Bit of weeding
Watered soft fruit, bagged potatos, bagged tomatos and pumpkin.

[Normans Mum]

Today I planted out my turnips and swedes
Despaired at the slugs and snails eating my lettuces AGAIN!! Grrrrrrrrr !
Sowed some more cabbages and carrots
Checked kale and broccoli and sprinkled MORE slug pellets.

[Feral007]

Today I pulled down an old fence. Pulled out steel posts that the roo's have bent. Cut wires and rolled them up. And got it all ready to finish off tomorrow. With the help of No: 2 son. Tomorrow will put one line of wire on. Then one white tape and hook up the electric fence to it. The daughter will introduce the last horse to electric fencing. He's one of those who pushes thru fences so he needs to learn white is not friendly.
The funniest thing tho, we were finishing rolling up the wire the roo's had wrecked, and looked up the hill - and there are about 70 roo's just standing silently on the top of the hill watching everything we were doing. Sure hope they tell their friends to just go thru the gate or around!

[Florence Fennel]

Went out just now to tie in some tomato stems, but it was just too wet and I got soaked again, so came back in
On a lighter note, I did see some nice little green tomatoes - bonus

[Gearoid]

Tied in some cordon tomatoes, picked some nasturtiums for the tortoise, ducked the rain.