What I did today 2012-2014

[Peppermint]

Yesterday...

Weeded some of the vegetable beds ... several more to do
Popped in some more Trail of Tears beans around the wigwam to replace those that had failed
Sowed several varieties of carrots
Sowed more spring onions and radish
Dug over the bed where the Swift and Aran Pilots had been. OH then put boards round the bed and tidied it. I planted out the leeks into my nice shiny new boarded bed
OH cut the grass

As forecast it is now raining here today. Good job we got all this done yesterday

[Niall]

Planted out Squash plants and Courgettes to outside (these have flowered inside the poly tunnel) hope they do ok outside. Also took some pictures for my blog:

Niall's Garden

[VirginVegGrower]

Fed, watered, Epsom salted in poly and greenhouse. Potted on brassicas. Flo I may have some PSB spares
Wet to lotty with Mr VVG and watched him weed bed 5 - good lad. I have sown some red clover in spare areas. Squash need a miracle. Starting to spread compost mulches in preparation for Autumn. Broad beans deserve a medal as they have cropped brilliantly in the face of adversity. I did some harvesting...more of that in the other thread later. Nobody else up there, which is no surprise really. Going back up tomorrow to do some major feeding. Supposed to be a dry day.

[Florence Fennel]

Hope you're not overdoing it VVG! Fed the tomatoes and tied them in again. Thanks for the offer of PSB, but I think I'm going to give it one last try. I have a cunning plan.

[Gearoid]

Finally planted out some courgettes I had in a pot now I've made some space. There are already a few fruits developing.

Picked all the gooseberries and made a nice pie!

[VirginVegGrower]

Hope you're not overdoing it VVG! Fed the tomatoes and tied them in again. Thanks for the offer of PSB, but I think I'm going to give it one last try. I have a cunning plan.

Nope, I'm fine Flo thanks, just dabbling and all the family assisting
My cunning plan is Mr VVG in the tunnel with the salt cellar. You can borrow him if you like
I looked in my book and sowed my PSB seed in August last year so you should be OK. Offer still there if they attack again. I won't be planting for a while

[Gurberly]

Posed for a photo with my trophy/prize winning "three roses in a vase" entry at a local produce show.



(I also got a first for my rhubarb ... but lets not boast )

[NewbieGardenerRow]

weeding weeding and more weeding.
Re potted some tomato plants. planted some courgettes out, pulled all my rhubarb (as I suspect National Grid will be digging up that and a lot of my back garden tomorrow when they replace the pipes leading up to my meter) Moved my potato bags and tried to prop all the foliage up as its all gone long and leggy and then been battered by the torrential rain. Moved all my tubs onto the patio to avoid the aforementioned National Grid folks bashing them, set slug traps near my strawberries, tied up some lilies that had flopped over my path, set up my fountain again as its been away all winter, trimmed the grass and collapsed onto a patio chair to relax just as the heavens opened...so went inside and did 2 hours of ironing <sigh>
Sunday...a day of rest...yeah right!

[Feral007]

weeding weeding and more weeding.
Re potted some tomato plants. planted some courgettes out, pulled all my rhubarb (as I suspect National Grid will be digging up that and a lot of my back garden tomorrow when they replace the pipes leading up to my meter) Moved my potato bags and tried to prop all the foliage up as its all gone long and leggy and then been battered by the torrential rain. Moved all my tubs onto the patio to avoid the aforementioned National Grid folks bashing them, set slug traps near my strawberries

Thought for a minute there you were setting traps for the national grid guys!

[Peppermint]

Yesterday ...

Dug a new patch and planted some Peonies we were given. Hopefully they'll come back next year.
Weeded the Salads / nursery / strawberry beds
OH marked out a new 4 ft x 30 ft bed and took the turf off. I started to dig over the new bed.
Put up emergency wind breaks around the Jerusalem Artichokes and the raised bed of potatoes.

Everything was taking quite a beating from the wind this weekend. We are now planning how to provide wind breaks around the main vegetable growing areas.

[Loudbarker1]

Not much this weekend, but next weekend (wheather permitting) is last real chance to get autumn carrots in. I need to consult the Charles Dowling's "Winter Veg" book to get my timing right for July/August and September plantings. I may try some carrots in compost and containers.

But over the weekend I did manage to do the folowing:
Cleared spent broad beans - all over for another year :-( but these make space for the second lot of PSB and swede plants :-)

Watered everything - pots and pumpkins in bags, soft fruit, (I MUST net these before the bids/children get them andit's already too late for the tayberries) tomatos, cucumbers and also magnolia and camelias. Enthusiastic help form Master and Miss Loudbarker.

Weeding. This year it has been "no-dig" and a thick mulch of (mostly) home made compost or (for new potatos and courgettes) a layer of weed supressent membrane. I was very sceptical that this would work, but I have been proved completely wrong. Keeping the plot clear of weeds has been soooooo much easier. I have been very good in keeping the weeds down when they are small which has helped, but pulling out very small weeds from a thick layer of mulch is easy. Hoeing is straightforward too. I'm not sure how much the mulches have encouraged slugs and snails, but nemaslug (backed up by the occassional slug pellet) seems to have been effective enough.

I have a very pretty mix of cornflowers coming into flower now - blue, pink, purple. I will grow these again. Sweet peas are coming nicely. I am beginning to be converted to flowers growing - they are so pretty round the house.........

2 of my 4 runner beans have mysteriously lost their growing tips - they are only about 18 inches high. Wierd.

Harvested a few courgettes. More than usual are rotting at the ends, especially the yellow ones. Must be the rain rain rain. Might be a good idea to pick off the flowers after pollenation.

[jdlondon]

Came back after three weeks away, and found my balcony garden absolutely alive! I was so afraid they'd all be withered and dead, but the only things that didn't make it were the peas which had been so savagely attacked by aphids before I left, the borage which had been growing vigorously but were in too small a pot for them, and landcress, purslane and possibly the scorzonera - these lot probably due to everything around it growing so big and lush and stealing everything good from them.

Including a courgette I never even knew I grew! The huge leaves were a shock to see, baby courgettes coming out of the yellow flowers even bigger surprises. Yay

I think one bean survived, but not sure for how much longer. Its support had fallen over and it's been trailing its raggedy ass all over everything else. And of the peas, the mangetout just about managed to live, giving me four fat pea pods - which made me grin like a loon despite only numbering four.

The berries are doing wonderfully, especially the blackberry and raspberry, trailing up walls and all over and sprouting fruit too. The swiss chard were reaching for the heavens too, and as it's the Rainbow Lights variety, looking gorgeous doing it. Spinach too is abundant, although I had to do some serious snipping to get rid of aphids. The tomatoes aren't so vigorous, but still a couple have fruited, as have the asparagus pea which really is a very tiny version of the winged bean. Cute.

Anyway, I think the fact they are deep raised beds as well as the wet weather the UK has been having, all helped to make them live. I am very happy! I was so tense the last few steps to the balcony door when I first got home, prepared for the worst, but seeing the jungle waiting for me was just absolutely wonderful

[Helgalush]

Filled in one raised bed and planted some things that were in desperate need of being planted out - lavender, nasturtiums and some squash plants. Wondering if these ones will survive whatever ate my courgette plants (most likely slugs or rabbits).

Two more raised beds built by OH over weekend, these have cardboard in the bottom and are ready to be filled.

[binley100]

Uncovered brassica beds.......despaired over slug damage.........weeded and replaced as and where.
Covered the whole plot with little blue sweeties.........fed and earthed up the celery and added a grass clipping mulch.......meanwhile OH used a big sheet of cushionfloor to cover the shed roof (how posh are we ) .......cleared a load of duck weed off the pond and did some harvesting.......watered the gh .
At home.......hacked a shrub back to allow access to the dalek .....deleafed some toms ...deadheaded and weeded.

[Uber-Uncool]

Planted some more oriental veg

Went to a garden centre and purchased herbs: lemon balm, lavender fathead, compact marjoram, purple sage, french tarragon, variegated thyme and oregano. Only went for moroccan mint...which they hadn't bloomin got anyway!!!!