What I did today 2012-2014

[Likac66]

Put some parsnip seeds to germinate on wet kitchen towel on the windowsill this morning. Popped to the lottie this afternoon and planted Sweetcorn mini pop and golden nugget into modules, covered with fleece and left in the polytunnel. Put some spinach (perpetual and red cardinal) into bigger modules.

The allotment elves had visited again. Yesterday I discovered they had emptied the water barrel that was right in the way and I had been trying to move. Today they had cleared some of my apple tree branches that were piled at the back and bonfired them. I wonder if the elves would appreciate a bottle of wine?

[Snadger]

Yesterday (Sunday) had about 4 hrs at the allotment catching up with stuff that should have been done ages ago.
Sowed some sweetcorn in modules, sowed some beetroot in modules, sowed some swedes in modules. Dug over the bed I intend to devote to cut flowers. I have trays of iris,gladioli and lillies ready to plant when i get some time.
Tonight after work I had to light the woodburner to burn a dead chicken. It was one of three that I recently bought at auction and was a little sweetie. It used to come up to the run wire to be petted. Unfortunately it musn't have realised the danger of doing this with a predator! Sorry to bring a gory nature to this post but either a fox or a cat had relieved it of its head when it stuck its head through the chicken mesh.

Sowed some courgettes in modules and planted some freesia corms in a large pot in the greenhouse. Pollinated the peach tree again and raked over the bed that i dug yesterday.
Watered all indoor plants before leaving for home.

[eirish]

Deslugged the cold frame. Radishes have joined the sweet peas as Slug Snax.

[KittyColdNose]

I found loads of sunflowers (at least nine) sprouting in a pot with rosemary. I know I didn't plant them so guess it is from the bird feeder at the other side of the garden. Am wondering where else I will find them growing. Odd that I haven't spotted them anywhere else yet.

[KittyColdNose]

Aw Snadger... the poor thing.

[Martin H]

Sowed 36 chitted sweetcorn seeds into individual modules. Need to find some space somewhere to pot up a few spares just in case.

Next weekend seems a long way away...

[Loudbarker1]

Sunny weekend hurray!

Mowed lawn (or half of it). Added clipings to potato bed unde blakc plastic - see last post.

Inspected seeds sown last weekend:no move,ent from tomatos celeriac or leeks, but lettuce and beetroot are moving well. The Albino beetroot are just a bit slower than detroit and bolthardy.

Finished taking greehosue to bits.

Had birthday; best present was a top of the range Bosch eloectric shredder that will be extraordinarily useful.

Watered all the soft fruit.

Spotted broadbeans coming up.

Harvested sprouting brocoli.


Next week I really really must:

Start carrots, parsnip, raddishes;
Start french beans inside. Is it too early for courgettes and squash?
Start actioning the garden at the new house!
Try out my new shredder!

[rustylady]

All afternoon at the allotment. Lord it was warm, should have worn a short sleeved shirt.

Site ready for climbing beans. Loads more bindweed roots dug out. Weeded round the rhubarb and blackcurrants.

Indoors lots of varieties of beans soaking for chitting.

Greenhouse got very warm today, lots of watering of seedlings needed.

[treepixie]

My partner and his son dug the bean trench on the lottie, and thought about starting the beans off indoors, but trying to work out where to put them, running out of space rapidly, have to be careful the cat does not use the seed trays as her dirt box!!!

[hawthorns]

sown garlic chives
hawker, hunter and harrier butternut
uchiki huri squash

[Likac66]

The girls sowed their pumpkin seed for the allotment competition.

I planted the mange tout plants out into tubs with bamboo canes to go in the garden.

Earthed up Swift potatoes in the greenhouse. Swift by name but NOT by nature!

Emptied out the dalek compost bin behind the shed in the garden. Moved the dalek further back and put the freshest stuff back in. Also put together a 3 bin compost system next to the dalek.

Decided to finally attempt to empty out one of the recycling bins that had potatoes in last year but I didn't earth up properly and just wrote off. Turned out there was a reasonable crop of potatoes in there, some of which had rotted, but some of which were still perfectly good. There are still 3 more recycling bins out there to empty at some point.

Came in and did some A level marking. Don't you hate it when work gets in the way of your life?

[binley100]

Potted on, pricked out, musical plants, sowed seeds ........was keeping a record of seeds sown , when germinated etc .......so much happening it's all gone to pot......

[Peppermint]

OH rotavated one of the potato plots. This has had seaweed on it for a few weeks and this has now been chopped into it. I want to put some first earlies in it this weekend.

Moved some pots around in my potting shed to make room for some leeks that we on windowsills in the house.

Sowed: sweet peppers (bullhorn mixed), welsh onions, oregano and coriander. These are all in the heated propagator.

Wild and windy here tonight, but at least it is getting warmer. 9 degrees here today. Things are starting to grow at last

[wizzbang]

What a glorious day.
This morning I started doing some ordinary gardening in the borders. Weeded between the spring bulbs and pulled out some ivy. The previous owners have never gardened for the seven years they lived here by the looks of things. I think they have just kept it tidy, weeds and all! I spotted two monster spears of Mares tail sticking out of the ground in the Herb border, so I think I will have that nightmare to deal with in a couple of weeks. They were massive! I didn't root around for deep seated evidence today, I just wanted to deal with the ordinary weeds.

I HATE mares tail but not as much as I HATE Japanese Knot weed..... there is a LOT of it.
I'm frightened.
I have to tackle it and get rid of it but what frightens me is how much more is going to appear. Is it in the compost i've been using on one of the veg beds for instance. I don't suppose the previous owners even knew it was such a nasty plant to deal with.
All I can do is my best.
I have decided I am going to use extra strong Roundup fortnightly or every ten days. I have read that it will take about 3/4 years to get rid of it. That means 3/4 years of creeping round the garden taking extra special care not to transfer bits of it to other parts of the garden. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it isn't in the compost bins.
Some of you will know that the gardens are 4 acres in total. Most of the knotweed is in the ornamental borders as far as I have seen so this probably means that I will have to kill off some of the plants that are under the knotweed.
Swearwords, swearwords, swearwords.
Lynne x

[wizzbang]

Because I was moaning so much about the knotweed I forgot to say how much fun I had in the garden today too.
The smells from the herb garden were amazing. All different types of mints, sage, rosemary and lots more too. Underneath a very overgrown tree which is trained along the outer south facing wall of the walled veg garden are loads of peach stones so I am guessing its a PEACH tree lol..
In one of the borders there was a knotted mass of something or other. It was about 8 foot tall and twined around a metal support. It was such a mess as the metal frame had rusted and broken and fallen over with the weight of this massive plant and it was lying on top of hundreds of spring bulbs which had flowered in, around and through it. A very unsightly, tangled mess. I cut it down at the base, its the only option I had. I think it was Jasmine. If it was I wonder why they didn't train it along a fence that is just behind where it is planted. Anyway, I have left it in the ground. Ill see what happens with it, perhaps it will be worth saving. It might split. I will wait and see.
I also found an ants nest, and I fell down a rabbit hole, or it might have been a mole hole. It was a tunnel which ran half the length of the herb bed with holes coming out of the ground every two or three feet. I was a bit wary incase something jumped out and frightened me.... BOO !!
I tidied the hydrangeas, pulling out all the dead wood and pruning down to the second bud along the green stems. They were choked with dead wood. Hopefully they will start to grow nicely now. I know its a bit late to do them, but I only moved in properly on Friday.
Anyway that's enough of me going on on this thread. Ill go and read what everybody else has been up to.
Lynne x