What I did today 2012-2014

[hawthorns]

weeded the over wintered onion bed. where did all those weeds come from over night. hoed off the broad bean bed. wind damage to new greenhouse was 2 broken panes on 1 of the doors. 1st asparagus harvested. more spinach and lettuce along with some cracking radish.

[Feral007]

Yesterday son and I planted out some of the seedlings. I pulled some grass from the front garden where it is taking over (that grassy hay was very seedy) but it has kept the ground very nicely damp so that's a bonus. Going to put some more seedlings in there tomorrow after pulling more grass. Then some around the corner in the side beds.
Need to water some plants - so dry, have lost a lot of the trees that went in. Still any that survive are a bonus.
Went to get hay today with son for the horses. Will have a lovely lot of manure tea wash down the hill from where they are fed, if we ever get any rain! Need to pot up some more seeds as soon as this lot is out. And have decided to put cuttings in pots out for the winter, as that way they will get the water from the dew.....may be the only water they ever see.

[Currysniffa]

Planted some dwarf french bean in greenhouse #2. Watered plants in both greenhouses.

[Irish-Veg]

Transferred my young leaks to a large container and an large growbag on my patio just until they are thick enough to finally go ooutside onto the main plot.

Transferred some runners into 2 tubs until the weather improves slightly, im in the process of hardening them off.

Watered my Broad Beans and then had to bring them into the bathtub from the porch for the night as the winds were insane!

Potted on some peppers.

Harvested a few mushrooms I grew in my airing cupboard

Checked on my strawberries, they are in a basket in my conservatory, one plant has yellow/brown leaf just on one 'runner' anything to be concerned about? Since getting them back in March I havent fed them just put them from their pots into the basket of compost?

[PyreneesPlot]

Raked, barrowed, shovelled the thick end of 11 tonnes of gravel. It hurts.

[VirginVegGrower]

^^^Crikey and I thought three were bad enough *gulps*

Sowed melon seeds. Watered in the poly.

[hamamelis]

Inspected the lottie for wind damage- nothing much more than a few pots blowing around. Skirmished with the bindweed, and its dandelion reinforcements for a bit, then the rain started. Back home, planted the last of the pumpkins, and started planting the runner beans.

It looks like the crazy neighbour lady is starting to move out- she's dug up and removed her apple tree (in flower), and taken some of the bigger pots away. Hopefully this means she's actually given up, rather than just saying she was going to (that's the first visit this year, after 5 grass cutting sessions and nothing planted last year ) which means I might actually have space to plant all these pumpkins

[veggiechicken]

Declared war on Dock and Hogweed. The soil has softened up after the rain and the deep roots were coming out easily. Still lots more to dig up but as long as they're gone before they set seed, I have a chance!

[Snadger]

Planted out Caramba Sweetheart cabbage and Trafalgar brussel sprouts in a 5 foot X 18foot pre prepared bed that had carrots in it last year.
The bed has two foot extensions above the ground made with pespex and debri netting. Because my soil is very acid I added a quarter of a handful of lime to each planting hole. I also sprinkled a ring of lime around each plant which could possibly deter slugs? as well as raising pH.
After i'd finished I secured mesh over the top. (99p from B&M!)

Filled another large plastic trug with flowering dandelions for the chooks from my plots.

Hand weeded a similar sized bed to the other brassica bed. This will eventually hold my Calabrese and has half hoops with netting on it. Lots of lime required here also.

[wizzbang]

I hoed (ho ho ho Merry Chr ... )
I hoed between my onions and garlic, loads of tiny weeds, so I beheaded them. I dug over another quarter of the quadrant walled garden ready to plant beetroot and other rooty stuff.
I chopped off the flowers from the Rhubarb.
I carted two massive bags of shop bought multipurpose compost from the greenhouse to the pollywollydoodah and spread it out over one side where I want to put some cucumbers and some courgettes. Then I watered the whole lot. Just to make it easier to mix the compost with the spent earth that is in there. It is so fine and lacking in oomph! It is like dust and some of it is strangely like plaster dust and very grey. Like stuff from a demolished building. Very, very odd and I have never seen anything like it. I wonder what they could have been growing in it. I will definitely have to put some organic matter in there. Not a single worm was in the whole strip I worked.
I fell down another mole hole.
I almost damaged myself when I was watering in the poly by blarting myself with the hosepipe like a water cannon accidentally blasting something into my eye which irritated it for hours and it is still hurting like crazy. Its scratched but whatever it was is out now.
While I was wet through from my escapades in the poly I cleared all the drains around the house, they were full of about 100 years worth of leaves and other detritus including loads of snails which I crushed with a big stick. Murderer!!
I potted on 6 toms but I didn't do any 'proper' gardening.
My daughter tells me that my son in law has bought a new irrigation system for the kitchen garden. That'll be exciting. I want a new system for the poly too because it was while I was fiddling with it to try and make it irrigate rather than spitting that I had my 'to do' with the hosepipe.
Lynne x

[Barking Postlethwaite]

Still a bit blowy, isn't it? Put some netting up for the peas in the drizzle and it was like the opening storm scene in Master and Commander; lots of rigging blowing about and spray lashing into my face. Happily no cannonfire or falling masts, however, and so order was quickly restored with a few garden canes, a ball of twine and some old tent pegs to hold the bottom of the nets down.

Indoors I shall sow another succession of climbing beans for the second wigwam and the rest of the sweetcorn; the sweetcorn I sowed super-early are in good heart and will be ready to go out very soon (weather permitting) so I'm hoping I might get a longer picking season this year.

[stella]

Found a healthy looking Stevia plant at the garden nursery and just put it in the herb bed when the rain came down.

[Currysniffa]

Had a delivery of MPC, seed compost, rock dust and grow organic fertilizer for the lottie shop this morning so after unloading I put my french bean caines up in anticipation

[Likac66]

Just spent the afternoon in the greenhouse (love the fact that the rain doesn't stop me gardening!)

Potted on very slow growing chillies: numex twilight, red cherry chilli, cayenne, sunbite.
Potted on my last tomato sowings: tigerella, garden pearl, baby plum, golden sunrise.
Potted on 4 pumpkin plants into pots about 7" across. They were started in pots about 4" across and the roots were already growing out the bottom!
Planted courgette tondo di nizza (I'd forgotten to plant them when I'd planted all the other varieties!)
Planted the last of my kale fizz (just 3 seeds left)
Potted on 4 All Yr Round lettuce and put them in the coldframe to start hardening off.
Moved the largest courgette zuchini into the coldframe
Sowed last of nugget sweetcorn and another 12 mini pop sweetcorn in greenhouse.
Sowed kale nero di toscana
Sowed cauliflower romenesco

Think that's it. Going to quickly pop to allotment if the rain breaks to make sure all is ok. Hoping to spend some time up there tomorrow morning sorting the brassica bed and planting some small plants up there.

[veggiechicken]

Rain stopped play this morning and the ground is rather muddy now. However, in the greenhouse I've been sowing lots of cucurbits with funny names:-
Boothby's Blonde (Stubby, plump and oval - irresistible!), Jordanian (HSL), African Horned Cucumber /Kiwano, Dragon's Egg, Armenian Yard Long - Burpless , White Cucumbers from France (TY BB), Lemon Cukes from Dai the Jam
and more funny things like
Fat Baby Achocha, Melon-pear/pepino, Melothrie (Incan Mouse Melon to James Wong),
West Indian Gherkins and Capers
And some James Wong style seeds but from other suppliers -
Lemon Eucalyptus, Queensland Arrowroot (Canna ), Dahlia - Edible flowered yam.
Will be reporting back on their germination rates
Also potted on some tomatoes, also with funny names and some brassicas (not all kale!!)
Its pouring with rain again now -time to think about dindins