What I did today 2012-2014

[Currysniffa]

Planted tomatoes and peppers in flower buckets in greenhouse #1 also planted tomatoes and peppers into the borders in greenhouse #2. Took cucumbers home as I don't think there doing very well in this cold snap stuck in a cold greenhouse. There now sat in a heated prop on the kitchen windowsills ( without the lid on). I never do well with my own cucumbers. They must.know.I don't like them and just.give them away!!

[binley100]

When we finally reached the lottie......I attacked the weeds in the fruit cage, covered an area with cardboard, planted out my woodland strawbs and yellow strawbs, chucked another bagful of lawn clippings into my hotbed .......
came home and planted up the first 8 toms into final pots and shifted a few more things out into blowaway and growhouse for hardening off.......

[daviddevantnhisspiritwife]

I looked at my sad cucumbers and pondered sowing some more.

Having previously prepared the slab base for GreenHouse #2 and the steel base, this evening I constructed 2 sides and an end. I ran out of space in the GH we acquired upon moving here and can't wait until I have got my old one erected!

[Canny Grower]

I took advantage of the soft earth after all yesterday's rain and pulled weeds - lots of them. I don't know where the creeping buttercup crept in from but it should creep no more.

[Feral007]

Yesterday was horsey day. I did grab some frozen rainbow chard from the freezer for the honey and mustard chicken last night - love being able to do that!
Today have inspected the garden, wombok's doing well - getting excited about them. Celery not bad, just starting to get some height. Bok choy is looking good, but I'm finding it a bit rubbery? Is it the type do you think? or I'm just not a bok choy person anymore? I always loved it in chinese restaurants.

Garlic is coming along, ditto the red onions. Globe artichokes good, all new seedlings ok. Broad beans taking off. Snow peas lookin' good. The chickens have uncovered the leeks, so job there to do today. And something (prob the wombat) has been having a little dig at the 2nd plum tree. Green manure at a standstill. Some more rain would be good.
Newer apple trees still with leaves but near to going. Ditto Peach/Nectarine trees. Chia's and gooseberries gone. I need to find a way to start the gooseberries and chia's earlier and protect them. They were soooooooooooo close! A couple of gooseberries but didn't ripen.

Comfrey tea made.......well more like comfrey frappe in this weather. Pray for rain for us.
Son has seedlings to go in today. He's been putting it off. They either go in, and take their chances, or they'll turn their toes up on the deck.

[Snadger]

Lots of weeding done, and to be done. mainly paths, mainly dandelions and buttercup.

[Loudbarker1]

All cucumbers, squash and green courgettes germinated ncely (100%) and growing away in hot house. Too early to think about hardening off.

Yellow courgettes (soleil) only germinated at 50%: this seems to be normal with this variety over the last few years.

French beans all up and hardening off: to plant out under cloche this w/e.

Raddish, lettuce, pak choi, turnips planted outdoors two weeks ago all germianted nicely: good thing I put out slug pellets with this rain! I need to order nemaslug. Parsnips (intersown with raddish) spring onions and carrots have made no move at all.

I will be picking lettuce, PSB, and home grown peas this week end!

[StephenH]

Yesterday, I went to the lotty, and planted out my two 'Cherokee Trail of Tears' French bean seedlings. Only two germinated from self-saved seed, and one of them looks rather sorry for itself. next year, I might start again with bought Cherokee seed. My 'Cosse Violette' Frenchies, otoh, germinated well, and six of them are thriving. Gave everything inside the polytunnel a good hosing, and also applied seaweed liquid fertiliser to the plants, from the watering can. I believe you can get hose attachments which add liquid fertiliser to the water from the hose in the right dilution, but I haven't got one, and Wilko don't seem to do them. I'll have to try the garden centre, or online.
Dug and weeded a small patch in front of the polytunnel to the left of the door, and sowed calendulas, dwarf nasturtiums, and climbing nasturtiums there.
In the garden, gave the small apple trees a spray with seaweed mixture, diluted as per the instructions on the bottle, because my apple book recommends it two or three times during the season. Reasoned that if it's good for apples, it's probably also good for gooseberries and quinces, so I did them as well.

[Two_Sheds]

- spread more seaweed & chopped weeds on the beds as a mulch
- planted out more beans & peas, parting the mulch to do so, then replacing it around the new plants
- the broadies are finally in flower at school (it's warmer than the lotty) so fed with seaweed slosh (tea)
- planted out some hardy perennials in the Wildlife Garden, also self-sown sunflowers which are of course stronger than this year's planted seedlings
- popped nasturtiums in all the school hanging baskets & containers
- cut & chopped alfalfa & comfrey leaves, dropped on veg beds as a mulch. It disappears rapidly
- continued forking out isolated patches of horsetail, couch grass & buttercups, as they appear
- rejoiced that the pond has now filled up again (the caretaker had to help it. As soon as he did, the rains came)
- started hardening off the squashes & sweetcorn, for planting out end of May
- continued digging dandies out of the lawn, and added them to the sacks of leafmould
- continued collecting slugs, and added them to the bottles of comfrey & seaweed tea (home made nematodes)

[Likac66]

Been to the plot and checked on the tomato in the polytunnel - it's fine. Checked on the courgette under the fleece - looking healthy and bigger than when it was planted at the weekend.

Planted 3 more courgettes out and one more tomato plant.

Sowed the following seeds:
Lettuce leaves - Californian, French, Italian and Cos mix
Purple radishes
Milan top turnips


Pulled out a few weeds but there are loads more that need to come out.

[Martin H]

Bit the bullet at the allotment and got going with the softer stuff:
- erected 5-cane wigwams with 2 chitted runner bean seeds at the foot of each cane and a bottomless upside-down milk carton in the middle for watering
- took the polycloches off a row of peas, put in some climbing supports and some netting over the top to keep the birds off
- planted out some lettuces from modules (lollo rossa and mixed salad bowl)
- planted out 36 hardened-off sweet corn
- planted out a bedful of Virginia Gold tobacco.

[kentishgal]

-potted on lots of snapdragon seedlings.
-cleaned out the pond.
-removed and repotted alot of the planting in one of the raised beds (I should of known that I would want to put veggies in there come spring!).
-sowed PSB, kale, more sweet peas, salad leaves.
-moved alot of trays into the cloche to harden off (dwarf beans, calendula, black eyed susan, sweet peas, snapdragons).
-planted a tayberry.
-pulled some weeds, squished some slimies...

[veggiechicken]

Potted on some Bulgarian Giant leeks (even as teeny seedlings they're bigger than the other leeks). Potted up a few chillies and sweet peppers.
Planted out Rainbow chard and a lettuce that I'd overlooked. Also some plants that may be edible chrysanthemum thingies (the Japanese ones whose name escapes me - ? Shingiku). Doubt that I'll eat them as I didn't really like them last time, but the flowers are pretty

[hellybore]

Planted out my little module-grown pea seedlings in the garden (safe from the allotment badgers), and direct sowed a couple more rows of peas. Sowed carrots in the garden too (ditto re: badgers), and a ring of wildflower seeds around them.
Took my little oca plants to the allotment and put them in the blowaway greenhouse.
Sowed basil and parsley in the blowaway.
Sowed a few annual cornfield flowers into the wildflower patch.
Hoed a few weeds.

[VirginVegGrower]

Tied up my beansticks onto the Munty frame. Went to shear grass edges, only to find the Neanderthal next door had strimmed couch grass along my border and left it all over my newly mulched and set out beds. Cheers mate!