What I did today 2012-2014

[marcofez]

Had a quick look around plot and made a mental note of what needs doing on my off days from work. LOTS!
2 more shifts to go!!!

[JustPotteringAbout]

picked brambles then pruned back runners, set aside to lay down on beds to stop cats vacating.
Lifted some massive surprise potatoes (ones I didn't sow) from next to the compost drum that burst.
Decorated the mutant ones with sticks for tails, kale for toupees and moustaches and cloves for eyes.
Lifted some normal sized potatoes..
Lifted some under-sized Anya potatoes.
Chopped back perpetual spinach which was running to seed.
Ditto spinach, broccoli, lettuce ...

[Littlefox2000]

Had a very full on-the-plot day. Hooray!

Took out the yellow dwarf French beans, cut down the broad beans and some curly kale plants and removed a load of courgette and squash leaves that had started to look a bit worse for wear. Took down a pea wigwam and removed the dead pea plants. Took out a load of bolted fennel and spinach. Weeded all the raised beds around the plants wherever possible. Harvested loads which I posted to the What I harvested today topic.

Then dug the empty paces and planted out 50 Japanese onions sets and about 20 garlic sets and fleeced them.

Next made a start on the new plot, which was rotavated about a month ago...wow weeds grow fast. Set up 4 x 1m by 1.2m raised beds (pop up ones which came from the recycled wood yard - amazing things, with hinges preset in the corners). Filled them with well rotted manure. And weeded about a quarter of the rest of the plot. I hate bind weed, docks and some other weird creeping weed - this new plot is in pretty bad condition, with bramble roots and lots of clods of grass everywhere. The soil clearly is in bad condition, cos it's hard clay and coated everything. The previous owners put in courgette plants which barely grew. Lots of soil conditioning needed this winter.

I'm massively pleased with a days work, but my goodness I have a busy autumn/ winter ahead. But I felt so happy pottering and doing stuff today. 😃


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[Two_Sheds]

- thinned out the clumps of black bamboo: removed a third of all canes, then the leaves all the way up the stems of the remainders. It looks much better now, like the black bamboo you see in pics
- gathered the cut canes for use as pea sticks
- brought home a 3rd black sack of autumn leaves, for leafmould
- tied in the toms again, they're still growing
- continued shelling the caliente mustard seeds, while watching The Newsroom (quality)

[Florence Fennel]

Yesterday watched my son cut the grass and strim around the beds. Looks great now and all for the price of a meat & tater pie for him to take home for his dinner

[Noosner]

Weed clearance in the corner behind the shed. I like to call this the 'wild' corner but enough's enough.

Tidied up my strawberry tyres, cutting off old leaves and planting the runners in between the old plants. Culled a few of the really old 'uns.

Supervised mr Noosner doing some double digging. He has now finished one bed and it looks fabulous! So good of him as he has no interest in gardening, though he does have some interest in eating...

[bario1]

Saturday

Built 'the ultimate sheet mulch' a la Toby Hemenway's recipe in Gaia's Garden: Manure, cardboard, more manure, straw and shredded paper, leaf mould, grasss clippings. If this won't feed hungry squash plants next summer, i don't know what will!

[Nannysally99]

Picked a lovely big bunch of runner beans, they are having a last minute spurt - hooray


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[Inastate]

Clearing out old plants to make room for winter vegetables & trying to find some old pallets to use to make a raised bed.

[Snadger]

This evening after eating the obligatory bunch of home grown grapes and a peach I decided to do a bit work on the plot.
Harvested the remaining torpedo onions. Took the hoops and enviromesh off my carrots which are still riddled with carrot fly even though they were covered from start to finish.
Set the hoops and enviromesh up on a prepared bed (held desiree tatties until a week ago) and this will become my spring cabbage bed for the winter.
Its shaded by a big tree which will drop its leaves soon and let in some light, so is ideally suited to winter growing.
I will need to patch up the enviromesh and secure it before planting some of my plants which are nestling in a seed bed but are a good size for planting.
Still have some japanese onions sets to plant but need to clear my beans to give me an area to plant em.
Pleased to see that onion sets i planted a week ago are already starting to develope root systems!

PS Forgot to mention cut a lovely bunch of Gladioli, Chrysanths and Achillia for the missus.

[Penellype]

Cut down all the kohl-rabi that had been badly shredded by caterpillars, peeled, blanched and froze the small amount that was edible. Cut down some tomatoes that were looking really sickly and replaced the soil in the pot then planted spring cabbages (nothing remains empty for long around here).
Put up some more hooks along the rafters in the garage to store canes and fruit cage poles.
Harvested 6 peas (from 3 pods) - all that have survived the caterpillars, leaf miner, slugs and mildew.
Harvested a nice big courgette and made a lovely ham, courgette and tomato pasta sauce for tea.

[marcofez]

Shredded some spent plants and chucked them on the compost bins.
Made ready autumn onions and garlic beds.This

[Snadger]

Crawled under an enviromesh tunnel (already contructed) and planted out some spring cabbage I'd grown in a seedbed.

[Snadger]

Dug over a small bed for my onions and added some manure. Did a bit weeding.

[rustylady]

Yesterday made damson jam, and today chilli jam.