What I did today 2012-2014

[Two_Sheds]

- the rain has finally arrived, after a dry 4 or 5 weeks
- and the nights are now into double figures
- so I planted out loads & loads of Frenchy beans & pumpkins
- collected an ice cream tub full of worms,and 2 buckets of topsoil, for school
- Freegled some old shrubs, plant pots, plus odds n sods
- went to the butcher, then made up the next week's doggy dinners

[MrsCordial]

I had to check your location TS, just to check we're in the same country! We've had loads of wet weather over the last few weeks, and nights aren't higher than 9 degs for 10 days to come, even forecast down to an overnight 6 degs on Monday, ho hum. Really totally fed up of grey, wet and cool spring weather. This is definitely my least favourite time of year. It's always grim weather when the clocks change. I'd far rather be in cosy darkness. Rant over

[SP1965]

Just turned everything round in the potting shed, too wet up here in the North West to do anything

[Noosner]

Planted out runner beans - hard to dig with your fingers crossed!
Tidied up greenhouse, and removed EVERYTHING which wasn't actually a plant. It's amazing how much stuff had accumulated - radio, secateurs, various bottles and packets of stuff. Oh, and a cushion for the cat! Just had to be ruthless in order to make room for all my baby plants...

Jane, I'm further north than you and planted out my runners a week ago! It felt like madness, but I have just come back from lottie and they are absolutely thriving, having had the benefit of all this lovely rain over the last few days! I know it may still go pear-shaped. But here's to our beans surviving and giving us some nice early crops!!

[Snadger]

Scrounged a scaffold board from an empty site for edging another bed. Measured bed width at 4 foot and pinned the board in position temporarily. Carried on digging the bed rermoving well established nettle roots, breezeblocks and all manner of detritus. Got sick of toiling in the rain after a while so weeded what was my brussel sprout bed ready to turn over and sow carrots in it.

[Jane Templeman]

What did I do today? Sat in my greenhouse drinking coffee and listening to the rain.....watched a few back episodes of Gardeners' World on the ipad and generally had a lovely lazy day. Now off to do the ironing to ease my conscience!
Promise I'll get back to work tomorrow...

[KevinM67]

Posting on behalf of my 5 year old boy, who attended his first gardening club meeting today with his school after lessons.

He was 'full of beans' when I picked him up afterwards, proudly holding his pot he had filled with compost and planted seeds himself and telling me the instructions he has to follow over the next week until they meet again.

In his eagerness to show mum - he dropped the pot in the hallway. He was devastated!!!

I managed to salvage most of the soil and hopefully the seeds are still in there somewhere - I asked what he'd planted, "mystery seeds" apparently.

[KevinM67]

Oops, sorry - double post.

[Ninetrees]

Harvested two big bucketfuls of comfrey for compost and mulch, having discovered four massive plants on a grass verge just down the road

[Feral007]

Oh the poor boy Kevin! Hope the seeds sprout for him anyway. Some of them are very forgiving - and I suspect the Mystery seeds are very hardy ones so that they have the best chance of all coming thru.

I came home from work yesterday (after last night shift) and would have watered the garden but we were out of water. By the time the tank was pumped full I was asleep.

Today need to get some hay from a farm so that will take up most of my time. Son will heft the bales around TG.
I have over 3 kilos of rosehips to process today and tomorrow, first time cooking them.
Then I bought some quince at the fruit markets yesterday - this season we had no apples and the neighbour with a big quince tree had none of them.

Watering the garden in the middle of the day will be the plan for today or tomorrow.
Huge frost and fog this morning, so horse rugs to find and wash and hang to dry.

[MrsCordial]

Poor thing Kevin! Fingers crossed they come through okay. I bought my mother a lavender plant when I went on a school trip as a small, and managed to drop it in the bus on the way home - needless to say it was ever since the most vigorous and indestructible plant!

[Noosner]

Very interested to see that the runner beans I planted out last week seem to be romping in my new south-sloping bed, where the others (planted in a 'normal' non-sloping spot on the lottie) look much the same as when I put them there. Of course it's too soon to say whether the new technique really is going to make that much difference but so far it IS looking good. Garlic planted in another south-sloping bed on the other side of lottie is also doing extremely well. The theory (garnered from organic gardening writer Joy Larkcom) is that every 5 degrees of slope is the equivalent of being 30 miles further south.

[Feral007]

Or perhaps in my case, further north! Makes a person glad they live in hilly country even

Watered in the plants, son put some extra compost and mulch on some plants which may or not be turnips

About to turn the grass under a couple of trees into a new garden with daughter.

Hay bought. Not yet put away, but is keeping the horses busy trying to see if they can reach it and hook some out

[MrsCordial]

Planted out kohl rabi (Azur) and globe arrrrtichoke seedlings. Inspected the peas and beans I planted recently but absolutely zero germination. I wondered if the cloches might be the problem, possibly allowing the seeds to dry out? As an experiment I laid out two rows with pegs and wire (Alys Fowler would be horrified!) and planted a row of Dwarf Bean 'Speedy' and Kelvedon Wonder peas, with no cloches. The ground is very damp and loads of rain is forecast tomorrow, so I didn't water in and I didn't put milk/pop bottle cloches on. I'm interested to see whether I have more luck with those than with the others. The peas I started off in cell trays (and planted out a few weeks ago) are looking perfectly happy, so I might just end up doing that again even though it's not recommended. I still have approximtely a billion pea and bean 'seeds' to play with.

Did a bit of weeding, picked up some flotsam and jetsam that had migrated from the barn to the veg patch. Updated my veg patch sketches, inspected various things that are underway. Came in, cleared up, washed my hands then spotted a kohl rabi seedling that had got away, grrr. It will have to wait now!

[Currysniffa]

Stood on a rusty nail the other day so been off my feet for a couple of days. Hopefully be back down the allotment this weekend planting some more potatoes if the rain holds off.