What I did today - 2015

[Martin H]

Today's high point was ordering a push lawnmower. It's a bit premature because I haven't seeded the lawn yet...
Having seen what products are available from today's manufacturers, I eventually went for an old one instead, a 1960's JP Maxees Mark 3 pushmower, rebuilt from the ground up by The Old Lawnmower Company. I'm looking forward to picking it up on Friday.

[maverick451]

Potted on my Tomato seedlings, I had so many germinate I had to snip some off which I hated doing.

[bearded bloke]

Cleared a bed & planted 150 broad beans

[maverick451]

I really wanted some shelves in my greenhouse, I saw a blow away greenhouse on ebay, extra wide for £20 delivered and thought that may work, I put it up today and im really pleased with it!

[KevinM67]

I really wanted some shelves in my greenhouse, I saw a blow away greenhouse on ebay, extra wide for £20 delivered and thought that may work, I put it up today and im really pleased with it!

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I like those big black tubs you have there - without being too nosey, what are your plans for them ?

[maverick451]

Thats my rootgrow planter, bought one of them and a quadgrow to try this year to try.

They are self watering so just have to top up the reservoir

Potato & Root Vegetable Planters | Greenhouse Sensation

Not sure exactly how im using them yet, either potatoes, bush tomatoes or peppers

[Penellype]

I like those big black tubs you have there - without being too nosey, what are your plans for them ?

That's a quadgrow root veg planter - I covet one of those, but as it is 2ft square I don't really have anywhere to put it

[Penellype]

Frustrating sort of day today. One of the tubes on my home made grow lights has gone so I went to B&Q to get a replacement. I bought the things from them last year. Do they have a replacement bulb? Of course not! The ones they have are all too short and fat and won't fit in the holder. As the things were sold as standard under-unit kitchen lights, there must be loads of people out there with a similar problem. Meanwhile, I am stuck with only one of the 2 lights working.

Phoned this morning to get someone to mend a leaking gutter - still waiting for them to reply to my message and not holding my breath.

Ate the last red tomato from the plant in the kitchen and cut it down. Cleaned the window and sill then moved the 3 remaining sitting room plants into the kitchen and cleaned the sitting room window. I now have no plants on my sitting room windowsill for the first time for 2 years. This situation will not last long, but recently several of the tomato plants on there have died (possibly from cold or waterlogging) and I wanted to start with a clean slate for this year's seedlings. Meanwhile it looks depressingly empty.

[maverick451]

Frustrating sort of day today. One of the tubes on my home made grow lights has gone so I went to B&Q to get a replacement. I bought the things from them last year. Do they have a replacement bulb? Of course not! The ones they have are all too short and fat and won't fit in the holder. As the things were sold as standard under-unit kitchen lights, there must be loads of people out there with a similar problem. Meanwhile, I am stuck with only one of the 2 lights working.

What tube are you after Penellype?

[Penellype]

What tube are you after Penellype?

Its one that fits into fittings that can be linked together in series. The tube is white, 1/2 an inch in diameter and 23 inches long including the prongs. It says on it 08/13 Kengo (I think its a K at the beginning) F20T4 834N23. The fitting says T4 G5 20W Max, its white with a switch on and says on the top "Specially made in China for B&Q"

I have no idea if this sort of light is good for plants - it was the easiest one for me to fit together with my non existent electrical and DIY skills, and the plants seemed to do ok last year.

[maverick451]

I know a little about tubes as my other hobby is marine fishkeeping and we use alot of tubes but we use t5.

From the markings you have given me

F= Flourescent
20= 20 watts
T4= = diameter is 4/8 of an inch
8 is the quality of the colour rendering
34 is the colour temperature = 3400K

Ive found a couple, you need to measure the length of the tube to the millimetre to make sure it fits as the sizes do vary ever so slightly.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/fluorescent-.../dp/B009X94HIA

(the 20 watt version below)

T4 Slimline Fluorescent Tube Light 6W, 10W, 16W, 20W 2 Pin Tube | eBay

[Penellype]

Thanks Maverick - I'll have a more accurate measure and see if they are suitable. Interesting to know what all teh numbers mean - I'd got as far as 20W.

[Lumpy]

More digging in the cage - finished raking off the biggest bed ready for its marking out - re covered my onions after advice from the Vine - drank a flask of coffee and planted a few strawberries that where originally in the cage. No hot water so no bath tonight I suppose its going to be a stand in the bath and pour a bucket ober myself again.

[datz]

Sleet on and off all day and the temperature hardly got above 3C.
Sowed some Broad bean seeds "The Sutton" into toilet rolls and mulched the blueberry bushes with an ericaceous compost.

[Penellype]

Took the offending light tube back to B&Q and got a refund. Bought a couple of LED bike lights as emergency lighting for the carrots, which is what I was wanting the lights for. Rigged them up in the utility room.

Tidied out the garage a bit to create some room for the rest of the Rocket potatoes, then planted them in 30l pots. Cut down my poor dead acer tree and chopped it up ready to take to the tip. I haven't a clue what killed it, but it was definitely 90% dead. This time last year I was wondering how I could stop it from growing so fast...

On the plus side I now have a space. Admittedly it is a space full of acer stump and roots, but I'm sure I can find something that could go there. Prime candidates are the potted acer that's on the path near the hedge (but worried it might get what the other one got) and the gooseberry. Gooseberry bushes are not that attractive, so I might be tempted to buy a dwarf apple to go in a pot. Lack of sun might be a problem with that idea though.