What I did today - 2015

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Actually feel like a "Bad Person" today! We had a little "Field Mouse" enter the house a few weeks back n my missus went "Barmy"

You n ya bloody plant's! Your drawing em in! That's it! All furniture getting skipped, where getting started again! But I caught it today!

How much has that saved me! 

[Ovce domácí]

Im lucky my Mrs isnt that sqeamish. Our cat seems to be bringing dead ones in on a daily basis and leaving them under the kitchen table, although its me who has to fling them into the woods. Sometimes the cat places them strategically like when she put it on the main route through the house so the Mrs stood on it, or put it next to the tv remote when I was in a low comfy chair reached to change the channel and picked up a dead mouse.

[1Bee]

Planted PSB (yes, I know it's late, but we're in our "anything goes" first year on the plot....), assembled a raised bed and laid it on cardboard for some dwarf french beans, upgraded my pumpkin's cosy house from bell cloche to cold frame, laid some more cardboard, weeded, despaired, got excited, despaired again.

[cilla]

Yesterday I went to work, got home to a cooked supper which hubby made, yummy. Then took myself to bed and re-read the June issue of GYO mag. Sad I know but learnt some more. Being new at this growing lurk, my brain is like a sponge at the moment going "uh must try that or do that". Then I couldn't sleep as I was thinking about what I had to do or try to do! I must learn to walk before running! I am like a kid wanting to do everything now

[Lumpy]

As most of my veggies are squidged in together at ridiculously mashed together spacing I pulled up every other one of my garlic today.
I was quite chuffed that the size is OK and it means the ones I left in can get bigger over the next couple of weeks until the annual Solice rip up begins.

[Snadger]

Hand weeded my japanese onion bed......again!

[Jay-ell]

Went down the plot today expecting to have to rescue my blow away, scaffold netting or raised bet cover from a tree/fence/hedge.

Turned out all three had managed to survive the gales without a scratch which meant that I didn't have to rebuild them so instead I got to work moving my path. Halfway done so I'll finish next visit.

Pottered about in the greenhouse a bit - so chuffed that my roselle is sprouting. I sowed some earlier in the year and not one came. I now have 20+ seeds pushing through. A tad too many me thinks.

[Ovce domácí]

Must of jumped up to 30 degrees yesterday outside so more in the foil tent where we keep our basil, plus developing Grushovka bush tomatoes, chillies and extra batches of parsley. The Czech Ohnivec chillies and some toms have wilted quite a bit, Im not sure if its from the heat or from overwatering. I think the chillies was the heat and the toms 50/50 heat or too much water. Ive pulled them out of the foil tent anyway. I planned to plant the toms tomorrow when Im off but might plant the chillies out now too, was planning on just having them in a pot.

Any advice or experience on this welcome, Ive had "normal" supermarket packets of F1 vine tomato seeds in previous years and they've always done well and been easy to maintain as a plant(if not yielding much in the way of tomatoes) first year with Grushovka bushes from Real Seeds. Tomatillo vine plants from them leapt up brilliantly and look healthy, starting to flower.

[cristalfiona]

Last night I potted an aubergine that I'd missed, the final tomato plant and my okra into 15cm pots. I also sowed modules of leeks, spring onions, kale, chard, spinach and PSB to hopefully germinate and go out next week before I go away, as I've now discovered that what's coming up in my beds is definitely weeds and not anything I'd actually sowed. It's hard when you don't know what any of your seedlings are meant to look like!!

I'm also failing miserably at parsnips, quite probably because my seed is too old. So I sowed half of what was left in modules and half in the ground in the hope something will sprout, if not I'll leave them till next year.

[Jungle Jane]

I put up my walk-in blow-away grow-tent on the patio yesterday,for a few cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, rocket, lovage, & french marigolds. Hardening up melons & cucumbers, before they go in there overnight. This morning I went on bug patrol, loads of green aphids on my plum tree again & sticky honeydew, going to spray it with hand soap, garlic, water solution when the suns gone down. Squashed most of them though. Noticed a tiny dead mouse on my path, glad I didn't tread on it but thats why my cats been out all night for the last few nights & sleeping all day. Harvested one of my pea pods yesterday,bit small still, but great.

[Ovce domácí]

Last night I potted an aubergine that I'd missed, the final tomato plant and my okra into 15cm pots. I also sowed modules of leeks, spring onions, kale, chard, spinach and PSB to hopefully germinate and go out next week before I go away, as I've now discovered that what's coming up in my beds is definitely weeds and not anything I'd actually sowed. It's hard when you don't know what any of your seedlings are meant to look like!!

I'm also failing miserably at parsnips, quite probably because my seed is too old. So I sowed half of what was left in modules and half in the ground in the hope something will sprout, if not I'll leave them till next year.

We have these weeds in our parsley which look exactly like parsley. They are growing elsewhere but first showed up in the parsley patch so we can identify them now but had a nightmare at the beginning. Even now I eat a leaf sometimes just to make sure Im not throwing away good parsley.

[cristalfiona]

We have these weeds in our parsley which look exactly like parsley.

Do you happen to know what they are? I've got something that looks like parsley that keeps regrowing in one of my beds. I only know it's probably not parsley because I don't like it and haven't sown any.

[Ovce domácí]

Ill try to get a photo then scour the net.

[cilla]

What a great day I have had today. First went in the front of the house and put flowering plants out, Alpine plants and freesia. Did the weeding around the plants at the same time. Saw the bumble bees on the flowers and saw their back legs were full of pollen. Finished at noon and thought, I wonder what I will have for lunch, that's ok I can go out in the garden and get a little gem, did a salad dressing with dill and put coriander on the salad with potato salad (unfortunately not my potatoes yet). Sat outside eating my lunch and reading the July issue of GYO which came today. What more could you ask for.
Then it was in the back garden to do my tomatoes which I planted out with my French Marigolds. Put tumbling toms in pots and 3 cordon toms (Cristal and moneymaker) in a trough. And planted one in the ground.
Now I am off to play badminton.

[Martin H]

I had a nice day of weeding and watering down the allotment. Also I picked my first bunch of sweet peas and dug my first two potato plants (Arran Pilot). Those two were looking unhappy with curled leaves, it turned out that the stems had been damaged by the strong winds. Plenty of potatoes for supper though