What I did today - 2015

[Snadger]

Weeded one of my strawberry beds. Hard to ascertain which were strawberry runners and which were bindweed runners!

Harvested a couple of beetroot (one was a bit on the large side!) Can't find a pan that will hold enough water to cover it!

[kris1960]

Put wire mesh collars around brassicas that I planted yesterday and then top dressed between cages with horse manure. Distributed with dutch hoe - lovely job in drizzle!

[bramble]

Whats the wire mesh collars for Chris.?

[kris1960]

Whats the wire mesh collars for Chris.?

Hi Bramble - wire mesh to protect from pidgeons until they are a bit bigger but also so that I could put thick layer of manure around without it touching the stems. The collars are about 9" diameter and about a foot tall. Will remove in about a month.

[bramble]

Spent the afternoon planting out my daffodils and wallflowers.
Have this image in my head of a lovely spring display.
I know wallflowers are out of favour but theres a garden close by that has a lovely display of these every spring and so I decided to do the same.
We will wait and see.

[marcofez]

Yes it's that time again! Making passata!

[Tripmeup]

Hi Bramble - wire mesh to protect from pidgeons until they are a bit bigger but also so that I could put thick layer of manure around without it touching the stems. The collars are about 9" diameter and about a foot tall. Will remove in about a month.

Any chance of a piccie Kris?

[bramble]

Beautiful antumn weather this afternoon.
Decided to clear out the toms from the greenhouse that were past their best. Brought in some in containers still producing. Cleaned all the glass to get a little more light.
Dug out the roots of a five year old sage that had taken over a half barrel.
Planted more daffs in containers.
Emptied a lot of pots from spent soil and finally made dinner. Now sitting here exhausted but happy with a good afternoons work.

[bramble]

Dug over part of my garden and planted out my onion sets Shensyu today. Beautiful afternoon.

[Martin H]

Lovely afternoon today so I did some clearing up in my greenhouse. Cleared all the tomato plants before the botrytis can spread any more, so now I've got a pile of red toms in the fridge and green ones on the windowsill. There's still some sweet peppers and cucumbers ripening, so they can stay a bit longer.

At Wisley Flower Show last month, Chrysanthemums Direct were selling rooted cuttings of early varieties with a promise that they would flower in a cold greenhouse before the end of the year. So I had to buy a couple. They've shot up, but no sign of a flower bud yet. So I've moved a couple of my own earlies into the greenhouse to keep them company. I've been pinching these back to slow them down as much as possible, but they will flower in 2 or 3 weeks now.

I've got space to start some salad crops in pots now, I'll probably do those tomorrow.

[skeggijon]

Dug over part of my garden and planted out my onion sets Shensyu today. Beautiful afternoon.

Me too. Also strimmed around the plot and generally tidied up. Then sat and admired my Pumpkin

[Gillykat]

General tidy up and weeding...do those darned sow thistle EVER give up?

Tomorrow's job is to measure the plot properly so we can get a scaled up diagram done on some lining paper and we can then work out where beds & paths & seating area are going to be next year and I can also spend the next two/three months working out next year's growing plan so I'm a lot more organised than this year!

I've also discovered that the polytunnel is virtually rotten along one whole side so I think that will be coming down in the coming months and a new one rebuilt from scratch - Neil is promising me an even bigger one!!! And this time it'll be a proper one with no draughty gaps where slugs can sneak in!!!

[Bigmallly]

Neil is promising me an even bigger one!!!

There's an answer there somewhere but I'm too much of a gent to go there...............

[Peony]

Today was mainly spent weeding in between the butternut squash, courgettes and cabbages. I also cut off my green tomatoes to ripen at home - I'm hoping this was the right thing to do but getting impatient now!

I've also cleared my one and only raised bed with the intention that garlic will go in there soon.

I harvested some kale (going to attempt kale crisps later), potatoes and a few purple runner beans. My harvest has been small this year but I know I planted late as I just couldn't dig the solid ground in April.

[susieq100]

Yesterday - finished forking over the bed where the raspberries were and then used chopped up comfrey and well rotted cow manure to 'mulch' the bed and covered it with cardboard. It is going to lie fallow over the winter and I shall plant strawberries there in the spring. Then I forked and raked over another bed and planted green manure there. Cleared out the old strawberry bed completely and prepped the ground for my garlic next month (ie in a couple of weeks' time. Lordy it is almost October!) Got another allotment holder to help me move my 1,000 litre water butt to a new location behind the shed. I can have 2 gutters from the shed roof fill it now ... much more efficient. You can see where I have been!