What I did today - 2015

[Hayley]

What a glorious day which can only mean one thing PLOT TIME. Dug up a black current from home, most of the garden is concrete and it would seem the thin border of soil down the side of the fence isn't much better. The black current I had planted hadn't done very well at all, hardly any root development. I had 4 others in pots so I loaded them all into the car and headed off down the plot. Lots of digging and nettle root wrestling later and the currents have a new home in my new fruit area next to my new Aldi fruit trees. Fingers crossed the weather is as good tomorrow for my last day off work.

[Lumpy]

Guess what I did today - want a clue? It begins with du and ends in iggin! I also played a game of weeeeeee din.
Seriously, I am still trying to get the last big bed ready to cover with some cloches - just have a quarter left for tomorrow.

[TrysHard]

Yesterday I planted my onion sets in modules - and sorted out the greenhouse a bit and planned this years layout.

[Bohobumble]

In the last couple of days I have planted 2 fruit trees (cherry and plum), 2 white current bushes and 3 raspberry bushes. It got dark and I had to pack up so I still have 2 more raspberries to plant. I was hoping that the sun would come out again today..... fingers crossed!

I have also sown 32 flower seeds into r00trainer modules for OH. He is adamant that the allotment is my domain, so I let him do all the digging etc in the gardens. He sometimes asks me which are plants and which are weeds, tho mostly he just composts the lot! The seeds are on the windowsill, so he will get to see what they look like when they sprout and when he plants them out (maybe he won't compost these).

You'll see from another post that I've been doing a bit of jiggery pokery with a blowaway in the greenhouse, so onions etc have been moved there.

Otherwise I've been pottering and getting organised on the plot with digging, covering some areas I shall need to dig later re-organising shed and greenhouse around etc.

[Snadger]

Actually got around to doing a bit of gardening today. It was bright and sunny so decided to find a place to plant my shallots at the allotment.
I have a bed 4 feet wide by 12 feet long which was covered with cardboard,hoss muck and leaves. I pulled up the few tiny bits of cardboard that hadn't rotted down and gave the whole bed a light tickle with a heart shaped spade. 10 minutes is all it took, I then raked it roughly level.
Planted half the bed with pink shallots and half with white shallots all spaced about 10 inch apart in both directions.
It was really nice to get on the land and start planting stuff.

[Dorothy rouse]

Spent lots of money!

Potted the 2 Blueberry 'sticks ' in ericacious Compost, just put the in large pots for now, thought that might be easier.

Pulled up the Kale, really the white fly were so bad didn't really fancy it.

Dug over that bed, which is now ready for my new strawberries, due to arrive soon.

Keep disturbing the Comfrey, cos I forget it's there and keep digging it up, hope it makes it.

Prepared a chilli for later.

[arpoet]

Picked up a kilo of onion sets from the lottie shop on sunday so managed a couple of hours in the greenhouse putting them in cell trays of home make compost to start the roots going.
Garden still covered in snow and ice and soil frozen solid so kept to the paths.
A bit melts by day and freezes at night.

[bario1]

Got out the heated propagator and filled 3 trays with a mix of seed compost and vermiculite. Watered and popped on the prop to warm up ready for my first sowings of the year (apart from broad beans) - three types of chilli.

[TrysHard]

Bought some more seed spuds Red Baron and Accent both new to me - already got Pentland J

Normally grow Cara or Charlotte as 2nd earlies

Anyone tried Red Baron and Accent

[NatalieCooke]

I'm planning on sowing my tomato seeds tomorrow. I'm a too early? The packs says between Jan & March.
Sorry to keep asking questions guys!

[Penellype]

I'm planning on sowing my tomato seeds tomorrow. I'm a too early? The packs says between Jan & March.
Sorry to keep asking questions guys!

It depends where you are going to keep them. If you have a heated greenhouse or conservatory then sowing now should be fine (I sowed my indoor Shirleys in January, although only one of the 2 germinated). If you can't provide artificial heat I would tend to wait a while longer as the plants will be very big by the time it is safe to plant them in an unheated greenhouse. I sow my outdoor toms in April and still find they are a bit big before the weather warms up enough for them to go out under cover.

[veggiechicken]

^^^ depends on whether you have somewhere light and warm to keep the seedlings after they germinate.

Snap -Penellype

[Snow]

I tried to dig up the roots of the Japanese maple I cut down in the autumn and failed - had hoped it would rot a bit but no.

I turned the soil where the potatoes will grow and setup a small fleece tunnel on i to help warm the soil a bit.

[Martin H]

Cleared more roots and rubbish from the allotment. Dry spells at this time of year are brilliant, I find I can get loads done without stuff growing and undoing my hard work!

[Bigmallly]

Yes it's been an unusually dry Winter Martin, I went down to check on the pond this morning & there wasn't a single drop of water entering it from the stream. I can't remember when it last rained.