What I did today - 2015

[Snadger]

Pulled up twor ed cabbage plants from my cold frame, dug over the soil and planted 40 pre rooted gladioli corms in it. Found a packet of red torpedo onions in my seed box so planted up a polystyrene box with six modules in it, a pinch to each module.

[Bacchus]

Did some general tidying up - but took some pictures which I can share - most in the poly tunnel

Chillies - having a sunny break




Beetroot coming through




Cape gooseberries sprouting - thanks Veggiechicken!

[Bacchus]

More ....

General stuff growing in a raised polytunnel bed that I seem to be using as a sort of seed bed - mostly cabbages, cauliflower, peas, and more



Rocket potatoes growing in the central bed


Some outside raised beds - garlic and elephant garlic in the nearest, strawberries and broad beans in the next and rhubarb and empty in the furthest..

[Snadger]

Had a go at trying to position my newly aquired poltunnel today. Spent a couple of hours after work demolishing existing beds and pathways to try and make way for it. Still not sure it looks right so I'll have to wait until I get my spirit level to get it the way I want it before putting the cover on. Dug a treench down one end and one side to bury the plastic at the bottom but until i get it level the trench at the other side will have to wait.

[Bren In Pots]

I've potted on my Toms and sprouts.

[Dorothy rouse]

Dug over 3 beds on plot. Watered potatoes in bags. Potted on Cosmos. Planted more sweet peas into loo rolls.

[kris1960]

Didn't post yesterday- took friend for hospital appointment and youngest grandchildren, one and a half and three, visited allotment ( with parents). Dropin turned into two hour picnic. Children were surprising enthusiastic- throwing straw over themselves and falling into newly dug and planted beds. Son-in-law brought lovely gift of six large bags of good topsoil given to him by professional gardener friend, he even wheelbarrowed it down to my allotment. Repaid with my best white sprouting.

Did I get any work done- in the morning I worked on fences and started clearing next bed. Seedlings that I was worried I had planted out too abruptly had not flopped overnight so will, fingers crossed and touching wood, probably be ok.

Catching up with forum while having a quick cup of tea. Will return to my labours forthwith!

[kris1960]

Pretended to be Monty Don and went round allotment with wheel barrow, secateurs, spade and trug to separate weeds- general tidy of prepared beds and paths and anything else that caught my eye and was not a major job.

Planted dahlia and honeysuckle.

Very windy so hammered in corrugated plastic supports.

Potted on aztec broccoli, magenta orach and zinnias. Only half of each because I have never done it before - have always sowed in mpc or soil never seed compost- I have previously planted directly into garden when seedlings are quite big. I'm hoping that plants will let me know by their demeanor if I have done it correctly. If they look ok tomorrow willl do the rest and start on other seedlings.

Cut more branches for my fence.

[veggiechicken]

Yesterday, I acquired 2 of these metal playpens from Freecycle.


In total there are 10 panels and 2 gates and they all clip together in any shape imaginable (almost ).
Using 5 panels and a gate, I made a 2x4 mini-run for Wilma and Pebbles, the chooks, and roofed it with some netting so they couldn't escape. After they'd laid their morning eggs, they toddled out of their home run and into the mini-run where they set about rotavating the weedy ground. By the end of the afternoon, I'd moved the run 3 times and they'd cleared a patch about 6x4 which is now ready for planting.
Tomorrow, they can clear the next bit of ground .............I lurve my chooks

[skeggijon]

Built staging for greenhouse, built another raised bed, prepared a base for my new shed and transplanted lots of tomato and chilli seedlings.

[Martin H]

Pottered about, watered stuff, pricked stuff out, bit of weeding. Nice relaxing day!

[Hazel at the Hill]

• Attending a talk on orchid growing at the clubhouse (will edit to add pics tomorrow)
• organised a seedswap
• pulled the first rhubarb of 2015
• showed big sis Helen (who is stopping for the weekend with mum) and mum around the plot

The latter of interest to only the most ardent of gardeners - 'this bare earth bed will be beans and peas, this bare earth bed will be courgettes and sweetcorn; this bare earth bed has parsnip seeds which have not germinated yet; this bare earth bed has potatoes planted in it' etc etc.

I lost mum's interest after the first two beds; big sis feigned interest for rather longer, and therefore was granted the lion's share of the new rhubarb as a reward.

[Snadger]

Chucking it down with rain and cold, so lit the wood-burner in he greenhouse and had a seed sowing fest (Too many to list)
Had a look at my freesia corms which i planted shallowly so I could see what was going on. I've never had much luck with Freesia.
After removing plants from modules to pot up into 8" pots I didn't realize that the small corms we buy have to form another corm underneath them before sending up the leaves through the old corm. This leads me to believe that i have been planting too deeply in the past, hence the failures.
Freesia's are really a flower I could try and specialise in as I love the flowers and particularly the scent.Next year I might get a lot more of them!

[kris1960]

That's it then, back to work tomorrow- definitely more organised than I was this time last year. Most notably I can see all borders of the allotment.

Dug and manured a bed each for hispi, cauliflower and beetroots. Put little gems in with beetroot and pea seedlings with cabbage( I figure they can climb up chicken wire collars and should be finished by the time cabbages are a decent size, let me know if I am wrong and I will move them). Dotted some violas through all beds.

Planted small dogwood near pond and a iberis pink ice?( recommended by Barry at Saddington car boot from whom I bought seedlings above).

Fleeced sea kale and kailaan as bbc is saying we will have a frost. Won't be able to remove until I am home from work- will that do any harm to plants?

Please let me know if it is ok to ask questions on this thread.

It has been wonderful having this much time to play in the dirt but my hands will take some maintenence, or at least cleaning thoroughly, before tomorrow!

I will miss it!

[Martin H]

I had another day of digging the weeds out of my inter-bed paths. That's it now, after just over 2 years I've finally dug over every inch of the plot. Hopefully that will make my life easier for the rest of the season, now that the couch and docks are gone I should mostly have only annual weeds to bother about.