What I did today - 2015

[kris1960]

Dug trenches for manure and sowed 2 types of beans and two of peas, planted flat and curly parsley, watered and continued weeding.
Harvested all the remaining broad beans- 10lbs.

[Jay-ell]

Didn't do too much today. Watered the insides and bent down to pluck a cucumber and got hit by a hidden cucumber lurking under the leaves - those stealth ninja cucumbers get me all the time.

Pulled up my carrots and replaced them with chard. Picked a courgette that was threatening to turn into a marrow and three others just in case.

Stood there grinning to myself at the fact that one of my pumpkins looks like it has not just one but four fertilised baby pumpkins on it with the other two each having two unopened female flowers on them.

Tied up a couple of my climbing courgettes and squash in a bid to get them to climb. Noticed that some have their first female flowers forming.

Unwrapped and tied up the new growth on the kiwi - it's now 41" - revised pinch out date to mid - August.

Gave my french beans a scolding telling them to stop climbing each others poles and to stay on their own - I don't think they listened though. Unwrapped, rewrapped and pinched out a few of them.

[susieq100]

Yesterday. Hoed and weeded at the plot. Picked broad beans, lifted some spuds. Such a disappointing yield from the first earlies. Let's hope that the Pink Fir Apple are better. Picked raspberries. Pottered gently for a couple of hours - therapy rather than actual work, but it was what I felt like doing. I spent the morning at home tidying out the greenhouse - armpitting and de-leafing tomatoes. Had to move one out of the gh altogether - much too crowded in there. Took some leaves off the cucumbers and pinched some of their ends off. Ouch! Then weeded the raised beds. I have a tiny curd on one of my cauliflowers. Yay!

[CaroleL]

Yesterday:
More weeding. I hate those flipping brambles. It doesn't matter how much I dig them out, they just keep coming - and they grow so fast. Grrr.

Had a good water and put some more compost on the chilli and pepper pots in the greenhouse as they looked like they needed it.

Pulled out some bolting pak choi and lettuce and now have some spare squares which I'm thinking of sowing with more french beans. Hopefully it's not too late.

[Penellype]

Time to be ruthless in my friend's greenhouse this morning. There were 12 tomato plants in there and 10 of them have at least 3 trusses setting fruit. One of the remaining 2 was a Sungold armpit that I stuck in a pot as a spare, just forming its first flower truss and in need of repotting and the other was a Sweet Aperitif. I have not grown this variety before. The plant was as tall as the others and looking every bit as healthy with one crucial exception. Every single flower on the 3 lowest trusses has failed to set fruit and fallen off. It has been treated no differently from the Shirley, Sungold, Belle, Roma and Garden Pearl plants in there and all of these have plenty of fruit. Very odd. Nothing for it but to cut it down and pinch its pot for the Sungold armpit plant.

I'm not good at ruthless, so I cut off the top section of the plant, which still has flowers and buds, and stuck it in a pot in the hope that it might grow. If it does it can go outside where it might possibly be happier. My Sweet Aperitif at home have set some fruit outside.

Came home and picked the rest of the white currant crop as the local wildlife (birds and slugs I suspect) have discovered it and it was starting to disappear. This is the 3rd year I have had this little bush, which only produced 1 truss of fruit the first year. I'm training it as a double cordon, and having eaten about 10 large trusses of fruit already, this is what I got:



Time for a nice bowl of currants and ice cream

[Snadger]

Took down the fence and gate at the entrance to my plot and 'remodelled' it. Painted it with Poundland green wood paint which I must say I'm quite impressed with!

[Jay-ell]

Moved a pile of rubbish consisting of bits of rotting wood, chicken wire, plastic safety nets, broken glass, unspooled lengths of wire, dug in plastic bags, nails, mesh panels all interwoven.

Move the flags underneath the pile along a bit to make the path between beds. I'll be putting in a new bed there once I've finished digging it over. This will probably be the last bed I build in the middle section this year.

That bit of the garden is getting close to being tidy. Have the paths to sort out between a couple of the beds then it's the front garden to work out/on.


Picked a bag of pickling onions - cheap sets planted tightly so that they only form small bulbs.

Picked the golden beetroot and cauliflower - greens as well so double the veg.

Planted out the bulbils I found in the garlic stems into a couple of bits of space to see what happens.

Summer pruned the gooseberry triple cordons I planted the other week to give them a framework and shape rather than a mass of spikes

[kris1960]

Still desperately trying to get organised before my stint of grandchildren minding in Sheffield- dug,weeded and manured broad bean and shallot beds. Covered with old beans and comfrey until I am ready to use them.
Dug, weeded and planted purple sprouting and another lot of sweet corn in onion bed, manured around plants.
Loads of weeding and watering.

[Ding Dang Doo]

Harvested a load of bindweed.

Tied up the struggling tomato plants (was a bit of an experiment using Lidl grow bags, can say I rate them, very course mixture and a bit thin for toms, I think)

Weeded the beds, including a bit from next doors allotment that was comimg over to see if the grass was greener on my plot - it now knows it isn't!

[pandasyard]

Got a rose plant for £4 reduced from £10. Seemed good value to me

[vixylix]

I had to move all my pots out the garden this weekend to make room for a big BBQ party - however in doing so I found my first tomato growing on one of my plants! Still green and tiny but exciting none the less!

No time to do anything else but if we get some nice weather this week I need to pull up my potatoes, carrots, beetroot and shallots.

Also keeping a close eye on the multiples of peas which have suddenly appeared - just waiting for them to fatten up to harvest as sugarsnaps

[Snadger]

Did a bit of repair work to my allotment fence then painted it with a water based paint!


Then it rained!!!!!

[CaroleL]

I've sown some more French beans, both bush and climbing. They may be too late, but it was worth a go as I had the space.
Also popped in some more radishes and planted out some young Basil plants.

[kris1960]

Planted curly kale,cavolo Nero,poached egg plant and rocket anywhere that I could fit them. Picked vegetables and fruit for physiotherapist and to take to Sheffield. Watered and manicured tomatos. All done in a tearing hurry then off to appointment and straight on to my daughter's.
If any of you Yorkshire allotmenteers find a mad woman digging in your plot, it will be me with withdrawal symptoms!

[ESBkevin]

Not quite today more this last weekend, admired the last of the strawberries but then pulled off the nets. We have used cardboard covered in wood chips as a mulch and I am suitably impressed, we will continue that feature when we plant the next rows of runners. Dug up a few potatoes. Lifted all the red onions and shallots to dry on the surface. A spot of weeding and some hoeing. Note must lift the beetroot before they go over. Side shoot and twist the outdoor tomatoes. Declared the early dwarf french beans a failure and dug them in, that space will be used for some more leeks that need thinning/replanting. Finally a lot of watering.