What I did today - 2016

[Snadger]

Back on the summerhouse project at the allotment. Today i've been on the roof trying to make it watertight. I was given two dozen tubes of silicone which was being skipped so have went mad and applied 5 tubes to gaps in the roof and around glazed areas.I've also added flashband along glassed areas tio make them watertight. Prior to this i added noggins to inside so all joints are now supported. This was followed by nailing through into the noggins from the roof side.
I've fitted metal flashing along the bottom edge.
Still more silicone to add yet but rain stopped play. Once its all siliconed I just need to find a couple of warm days top felt it.

Dug a shy of Charlotte potaoes but only got a few so will leave the rest for a while yet.

I snapped the lock shut on my allotment gate as i left,and then realised my car keys were in the summerhouse. I had to climb over the 10 foot high fence, retrieve my keys, climb up the ladder to the roof, pull the latdder up and drop it down the other side to allow me to get out!

Too old for this type of carp!

[Small pumpkin]

Got wet ! Weeded my tunnel raised bed. Tied more supports for my chilli's. Ordered more chilli seeds. Sown a lot of salad seeds.
Got a phone call......... Can I proved enough salad to feed 22 people this week
11 tomorrow, 11 on Wednesday. Going to give it my best shot. Specially as I'm one of the 11 on Wednesday. Great isn't it........get invited out for a meal, then have to provide half of it

I will be very proud of my self if I manage it. After having a look round the veggie garden today I think I can

[Containergardener]

I'd love to see all your salads Sp.

[Scoot]

Just been.out and moved about 20 big snails from my garden. Took them out the opposite side of the house and put them on the grass.

[vixylix]

One of my bags of potatoes had totally collapsed foliage so spent 90 minutes (all the time I've had for gardening all weekend ) in the rain trying to fix them. Turned out a lot of the stems had split, so had big dry brown cracks down them (anyone know why??) - the foliage was all fine, although drooping - so I've cut some back and then caned and stringed the rest in. Not sure whether it will work but it was worth a shot!

Other than that I've done nothing apart from popping outside just before it got dark to get rid of circa 30 tiny slugs which had appeared - and that was without even looking for them! I'm sure there are more, and I'll regret leaving them later, but I couldn't face anymore after that. Horrible slimy little things

[Small pumpkin]

I've spent the morning weeding all my veggie beds, while the other half strimed & mowed everywhere. It has to look good for customers turning up which should be any time now to collect their bags of salad to 11.
It takes me ages to put a salad bag together, because I select every leaf individually



2 very big bags of salad and they all have an edible flower each.

[vixylix]

They look beautiful SP!

[Florence Fennel]

Wish I lived near you SP - they look delicious. How do you keep the slugs off? I'm really near the giving up point because of the darn things. All my caulis have been eaten for about the third year in a row and they've decimated my runner beans and that's a first. I tidied up a small area that had hardly any weeds (I'd sown nasturtiums between the caulis as sacrificial plants) and threw out over a dozen snails. They'd made the bras look like net curtains and the nasturtiums are strong and healthy. Should have gone on the Rant Thread, sorry, but it's made me feel really sorry for myself

[Containergardener]

Sorted GH , rearranged salads on decking and flower seedlings still growing, worked with OH,

They look great Sp !

[Snadger]

More rrof work siliconing summer house.

Decided to set up a seat close to my broody coop to get some photos of my chicks. Sat for half an hour and when they did come out my batteries were flat on my camera.

Went to take an old hen out of the run who was lying down and distressed.When I picked her up she started squawking and the cockerel attacked me thinking i was doing her harm!:

Potted up a root cutting from an indeterminate purple leaved house plant

[happyhumph]

Built a cane wigwam & planted out more peas/mangetout. Put extra runners on their wigwam. Potted on a physalis. Rearranged gh to put an old tin bath in. Filled said tin bath with two wheelbarrows of homemade compost & 1 of topsoil. Planted 5 cucumbers in there. Watered everything - forgot baby brassicas yesterday & some are a bit touch & go....

[Jay-ell]

Potted up 4 tomatoes and a sweet pepper. Had to rearrange the green house to have somewhere to put them so out came the staging, in went the irrigation on that side of the GH, in went two trough patio planters with trellising, four MFBs with six foot canes in them with the toms (2 Black Cherry, 1 purple cherry, 1 tigrella) and a 6 inch pot with a sweet banana (which should have been done ages ago, its way smaller than its two sister plants which are in the 9 section planters) all plumbed into the irrigation system. Connected the top of the canes with the connectors from the tomato cages and some string and then fine tuned the drippers on these and the trough planters.

Back came the staging which is standing in front of the troughs (which have nothing in them at the mo but will have my melons in a week or so).

Wandered about the plot, checking out my plants. The carrots, corriange, beans and beets in the sfg have sprouted, the kiwifruit has reached the wire so the next time I tie it in will be to start training it along the wire (yipee), strawberries aren't there yes - nice and red on top but white underneath (except for two which were lovely).

The overwintered onions are swelling up and I had a furtle at the elephant garlic - the bulbs seem to be swelling - when do I harvest this?

Started off a new comfrey bin - pulled off a litre of juice from the established one - straight into the water butts in the greenhouse which were also topped up.

[Scoot]

Turned my 2 compost bins which i have been putting off for a few days now.

Was planning on a day cutting logs but the chainsaw decided to pack up (again) after i cut 2 logs so it's away getting repaired again.

[Martin H]

Today I did lots of weeding. I did the brussels sprouts, the salads, the carrots, the cabbages and the maincrop onions.

My fingers are still tingling from the nettles.

[Jonny.D]

Weeding, ripped out some of the Sweet Williams that were not doing so well & planted some Lettuce & Rocket seedlings with a little help from this fellow