What I did today - 2016

[SusieG]

Watered and mulched courgette plant that has powdery mildew ....

Mowed back lawn with all good intentions of doing the front ......but too hot - so put lawnmower away in the shed thinking maybe tomorrow......!!

[happyhumph]

Emergency watering in greenhouse. Did edge on path, weeded bed ready for elephant garlic bulbils with radishes on top. Looked around and though "aaaarrrrghhhhh". So much to do, so little time. Resorted to weed killer yesterday on driveway & massively over grown beds.....

[Guest]

Yesterday- Finally sorted the top of the grape vine out and planted two fruit trees out. Dug one tree up and sent it to coventry due to canker.

Today - Sunk a few odd pots of rasps as they have been sent to coventry and there old spot is filled by some rasps sent by a lovely grape (not that I have found a bad grape yet).
Tidied up toms in the patch. Had my feet watered several times by my youngest, whilst my oldest played with the hose and made a muddy lake

[Lumpy]

De arm pitted the toms - picked the first cherries off the tiny tree - wantered and sweated alot.

[Small pumpkin]

This morning picked lots of fruit in the rain. The sun came out this afternoon So I did a bit of weeding, planted out some more lettuce, harvested shallots because they were looking like they were about to start rotting. So they are now drying out in the tunnel.

[Jay-ell]

Nice sunny day AND I'm not at work - that hasn't been happening lately.

Strimmed the crazy paving, the path next to the fruiting fence and the path next to the peas. Also strimmed the nettle patch in the duck enclosure at the back of the new territories prior to starting work in there.

Dismantle the fence between the duck enclosure and the rest of the plot. Have to admit - nettle roots growing through buried chicken wire is a great way of securing it so i doesn't come up easy but loosening the ground with a fork then severing the roots with a spade made it come up pretty easy.

The far end where it was in the hedge and was secured to the fence was a bit trickier as in addition to nettle roots, ivy was entwined through it and had rooted it to the fence, I had a bunch of Hawthorn, Brambles, elder, ornamental cherry and ash to contend with plus the wire PASSED THROUGH THE CENTRE of a couple of branches. Today I've learned that bolt cutters can act as an impromptu pair of loppers if need be.

Rolled the wire up and piled it onto the pile of things for later which is against the gate that leads to the back garden of the previous tenant of the plot. For some reason I found myself singing a song from Les Miserables whilst doing this. Now this is down can start thinking about bed layout in his section but will have to deal with the pixie sheds and the pig pen first.

Hoed through the beds, mulched another pumpkin/squash bed but it was getting hot.

It was nice and cool in the hedge so I went back in there. Cleared out some of the rubble and junk in the wedge as well as thinning the branches and pulling out some of the Ivy and the nettles - I plan on planting my Udo in this niche, possibly with some Hostas and Ramsons added later, once it's prepped and cleared.

Watered, watered, watered - deep watered the beds in the new territories and half the beds in the jungle.

Also sowed some chard and beetroot.and picked another bucket of strawberries.

[Scoot]

Just been out and watered the garden with my two watering cans.

I must get my hose fitted.

[Containergardener]

Blimey JL do you hire yourself out. Could've done with you today.

Rang mum (who was supposed to be resting sciatic back but can't sit still about to attempt a load of shrub pruning ).. So :
Went to mum n dads , pruned load of shrubs way too high now (6ft-7) and mums only 5ft.
Dug out some more turf nr greenhouse for her planters (beets , salad, sp onions ..planted the salads and sp onions )
Told mum I need a list of jobs , some I know ...trying to make large garden of various levels and rockeries, Lawns , beds easier.
Shopping zzzz and home to walk dog, oH worked late so had tea and almost bedtime.

[bario1]

Got down the plot at 6.30 this morning, wanted to at least enjoy a little bit of this rare gorgeous day!
Weeded my asparagus bed (more weeds than asparagus), dug over part of a new bed for the second time, turning in BFB and removing any weeds that escaped the initial dig. I now have a pile of weeds that resembles a sleeping green wooly mammoth - must get round to building that pallet compost heap!
Thoroughly sweating by now, i started the arduous task of removing the cardboard mulch under my kale and adding some compost to try and boost growth... got about a third of it done but was running out of time, so watered everything in the tunnel until it could take no more and headed home for a shower...

[ESBkevin]

Watering my front south facing flower garden. It's well mulched and hasn't needed any assistance so far this year but these last couple of weeks without appreciable rain and the sudden seasonal tempratures had it lookin a little flagging. We are ar risk of Thunderstorms Wednesday afternoon and evening but they will probably be scattered so I'm out of luck for sure. So a good long soak with the hose so it does some good and gets down there, hopefully the mulch will help retain moisture for a week or two now.
Thats it, it took a while and I negotiated a deal with a local tradesman to lay a large shed base and it was then getting dark.
Today is a new (hot) day.

[Jay-ell]

Another hot day and another day off - I'm on a roll here.

Did a bit more pruning on the hedge to open up the shady planting bed so it isn't full shade


This isn't all of it but it's where I had got up to when I had to stop because this was in the way


I had originally thought that it was concreted in but it turned out it just had lumps of concrete packed in as hard core - although the ground was so dry and compacted that it felt like concrete - it took a few bounces on a fork to get it to dig in and I'm not that slight of frame. Too hot to use too much muscle so used my head instead and out it came.


Continued pruning out the dead wood, as well as the stuff going in the wrong direction and a lot of elder. Pulled out some rusty metal frames and deteriorating wire fence from behind it - I'll clear out the barb wire, chicken wire etc once I've decided where I'm going to move it and what I'm going to do with it.

Looked at the next job on my list - prep and install new beds, decided that I'd done enough heavy work for the temperature and watered and weeded instead.

[bario1]

This morning I thinned out the sorrel that i sowed between my rows of asparagus. For some reason the regular sorrel didn't germinate at all, whereas the red veined stuff came up well, so I re-sowed a row of the regular stuff. Then the rain came...

[happyhumph]

Planted 19 elephant garlic bulbils & sowed 3 types of radish over the too. Watering needed later & some v sad plants to put in bed

[Snadger]

Lots of weeding of thistles and nettles. All came out easily but gloves were imperative.
I'm off work next week so must figure out a way to move the chicks from the broody hut into another larger hut.

[Small pumpkin]

Lots of tunnel plant juggling because came home from my shopping trip with another 8 chilli plants!
3 of them are covered in ripe chilli's