What I did today - 2016

[AkionTotocha]

I was weak and bought two 'rescue me' bare rooted cherry trees from wilko as they were 1/2 price

2 for £7 Stella and Sunburst on Colt

[jonny the plant pot]

Sowed 24 melon seeds and 72 crapaudine beetroot seeds .
Still waiting for the shed doors and floor .

[Snadger]

Just back in from the allotment and stripped all my clothes off because I smell like a kipperAnother large bonfire tonight after pulling down the shed roof I'm demolishing.............on my head. Stirling board on the roof was absolutely saturated and rotten but the 10mm thick multiple layers of bitumin felt were holding it together. The thing is, I'm trying to save what I can to build another structure, but up until now there aint a lot saveable.......hence the bonfires!

Anyway, slow progress is at least some progress.

I also took some cardboard to the plot and weighed it down with hoss muck over a particularity weedy patch.

[Jonny.D]

Great start to the day, a load of tomato seeds sprouted over night, which I was very happy about, then things got even better when the postman delivered my seeds from the Virtual seed parcel

Cleared a space for the raised bed, screwed together the wood I'd previously prepared & weather proofed, cut plastic to line and then it got too cold to finish off. Hoping to finish it tomorrow.

[Jungle Jane]

Sowed some broccoli raab seeds around my garlic in pots outside that's growing nicely. Planted up 4 bags of first earlies - lady christl & sharpes express watered them after with some liquid seaweed that I'm using for the first time,it's really warm in the sun on my patio today. Sowed some other brocollis - early purple sprouting & summer purple in trays in my blow away grow tent. Randomly watered other plants with the liquid seaweed & sprayed my lettuce leaves with it to hopefully get rid of these aphids? Found 4 slugs amongst my Brussels sprouts plants in the blow away,I know where they hide.

[Scoot]

Was out int he garden sorting all the rubbish out and was going to start putting my growhouses up then i came in and seen my football team have appointed Rafa Benitez as manager, so all is stopped for the day. (sorry to all non football fans who have no idea what i am talking about)

[Snadger]

It seemed like it was going to be a sunny afternoon so I asked the boss if I could take some Lieu hours i was owed. I was at the plot shortly after noon!

Dug up all the strawberries from the plot I'm leaving and wheel barrowed them to my project plot. Dug over a raised bed (I want rid of this eventually but it can stay for this year) removed what looked to be thistle roots and bramble roots as i went digging hoss muck in as I went. Covered the area I had dug with cardboard and planted the strawberries through holes cut in cardboard. Put some potting compost around each plant and watered them in, giving the cardboard a good soaking as well. Added another wheel barrow of hoss muck on top of the cardboard to keep it down.

Hacked back some bramles from the plot entrance and piled them on a fire.Pulled down some more of the hut I'm dismembering and piled the bonfire high.

I had to visit my daughter in hospital so went home for a bath as I stunk. Was getting ready when OH came in and said she had enough visitors for the evening and i didn't need to go in. Damm it, I could have stopped at the plot longer!

[bramble]

Spent a good part of the afternoon potting on my tomato seedlings which are all growing well so far.
I now have 42 tomato plants but some of these will be shared with my daughter, daughter in law, brother in law and a friend.

[Gillykat]

Day off today so planned to get up to allotment for a few hours as the forecast was good. Unfortunately my dear husband decided that he wanted to come up with me so I had to kick my heels whilst he faffed about having breakfast and a cuppa. Then, when I turned my back for two seconds he started to rip bits of dado rail off the living room wall! Said that he wanted to get the living room & bedroom completely decluttered and decorated in the next month or two (in peak sowing and planting season? Dream on buster!!!). I eventually got him to stop and he tided everything away....except for the mess on the carpet which I had to hoover up! He then stuck his nose in the Argos catalogue and said he'd seen a bookcase unit which could be used as a room divider between his chair and my computer desk so when I EVENTUALLY got him out the front door it was to go to the skip and dump a load of old wood (nothing I could salvage for the allotment - I looked!) then pop into Homebase then Argos and then vets to pick up some flea & wormer drops for the cats. That at least was productive because the receptionist was asking about the allotment and said she had a preformed pond I could have for nowt as she wanted to remove it and turf over that area as she had a new grandchild due soon. So I'll be popping along to hers in the next week or two to see it and work out what needs done to remove it.
It was about 2pm by the time we got to the allotment!!! Neighbour was on his plot so we spent 20 minutes or so chatting to him then I got on with potting up two roses (Mothersday and Lili Marlene) and some Aquilegia I'd picked up in the £1 shop. From three bags I got 11 plants so that should make a couple of nice clumps for the bees.
Pleased to see my Borage and Hollyhocks have germinated too.
I was then disturbed by Himself asking for a hand to mark out the path along the side of the tunnel! By the time this was done it was gone 3pm and he was making noises about wanting something to eat before he went to work so I reluctantly had to lock up and go home. Roll on Sunday when I'm next off - I'll get some proper work done then because HE will be asleep during the day!

[Bigmallly]

Finished off chipping the plot this morning, this afternoon having a mass tidy up of branches and had a hooge bonfire. It's nicely smouldering away now.

[MollyWeasley]

I've sown some tomato and pepper seeds.

Today I had my first adventure scavenging some timber for raised/edged beds. A local pub had obviously had a bit of a refit/clear out and had some skirting boards and other bits and pieces outside. Of course I made the rookie mistake of going into a bar and asking for wood, to much hilarity.

But they didn't give me too hard a time and let me take what I wanted. I'm really chuffed as I had meant to buy timber for raised/edged beds last month but then spent all my allotment money (and then some!) on seeds and other bits. So I thought it was going to have to wait a while but at least I have a start.

[Root66]

Salvaged some gardening tools and an incinerator from a landfill by recovering them from a skip. Took them to plot and toasted my 1 year of allotmenteering with a beer as the sunset.

[Gillykat]

I would have probably done the same thing and gone in and asked if I could take the wood too

[veggiechicken]

What a truly scrumptious day Sunshiny and dry, just the weather for digging out Worcesterberries! They're like a cross between a blackcurrant and a gooseberry with all the worst bits of a gooseberry (thorns).
If you've ever thought of growing them, take my advice, don't! They are spiny thugs that layer themselves and make an impenetrable thicket. The fruits are smaller than gooseberries with a hint of blackcurrant but, by the time you've found your sturdy gloves, and covered your arms, the blessed fruits have disappeared. They'd make a good "keep intruders out" hedge.
Anyway, back to today. one of the little monsters and all its suckers, has been dug out, so I can make a new path in that corner. Tomorrow's job.

[lolie]

Planted a couple of buckets of potatoes because I managed to kill my last lot.

Still waiting for it too cool down enough to warrant starting the brassica seeds.