What I did today - 2016

[Small pumpkin]

How long does it take plants to harden off and what exactly is hardening off? Is it for the plants to get used to the wind or is it temperature?

How long depends what the plant is and if you go with the tuff love approach! As far as I know it's so the plant can acclimatise to it new surroundings temperature and weather

[Snadger]

Potted on torpedo onions,red torpedo onions,cabbage and cauliflower seedlings. Sowed Cucamelons,water melons and courgettes.Planted a Virgo rose in a temporary pot.

On my new plot I planted up all of my Kerr's Pink potatoes and added three wheelbarrow loads of hoss muck. Dug the holes for planting the last of my Pink Fir Apple spuds. Then that will be me finished with spuds for this year.......phew! Planted some lily corms that i had forgotten about!
It needs to be not windy, not cold and not raining for me to progress with my summerhouse project!

On my way home I had to call at the supermarket where I speculated another 30p on another Primula Denticulata.

[Gillykat]

30p is my type of price!

Not as much done today as I'd hoped as hubby roped me into helping him finish off declutttering the bedroom in preparation for wardrobes being delivered on Wednesday lunchtime.

What I did do...

Potted my 13 tomato seedlings into bigger pots

Put 6 Tromboncino and 6 Munchkin Pumpkin seeds in yoghurt pot of water to soak overnight so I can get up plot tomorrow morning and get all my stuff sown

Trombo's left, Munchkin right

[1Bee]

Started the daily dance of moving seedlings from windowsill to growhouse and back again. A few days of this, and I think they should be fine to stay in the growhouse. The cucs and toms already there seem fine, although admittedly they're very tiny and not going anywhere very fast....

[jonny the plant pot]

Potted on my fiesta sweetcorn and repaired my netting.

[Small pumpkin]

I've planted my potatoes

[AkionTotocha]

A few days ago I took my tray of tomatoes into the greenhouse to pot them up only to realise my greenhouse has become a plastic covered heap of buckets, pots, small plants, big plants, compost, a bag of straw, a heap of chitted potatoes that look sadly at me without any soil covering them, boxes of powdered fertiliser, six tomatoes bag pots in their packets, and a propane bottle.

So I've been tidying up and I made a table to give me more storage space.

So TODAY I finally MANAGED TO PLANT MY MELONS!!! I've been looking forward to growing these since I realised I would be able to with a greenhouse thingy. I'm growing two kinds; Emir F1 and some from a canary melon from Tesco's. The label said "Lual" but I've googled and nothing. Hopefully something delicious will happen?

And idky I was expecting courgette seeds to be small, not the same size as pumpkin seeds? I was expecting cucumber sized seeds for some reason.. And then I felt dumb for not expecting them to be that size..

Some beetroot seeds. And I was expecting them to be... Not looking like little poos....

A tray of salad seeds, some wallflowers and some "sweet sultan" which look like tiny badminton shuttles. The beetroot, sweet sultan and wallflowers all got the VC treatment of "chuck them on some soil" because secretly I'm lazy and it seemed like she was giving me permission to be true to myself.

[Martin H]

Today I planted out some summer cabbage and cauliflowers:



And some Brussels sprouts:



It's last chance saloon for sprouts after two years of failure. This year they are going to get lavish care and attention!

[Bigmallly]

This year they are going to get lavish care and attention!

They are bound to fail then Martin.................

[Scoot]

Had quite a successful day today.

Put up my big new growhouse from Wilko's that's been sat in the corner of the house since about January.

My tomatoes are in there now in their small pots. I'm thinking about leaving them out all night tonight. It'll be the first time. Temps down to about 6C tonight.

Also i added some BFB to my garden ready for planting some stuff out later this week once they have hardened off a little bit.

Sowed some more spring onion seeds as well outside in a small planting bag.

[bramble]

Potted on my Celeriac plants, they are in the last chance saloon as well. Planted out 6 Dahlias grown from seed. Forgot to take them indoors last night and this morning they were fine, so gone ino the garden with a plastic flower pot covering each one.
Planted out the last of the Sweetpeas. Planted up snother two window boxes which will be kept indoors for another while.
Tied up the Kelsae onions which are now getting taller and need support.
Weeded the outdoor onions, and earthed up the potaoes.
Lots of other bits and bobs done as well inluding walking to the library and back, which takes an hour tound trip.
Lovely sunny day but still a bit below average.

[Snadger]

Progressed some more with my Summerhouse. Cut and nailed the roof on the portion to the left. Found some use for some of the scrap left on the plot. The bit in question was a galvanised angled section that fit nicely as a finisher to the bottom rear of the roof once screwed on position.
Jay-ell dug out a window frame from his derelict plot and helped me carry it along to my derelict plot, which I intend fitting in the end of the summerhouse. The section with a solid roof is a bit darker than the rest.
After climbing round on the roof nailing boards into position I was ready for a change of scenery.I planted the last four rows of Pink Fir Apple spuds and added three wheelbarrow loads of hoss muck.
The large window panes in summerhouse will be held in by thin wooden lattes front and back with a silicon bead on the outside to inhibit water ingress. Rather than BUY (sorry for swearword) new lattes I spent a good while unscrewing some form existing timber. Once I have a enough I'll cut them to size and give them a good coat of wood stain/preserver.

[Containergardener]

Ordered some planter bags, seed potatoes, manyyyyyyyy seeds ..as you do.. asked OH to find some buckets online , he has found me some yellow ones (they won't get mixed up with his black ones I'd guess is his thinking ), other than that worked all day.

[plam]

Mowed all the grass and then mulched with the clippings and some wood ash, sowed some more sweetcorn in the greenhouse, dug up some bits of couch grass and did a garden cane count ready for the runner and french bean wigwams to go up. Was still out in the sunshine at 8 pm

[Jay-ell]

Popped into W1LK0S to get some weedkiller (the big orange is £5 more expensive for the same item) and bought a little hand fork with a 5 foot handle. I wasn't looking for a little hand fork with a 5 foot handle but someone had marked it at £3 instead of £13. It wrangle through at £13 but I ahemed and pointed and got it for £3.

Sprayed the nettles, ground elder, couch grass, dandelions and docks which make up the paths and beds and under the hedges. Had ago at the pampas grass with a thick stick then sprayed it to see if it can get through the tough waxy cover of the leaved.

Dug out the daisy in one of my beds and stuck it in a pot then dug out a bit more of the bed.

Checked the overflow on the bath - there's a plastic pipe attached. Checked the plug. It's still there.

Pottered in the greenhouse potting up the toms and peppers. My fuchsia berries arrived today so I potted them up.

Found a double glazed window on the plot - offloaded it , erm, I mean I gave it to Snadger.

Someone had dumped a fitted kitchen at the front of the allotment (in bits). Snagged a couple of doors to put round the bath.

Moved a pile of rotted manure onto the bed I'm going to replant the rhubarb in.