What I did today - 2016

[Bigmallly]

It's more a case of "What I did this week".................So far:

From this..........

To This..............

Chicken wire arrived today so by the weekend I should have it wired up, gravel down on the paths & tidied up a bit.

[Snadger]

It's more a case of "What I did this week".................So far:

From this..........[ATTACH=CONFIG]69727[/ATTACH]

To This..............[ATTACH=CONFIG]69728[/ATTACH]

Chicken wire arrived today so by the weekend I should have it wired up, gravel down on the paths & tidied up a bit.

When its finished enter it in the shed show as a novel see through Yurt!

[Bigmallly]

Had a delivery today of a LED strip light I ordered from China a few weeks back..........cheap as chips but pleased with the result once stuck to back of TV:

[Cadalot]

Managed another couple of hours on the plot today see diary and video update on plot 23B

[Nicos]

Finished off stewing the last of the windfalls.
22kg of stewed apples in the freezer!...that should keep up going in crumbles for a while

[bario1]

Planted out three Winter Jewel cabbage seedlings and a tray of spring onions in the polytunnel.
Planted up two more bags with daffs for the asparagus bed edging.
Re-dug part of the drainage trench around the asparagus bed ready for the pipes, gravel and more bags of bulbs.

[Bigmallly]

Spent another day on the pond cage. Chicken wire is now attached all round so it's now 100% heron proof:



Solar lights attached to each upright just because I can...........

[Queen of Spades]

Yacon for syrup

I swilled off and weighed my first yacon plant, which my OH dug up this afternoon. In a 4' x 3' raised bed, it grew 4' in all directions. According to Googled sources, 4 plants should produce 12.5 kilos, enough for 1 litre of yacon syrup. This one plant weighs 27 kilos. Anyone got an idea of how to make (a lot of) syrup in a slow cooker?

[Jay-ell]

I swilled off and weighed my first yacon plant, which my OH dug up this afternoon. In a 4' x 3' raised bed, it grew 4' in all directions. According to Googled sources, 4 plants should produce 12.5 kilos, enough for 1 litre of yacon syrup. This one plant weighs 27 kilos. Anyone got an idea of how to make (a lot of) syrup in a slow cooker?

I'd probably say juice it, stick it in the slow cooker on low, leave the lid off and keep checking back over the next few hours til it's ready.

Had your foliage died back before you dug it up? Was their any indication on the surface of the haul below? How you going to store the crowns?

[Cadalot]

Today I cut two sheets off the weed membrane roll, the width is 2m and my beds are 2.4m x 1.2m wide, so first cut to length, then cut to width leaving me a 800mm wide strip for under the centre path.

Next job was to mark up for onions, the back of the Wilko packs for the Japanese & Red Onions suggest 150mm centres so 1200 / 150 = 8 and 2400/ 150 = 16 spaces so that's 7 x 15 holes = 105 planting holes in the sheet.

My daughter gave me a Sakura Pen-Tough Gold Medium Point 2.0mm quick dry Metallic Paint Permanent Opaque marker that she no longer has use for, and it's ideal for marking out the holes on the black weed membrane. Knocks the socks off using chalk like I have used before, not as messy and I can fold the sheet up to deal with later when I have time.

First I set out the lines for the 7 holes along the width of the sheet measuring off the woven lines for guidance, then I marked 150mm centres along the length such that when I placed the Doritos Mexican Salsa lid that has a diameter of 85mm in the line with the arrow lining up with the spacing ticks I had put on the lid on the quadrants, I could then draw around the lid giving me a guideline for the soldering iron*when I get around to cutting out the holes.

So 105 holes to cut and another sheet to cut off the roll and mark up like this one.

[Snadger]

Today I cut two sheets off the weed membrane roll, the width is 2m and my beds are 2.4m x 1.2m wide, so first cut to length, then cut to width leaving me a 800mm wide strip for under the centre path.

Next job was to mark up for onions, the back of the Wilko packs for the Japanese & Red Onions suggest 150mm centres so 1200 / 150 = 8 and 2400/ 150 = 16 spaces so that's 7 x 15 holes = 105 planting holes in the sheet.

My daughter gave me a Sakura Pen-Tough Gold Medium Point 2.0mm quick dry Metallic Paint Permanent Opaque marker that she no longer has use for, and it's ideal for marking out the holes on the black weed membrane. Knocks the socks off using chalk like I have used before, not as messy and I can fold the sheet up to deal with later when I have time.

First I set out the lines for the 7 holes along the width of the sheet measuring off the woven lines for guidance, then I marked 150mm centres along the length such that when I placed the Doritos Mexican Salsa lid that has a diameter of 85mm in the line with the arrow lining up with the spacing ticks I had put on the lid on the quadrants, I could then draw around the lid giving me a guideline for the soldering iron*when I get around to cutting out the holes.

So 105 holes to cut and another sheet to cut off the roll and mark up like this one.

My allotment neighbour uses exactly the same idea for growing his onion sets and has done, in the same place for the last six or seven years. He never uses manure and only tickles the surface before planting. I have noticed his yield is diminishing every year. He even leaves the weed membrane on through the winter.

[Nicos]

Strained apples...got 2 pressure cookers full of juice ready to freeze...intending to make lemon zest jelly,mint jelly and chilli jelly in the New Year when things calm down a bit and I gave more time!

[Jay-ell]

Today I cut two sheets off the weed membrane roll, the width is 2m and my beds are 2.4m x 1.2m wide, so first cut to length, then cut to width leaving me a 800mm wide strip for under the centre path.

Next job was to mark up for onions, the back of the Wilko packs for the Japanese & Red Onions suggest 150mm centres so 1200 / 150 = 8 and 2400/ 150 = 16 spaces so that's 7 x 15 holes = 105 planting holes in the sheet.

My daughter gave me a Sakura Pen-Tough Gold Medium Point 2.0mm quick dry Metallic Paint Permanent Opaque marker that she no longer has use for, and it's ideal for marking out the holes on the black weed membrane. Knocks the socks off using chalk like I have used before, not as messy and I can fold the sheet up to deal with later when I have time.

First I set out the lines for the 7 holes along the width of the sheet measuring off the woven lines for guidance, then I marked 150mm centres along the length such that when I placed the Doritos Mexican Salsa lid that has a diameter of 85mm in the line with the arrow lining up with the spacing ticks I had put on the lid on the quadrants, I could then draw around the lid giving me a guideline for the soldering iron*when I get around to cutting out the holes.

So 105 holes to cut and another sheet to cut off the roll and mark up like this one.

You could have gotten 128 onions in the bed. It says plant 150mm apart, so each onion has its own 75mm either side so the outside ones only need to be that distance from the edge letting you get 8x10 onions. Ok, it's only 23 extra

[boatsman]

Today I cut two sheets off the weed membrane roll, the width is 2m and my beds are 2.4m x 1.2m wide, so first cut to length, then cut to width leaving me a 800mm wide strip for under the centre path.

Next job was to mark up for onions, the back of the Wilko packs for the Japanese & Red Onions suggest 150mm centres so 1200 / 150 = 8 and 2400/ 150 = 16 spaces so that's 7 x 15 holes = 105 planting holes in the sheet.

My daughter gave me a Sakura Pen-Tough Gold Medium Point 2.0mm quick dry Metallic Paint Permanent Opaque marker that she no longer has use for, and it's ideal for marking out the holes on the black weed membrane. Knocks the socks off using chalk like I have used before, not as messy and I can fold the sheet up to deal with later when I have time.

First I set out the lines for the 7 holes along the width of the sheet measuring off the woven lines for guidance, then I marked 150mm centres along the length such that when I placed the Doritos Mexican Salsa lid that has a diameter of 85mm in the line with the arrow lining up with the spacing ticks I had put on the lid on the quadrants, I could then draw around the lid giving me a guideline for the soldering iron*when I get around to cutting out the holes.

So 105 holes to cut and another sheet to cut off the roll and mark up like this one.

I used the same type of sheet but didn't bother to cut circles, which is far neater, just cut an X in the sheet and positioned the plant in it.

[Cadalot]

My allotment neighbour uses exactly the same idea for growing his onion sets and has done, in the same place for the last six or seven years. He never uses manure and only tickles the surface before planting. I have noticed his yield is diminishing every year. He even leaves the weed membrane on through the winter.

I lift the planting membrane at the end of the season and manure then cover with a whole sheet of weed membrane and allow the worms to do their thing, then I lift off and use my wolf miller and dress the bed a couple of weeks before planting.

There will also be crop rotation apart from my walking onions and everlasting onions.

I'm getting quite a collection of different configuration planting membrane sheets and now I have another allotment, and next year having two beds of sweetcorn on each allotment I need to make some more over the winter months.

You could have gotten 128 onions in the bed. It says plant 150mm apart, so each onion has its own 75mm either side so the outside ones only need to be that distance from the edge letting you get 8x10 onions. Ok, it's only 23 extra

Yep I could have but I wanted to leave a little meat around the outside of the sheet, as I tend to put my pop bottle slug traps around the outside, and I may enlarge 2 or 3 holes along the middle to take a pop bottle for deep watering under the membrane.

I used the same type of sheet but didn't bother to cut circles, which is far neater, just cut an X in the sheet and positioned the plant in it.

That's what I do where the watering pop bottle has to go, but using a bulb planter for put plants in I found the circles easier.