What I did today - 2017

[Baldy]

First allotment committee meeting of the year - must mean its Spring - though not according to the thermometers...

[Nicos]

Planting out daffodil bulbs!

[Snadger]

Didn't do anything on my new scrapheap plot, but went around all the cordon apple and pear trees on my old plot loosening off the ties fastening them to the fence.
I intend moving these soon but they are fairly well established. The cordon stems are about 50mm thick at bottom tapering to 25mm at the top over about 1.5metres. They are 45 degree cordons but i hope to dig them up and plant them vertically.
I have toyed with the idea of putting them in pots and halving there height. If i lose a few so be it, it's just an experiment and I have about a dozen fruit trees to play with.
I haven't tried digging them up yet, so that should be interesting to say the least!

[ESBkevin]

Didn't do anything on my new scrapheap plot, but went around all the cordon apple and pear trees on my old plot loosening off the ties fastening them to the fence.
I intend moving these soon but they are fairly well established. The cordon stems are about 50mm thick at bottom tapering to 25mm at the top over about 1.5metres. They are 45 degree cordons but i hope to dig them up and plant them vertically.
I have toyed with the idea of putting them in pots and halving there height. If i lose a few so be it, it's just an experiment and I have about a dozen fruit trees to play with.
I haven't tried digging them up yet, so that should be interesting to say the least!

When I got my plot I moved an established apple tree from the bach garden, it had a large root ball but lifting a root ball anything like the size of a wheelbarrow body is a big task. I chopped the rootball as much as I dared and reduced the tree top accordingly. First year re-established I got a couple of fruit, next year abaout 15 but a bit small, this year hoping for a bumper crop.

[bario1]

This morning i moved the Cavolo Nero and leeks out of the heated prop and under the lights, as they have started to pop up.
Down the plot I started filling my newly empty pallet compost bin with leaves from the communal leaf pile. It's going to take about ten wheelbarrow loads by the look of it.

[Snadger]

When I got my plot I moved an established apple tree from the bach garden, it had a large root ball but lifting a root ball anything like the size of a wheelbarrow body is a big task. I chopped the rootball as much as I dared and reduced the tree top accordingly. First year re-established I got a couple of fruit, next year abaout 15 but a bit small, this year hoping for a bumper crop.

The Mod Mafia will no doubt scold me for chatting on this thread. Hey-ho, I'm hoping to work on the bonsai theory that if you keep the root ball smaller you will minimise the size of the top growth. None of mine are on dwarfing rootstock, although the one i had in a pot for a couple of years performed really well! All were Aldi specials methinks!

[Baldy]

I'm gonna report you pronto...
I've got a 6ft aldi apple tree that's toppled over in the back garden - you lot have got me thinking about moving it to the plot...

Anyhow - today I've had a cold / man flu so have done rather little - just shifted a few indoor seed trays around so I could feel good about myself.

[Penellype]

Filled up the hotbed at my friend's with 5 barrow loads of fresh horse muck and 1/2 a bale of old straw and topped it up with compost that was used for potatoes last year. Covered with a piece of polycarbonate sheet and will now be left for a few weeks to heat up. Plan is to grow salad greens and possibly beetroot in it.

Somewhat exhausted after the morning's work, but managed to find the energy to sow my sweet peppers in pots of compost that have been in the house over night. 2 each of snackbite red, orange and yellow .

[bario1]

Braved the hurricane outside to go to the plot. Picked up six bags of rocks from someone on Gumtr** en route, they'll be useful for filling in my drainage trenches at some point. Mulched my fruit patch with semi-rotted leaves and chucked another barrow load into my leafmould bin. Made up a potting mix for repotting some houseplants and brought that home. Potted up a couple of house plants. Filled some root trainers with compost and brought it into the house to warm up a bit for my first sowing of broad beans.

[mrsbusy]

today I gave one of my hens a bath and blow-dry ! and sprayed her bottom purple to stop the other naughty hen pecking her emerging fathers out. Her bottom has been naked for a year.

[bario1]

Yesterday - forked half of an enormous 'compost pile' of perennial weeds from last summer into a giant dalek - whether they'll rot down into usable compost or not remains to be seen, but at least they're contained now, I could see that some of them were starting to spring into life. Also dug out all the docks I could see that were starting to come up - the tiny innocent looking shoots hid giant foot-long taproots that were very gratifying to pull out - these were bagged up in a large black bin bag.
Started clearing the last bit of 'uncharted territory' at the bottom end of my plot, which is a kind of dock/nettle filled bog with various bits of rusty metal and rotten wood buried in it. I'm hoping to roughly level it, cover it in weed membrane and build some sort of decking where i can sit and enjoy the evening sun in summer.
This morning I dismantled a pallet to get more slats for the front of my leafmould bin - now I can add another layer of leaves.

[happyhumph]

Mowed the back lawn and mulched the raspberries with the clippings

[DannyK]

Had a work out with a sledge hammer and log grenade.

[Cadalot]

Set the spuds chitting in Grow Station 2

[Bigmallly]

Not a lot, potted on half a dozen cabbages. It's too cold to be outdoors & I'm up to date anyway.........