What I did today - 2017

[johnjohn]

You know how it is, I get my stuff together to go down to the plot, step out the door and it starts to rain. If I'm lucky it'll be raining all day and I'll not get anything done on the plot so I decide to go shopping for compost.

Half way there the rain clears up and the sun comes out. The place I get the compost from doesn't have my usual stuff any more. In fact they didn't have the replacement stuff either. And they only had 2 bags of the stuff to replace the replacement stuff with. They did have a peach tree for £2.49. And some sweet peas and begonias for me mam.

On the way back stopped at B&M and got a Rosemary, Lemon Thyme and Oregano plant as well as two Acers for my mother.

Popped into Lidl and noticed that they had Olive trees so I picked up a couple of nice healthy plants.

Got close to the plot and the sun goes into hiding and the rain comes down again so I though I'd let the rain get on with it, hoping it would stay around and went home.

All in all, at the end of the day I'm still going to have to water the garden tomorrow and I still need more compost because I'm going to use the compost I bought today potting on the plants that I bought today. I could have stayed in bed and made the same amount of progress - although with less trees.

He he, that rant thread thingy is way down here somewhere at the bottom of the site vvvvvvvv

[jasyk34]

Especially for you

https://youtu.be/nseasa9yUds?t=50

Wow that is amazing! I am going to have that playing on the background as I eat my crumble tonight

[Baldy]

Finally put the pond liner in and half filled aforementioned pond (with water).
Planted one of my £4.50 trees, t'other two will go in tomorrow. - Potted on some chillies.
Off to the pub in a hour or two :


"Oh I do like to live beside the seaside"

[johnjohn]

Had a really productive day at the plot today. Started by hoeing off a couple of my poorly plot mates beds as the council are doing their first check this week and then got in the polytunnel before it got warmer to lift my spuds. The poly has been interesting this year because I did my early spuds differently. Usually I get 2 or 3 rows in at the beginning of January when they first come into the GC or nursery and pick individual seeds with chits if they have them although you can't guarantee it. Normally I plant directly into a hole in the bed, cover over and then fleece, this year I just layed them on the ground and covered with shredded paper followed by decomposing grass clippings and fleece, it was just an experiment really to see how they grew. The significant difference was that they developed more slowly. Normally I get my first crop of small boily potatoes at the beginning of May, this year I've had to hold off for an extra 2 weeks even though the conditions have been good. Looking at the developing tubers there is no significant difference to a normally grown potato other than size and if left they would have been a really good crop. As it is, I needed the space because I plant my tomatoes into the same place that the spuds have been so they needed shifting out pronto cos the toms are ready to go in. Still, not a bad crop as the ground wasn't being used for anything else.
Weeded my asparagus bed and also the garlic, and gave them both a good watering. Also watered the peas that went in mid week. Prepared my roots bed that I'm late sorting out.
Brought home spuds, broadbeans, lettuce and a nice big Duchy cabbage

[Baldy]

Weeded my chive / elephant garlic bed. The elephant garlic looks like its doing really well.
Planted out my £4.50 Gage and my Almond trees. The almond has got some green to it so I'm quite hopeful with that one. Gage is essentially a brown stick, so just have to wait and see. No space left really for any other trees.
Potted on some Marketmore cukes and did some watering. Sun was shining - happy days.

[johnjohn]

More in the polytunnel today, lifted all the remaining land cress that did well over winter but has gone over now and then weeded the borders.

Having lifted the early spuds yesterday I planted my first 6 tomatoes out in their place- these were the ones I sowed on 2nd Feb and brought on under grow lights and then in the porch once they were too large- they're about a metre tall now with several trusses and some pretty well developed fruit.
Pink Charmer x2
Suncherry Smile x2
Shirley x1
Dancing with Smurfs x1

Still a few more toms to go out but it will have to be next week now and will get my chillis, peppers and aubergines in as well. Whilst weeding I found a few self sown tomatoes in last years bed so will let them develop and see how they turn out.

The most time consuming thing was sorting out the irrigation systems, I have 2 buried hose lines into the tunnel, one serves a leaky hose from mains the other a low pressure drip pipe from the IBC tank. Both reinstalled and tested and the timer for the IBC tank reset after adding new batteries. Gave it all a really good water.
I had wanted to get some Dahlias in today but ran out of time but I did manage a half hearted weed of my plot neighbours onion bed. Oh, and gave away 2 Duchy spring cabbage to my friend up the plot.

[Nicos]

For the last 3 days I have weeded weeded and weeded some more!
First of all the gravel paths in the back garden, and have made a start on the raspberry bed....

[Bren In Pots]

Planted out more lettuce that I'd grow in newspaper pots, removed the grass that's starting to grow over onto my quarry tile paths. Weeded my roots bed and planted the last of my pre-chitted parsnips.

[Jay-ell]

Took a couple of trays of pots down to the plot. Unfortunately a heavy break resulted in the decapitation of the tomatillos, chillies and most of the litchi tomatoes.

Planted out a load of Elefant leeks (6x4 foot patch), gave a bunch away now I only have to figure out what to do with the rest. May plant them out closer for baby leeks.

Planted out some lemon thyme, icterina sage, golden marjoram, lemon verbena, curry plant, rosemary and Oregano.

Spent a bit of time fishing the duckweed off the top and the gunk off the bottom of the pond. The water level is an inch lower now. Popped in some oxygenating plants and a waterlily. Couldn't have been all that bad as there's newts in there - I'm sure it was frog spawn I saw earlier in the year.

Planted out 4 Yacon plants as they're getting too big in the greenhouse. Also planted out a load of Egyptian Onions.

Tied my vine up for the first time - weehee.

Mulched under the fruit trees with comfrey.

I had soaked the roots of the peach I bought overnight so today I carefully spread the roots and potted it into a 30l tree pot. Then chopped it in half.

Shovelled manure, weeded and done ahellovalot of watering.

The Babington Leek that I ate is now sending up a flower stalk. The Elephant Garlic that I ate looks as if I could harvest it again. The vineyard leek has also grew back well.

The crow garlic, sand leek, daffodil garlic and Molly are all forming flowers. So are the Egyptian onions.

Harvested spring onions, chard, lettuce, cauliflower and was given half a dozen eggs, which was nice thanks.

[1Bee]

Dug over the patch for the sweetcorn, adding some muck and chicken manure. Planted out some sweet peas and French marigolds. Wove some more willow and hazel into the bean tepee. Replaced some torn fleece over the raised bed with an !kea net curtain, which looks much better and is much easier to secure and handle. Weeded a little. Dug a couple of planting holes for squashes.

Was visited by the site supervisor who chatted at length about how good our plot is looking. :-D

[vixylix]

I spent the morning potting on my chillies and squashes - and untangling and caning my beans and peas. I'm hoping to get them planted out two weekends from now!

The first bed is nearly finished - we bought a digging hoe which has made things much much faster - although much harder work! I just need to finish back filling and removing large stones. Its starting to come together.

We also started to remove the second large ivy bush but unfortunately the hedge trimmers packed in - so that's been benched for now. We did find something large and spiky in the middle of it, which was obviously some form of shrub / tree before it was engulfed!

Now absolutely shattered so back to work for a rest

[Nannysally99]

Planted out more bedding plants.

[Chris11]

Potting up more tomatoes and courgettes.

Largest tomatoes now being left outside while it's a mild night. Need more room for the chillies

Have way too many tomato plants, so have started identifying which ones I can pass on locally.

Mowed lawn before predicted showery days coming up.

[Florence Fennel]

Finally got the runners out, desperate for rain now

[Guest]

Finally cleaned down gh2 and whitened it. Just need to plant it up.