What I did today - 2017

[Jonny.D]

Burnt a load of old wood on the front drive and as I had to be out there to keep an eye on it, I used to time to give everything a good soaking and hunted out every weed that was there

[susieq100]

Having to brave the rain (thrashing it down) to water in the glass shed at the hotment! Wet on the outside, dry on the inside; a delicate irony

[Jay-ell]

There's a drip in the greenhouse. It's the bit that joins the 2 x 100 litre waterbutts together so I drained them and took them out. Built up the plinth they were on by another 2 bricks and a flag stone to give a bit more height whilst I was on it and brought in the 250 litre water butt. Need to take down the stand to get the max head on the water. Now it has an extra 25% capacity, extra head and less leaks.

It had rained but I took advantage of the gap in the clouds to dash round a couple of beds with the watering can plus comfrey to give things a bit of a pep.

The Buckwheat has germinated in one of the new beds.

I have parsnips in the sfg.

One of the white Yacon is getting flower buds.

Things are coming on nicely in the garden.





Now I'm sitting at home drinking strawberry rum.

[bario1]

At last a dry morning!
Fed everything in pots (toms, cucs, chillies, spuds, courgettes, blueberries).
Made chicken wire sleeves for my cauli plants that're getting pigeoned.
Potted up the three blueberry plants i got 'free' with GYO mag in Feb.
Tied in some of the errant branches on my Tumbling Tom Yellow.
Tied in some more asparagus ferns that have come up recently.
Yanked out a few weeds.
Lobbed a few giant snails into the woods.

[Jay-ell]

Got a set of step ladders for my mother - good swap.
Pulled the suckers off the toms and tied them up.
Weeded
Caged my seakale - pigeons have been at it again
Put a grass mulch on one of the beds
Harvested rhubarb (as it keeps attacking me), spuds, strawberries
Got 4 BIG buckets to fill with junk as I start clearing the back of the jungle

[damian1225]

went to the plot to water the giant marrows and spotted three or four that have been pollenated and set, I will be removing these as I want the main vine to be a minumum 10ft before setting a marrow, gave them a good watering and feed with instant compost tea, looked in on the pumkin plants and spotted another pumpkin growing away.
Managed to have a chat (as always) with the nice man on the plot behind mine and he is very kindly going to slosh some watering cans around my plot whilst im on holiday next week, my brassicas are starting to perk up now that I have covered them with wire mesh and netting, they got a terrible beating off the pigeons, hoping Its not too late in the season for them to recover and give me something back for all the stress lol

went home and fed all the toms and chillies, got some massive pods on the ohnivecs so far

[Jay-ell]

Today I finished harvesting the black currants I had left to ripen up - another 4.5lbs so 9lbs in total - nice haul. Pity no one in the family likes black currants

Started to clear out the mess at the back of the Jungle today. This is what was left of the original "greenhouse" I dismantled and burned earlier on in the year. The base had been made up of chipboard, mdf, glass panes, plasterboard, plastic bags and old carpets. The pinnacle of allotment construction.



May take a little time to get the back sorted but it's moving on.

Pruned off the extra arms of the gooseberries (I'm training them as cordons along the fence) which meant I could get to the gooseberries. Of course as I was pruning them one or two fruit may have just dropped off and it would be wrong to waste them. Same goes for the strawberries underneath them.



Got 5lbs 12oz from them, not a bad haul. Left a couple on to ripen but not many. Also trimmed back the red currants. There was still some on there and the birds hadn't touched them so waste not want not.

Gave up counting the strawberries as it's getting depressing - oh no, another 4 pounds of strawberries.

Weeded the SFG an the Yacon bed.

[veggiechicken]

Took a photo of last year's begonias in the pallet for WPG and did a little weeding below it.
Next thing, I'd ripped out all the weeds, grass, ivy, and rubbish and created a little flower bed.
Planted it with all the left over seedlings - gazanias, geraniums, begonias, lavender and some other odds and ends and it looks so much better
It always amazes how one little job leads to another.

Here's the begonia pallet before - but you can't see all the weeds below and I forgot to take a photo of the new bed

[bario1]

This morning I weeded the overflow brassica bed... back breaking work trying to weed under three foot high netting!

[burnie]

Took a photo of last year's begonias in the pallet for WPG and did a little weeding below it.
Next thing, I'd ripped out all the weeds, grass, ivy, and rubbish and created a little flower bed.
Planted it with all the left over seedlings - gazanias, geraniums, begonias, lavender and some other odds and ends and it looks so much better
It always amazes how one little job leads to another.

Here's the begonia pallet before - but you can't see all the weeds below and I forgot to take a photo of the new bed

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Are the Begonias planted in the pallet or just growing up the side VC, curious ?

[Jay-ell]

Dug up 12 bags of gunk from the back of the Jungle.

Weeded the dahlias, Litchi Tomatoes, Cape Gooseberries and Yacon.

Watered.

Noticed that some of the carrots had yellowing leaves - the carrot fly had struck. 4 carrots had been got at so pretty good result of 2lbs each of the purple and the orange. Best results ever as I've never been able to get them bigger than a match stick. Still don't like carrots. But I don't like these less than I don't like shop bought. Still won't eat them. I've got 4 more types sown.

Harvested more of the Austurian Cabbage - these things don't show any sign of giving up yet, I've been eating them for a year and they're still going strong.

Watered the compost bin in the scorzonera bed in the Jungle, ants look as if they were starting to take up residence again. Topped it up with shredded gooseberry stems and watered again, then carrot tops and a bit more water. Jabbed a 6' metal pole in a few times and wiggled it about for good measure.

Ants also moved into the other compost bin in the Vinyard at the front of the New Territories. Added more greens, stirred it a bit and watered. it. May try adding clove oil to the watering can next time to see what happens.

[Small pumpkin]

Fed all the chillies, tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers, melons and Humphrey.
it takes me about two hours to fed. So they are hungry or I have to many !

[Ms-T]

s/p you don't have too many....OK

I made this today


im happy with it

[Jonny.D]

Dead heading, checking tomatoes for side shoots, as usual found a few big ones.

Gave the top layer of the compost bins a quick turn.

Chopped down a borage and added to the "Getting stinkier by the day" 10 ltr tub.

[katkatkat]

Over the last couple of days with the help of two extra pairs of hands and a car I have:

• Taken three full car loads of stuff to the tip
• Sorted through the old wood, neatly stacked the planks that were for keeping and cut the other ones to car length sections for disposal
• Weeded all the beds
• Despaired at the dead pumpkins
• Dug up the last of the couch grass "paths"
• Laid mopre weed membrane
• Carted chips on to some of the paths
• Built an edging for the raspberry bed
• Levelled the shed and wacked in some supporting beams
• Put up the last section of guttering and installed a water but
• Harvested 3 kilos of redcurrants, a kilo of rasps, a handful of tomatoes and a bellyful of strawberries
• Rejoiced that the ladybird lavae have cleaned the rhubarb of black aphids
• Emptied the shed, sorted everything out and put it all back neatly
• Harvested garlic and found a way to tie it up in the shed to dry
• Made a load of compost
• Hacked down the thistles and rosebay willowherb from the other side of the boundary fence
• Some other things I forgot