What I did today - 2017

[johnjohn]

After finding a package with 20 asparagus spears in the garage that had been delivered whilst we were on a break in Feb (wasn't expecting them till end of March and my mum forgot to tell me they had arrived) yesterday I managed to get a bed prepared and half of them in. Sadly they were, quite obviously, pretty dry so I'm hoping the rehydration in a bucket will help. Also they had sprouted quite a lot so about 20cm or so of growth on them which I have opted to leave. The remaining 10 are in moist compost waiting for the next chance I have to get them in.

I painstakingly covered them, on their ridges with a couple of inches of sifted soil and compost- what a tedious PITA that was, only to watch Monty this morning just chuck unsifted topsoil over his. Maybe I've made it up but I'm sure sifted soil was the way to do it.

[Muddy_Boots]

After removing all the Strawberry plants from the bed at the weekend on plot 1 including all the runners that had self set, digging the bed all over and removing the weeds and especially all trace of bindweed roots. This morning before going to work I went down and replanted them back into the clean bed for this year.

The runners will be potted on at home for additional plants for this year maybe even extra for plot 2 and maybe even for plot 3 if space is an issue.

[Muddy_Boots]

After finding a package with 20 asparagus spears in the garage that had been delivered whilst we were on a break in Feb (wasn't expecting them till end of March and my mum forgot to tell me they had arrived)

oooopppppsssss

I painstakingly covered them, on their ridges with a couple of inches of sifted soil and compost- what a tedious PITA that was, only to watch Monty this morning just chuck unsifted topsoil over his. Maybe I've made it up but I'm sure sifted soil was the way to do it.

You are correct, sifted soil is the way to go with them as its easier to manage with the minimum of stones in it. I covered mine with a mixture of spent MPC, fert and sifted soil when I created the beds. At the weekend I've covered the beds with used MPC from growbags and other plants that were finished last year and the MPC is kept in an old black plastic dustbin over winter to kill any weeds through lack of light, I've added fish blood and bone and growmore to it to enhance it as a top dressing. Photos to follow

[Bigmallly]

Was up at 6am as my head was buzzing from this interwebby thing I'm doing. Drilled a few holes through walls in preparation for some cable pulling. Went for a siesta. Ordered a few bits & pieces from Scr3wfix, will collect them tomorrow.

[bramble]

Covered over my potatoes and set up my two tunnels over them.
The forecast is telling me we are going to have a very cold week and dipping below freezing tomorrow night so I am taking no chances.
Potted on some of my tomatos which are now tucked up in the propagator for the night.

[sparrow100]

Sowed 30 each of Devoy, Chioggia, Dobies Purple and Egyptian beets. Checked all the overwintering plants in the g/h - the cape gooseberries still look very dead but there is new life emerging on the Szechuan pepper and my fuchsia. Peas are starting to pop up now too. Oooh I can't wait for the first peas!

[bario1]

Set up a couple of tunnel cloches to warm up the soil - haven't decided what for yet!
Planted up a couple of potato bags in the polytunnel with Rocket and Kestrel - they'll come out once the risk of frost has passed.
Transported some brassica seedlings from the greenhouse at home to the cold frame at the plot.
Feels like I must have done more than that, can't remember what though!

[happyhumph]

Deadheaded some daffs - about all I can get done with a three year old in tow!

[Bigmallly]

Not a lot done today, tied bits of wool to 70 Raspberry canes so I know which ones to remove come Sept. Had a mosey down to Scr3wfix to pick up an order I placed yesterday...........that's it for today so far.

[Lumpy]

Started dismantling Gordon the Greenhouse to be moved to a more windless spot

[treepixie]

Finished preparing the onion bed, also got the bed ready for the potatoes and did bit of weeding

[johnjohn]

Been busy today, managed to get the last 10 asparagus in, actually 11 as there was a bonus one inside the bag as a nice surprise

Then back and got some seeds sown and potted on some chillis and peppers- I wasn't going to do this because I have all that I need but I found a module with the runts in that I wasn't going to use tucked at the back under the grow lights and they gently called out like they do "pot me on, pot me on.." so what can you do?
Now have 20 extras, if nothing else I can bring them on and donate them to our carnival stall in June.

[veggiechicken]

28 of the 42 tomatoes sown in cotton wool last week have germinated -


I pulled the cotton wool plugs out of these teeny modules and buried them in larger modules of compost.

I've no idea whether my experiment is going to work but so far, so good.
Watch this space!

[johnjohn]

28 of the 42 tomatoes sown in cotton wool last week have germinated -
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I pulled the cotton wool plugs out of these teeny modules and buried them in larger modules of compost.

I've no idea whether my experiment is going to work but so far, so good.
Watch this space!

Interesting, that's about a 75% success rate in terms of germination, what's your usual success rate in compost do you think? I recon you probably get 90 - 95%? Just saying

Actually its only about 66% success- sorry, wine

[veggiechicken]

There are more to come but they weren't big enough to pot on. A few of the seeds are really old so I'm not expecting much but a Speckled Roman from 2005 has germinated.