What I did today - 2017

[damian1225]

put some mint in down the plot and kept it in the pot so it does not spread, potted on more peppers/chillies, put some onion sets back in that the birds had pulled out

[1Bee]

Weeded the edges of the beds and a few onions. Sowed mustard greens and radishes. Sundry watering.

Peeled back the black plastic over a section of the un-dug new bit. Bashed the wilted weeds down a bit, dug out some docks and covered with cardboard. Layered a few inches of manure over the cardboard and put the black plastic back over it all. When things have settles, I'll plant some squashes through this lot.

[bario1]

Put up my Lidl blowaway in the pouring rain on Saturday - not fun.
Harvested more nettles for fertiliser.

[Yebisu]

I popped by my plot on the way home from work. I watered the whole plot as I won't be able to get down there for a few days and the weather is getting hot!

I picked 5 courgettes. That brings the grand total to 30 from my three plants. Is it normal to count?! I also pucked the last of the snap peas (although it's still flowering) and the first of the French beans.

And one of the older gentlemen whose plot is near mine gave me a couple of Green Egg zucchinis plants. I've only ever grown regular courgettes so I'm excited about these green eggs.

[Bren In Pots]

Planted two Tasty Green cucs into the GH border, and two Marketmore in pots and left those on a self-watering mat.

Edited to say I've also planted out some sunflowers and nasturtiums.

[Cadalot]

Erected the Sprout Cage and planted out two of 5 different varieties - Cromwell, Montgomery, Eveham Special, Bedford Darkmar 21 & Rubine.

for more information about the varieties see Blog Post Alans Allotment: Sowing Brussel Sprouts

Started off my SoilFixer SF60 test mixes. The photo above is on Mill Green Allotment in front of Bed 12 Brussel Sprouts are from left to right:-

1) My Own Compost & Coir 50:50
2) My Own Compost & Coir with SF60 & 5% by volume
3) My Own Compost & Coir with SF60 & 10% by volume
4) My Own Compost & Coir with SF60 & 20% by volume
5) My Own Compost & Coir with Potato Fertiliser
6) My Own Compost & Coir with SF60 & 5% by volume with Potato Fertilizer

This is a bit of an adjustment to what I had planed to test, but I'm running late this year due circumstances outside my control and normally these would have been started early in the greenhouse at the end of March, but as I never really got the greenhouse clear enough I've waited for the last frost plus a couple of weeks.

In about 13 weeks when the foliage begins to turn yellow and die back I will harvest all six buckets and compare the weight and number of spuds from each bucket, As I'm using the Marshalls PotatoPots I may have a sneak peek at 5 & 10 weeks in before harvesting.

More information about PotatoPots on my Diary Alans Allotment: Sprouts & SoilFixer SF60 Potato Test

[happyhumph]

Last few days.

Weeded large veg bed - nearly finished - Def covering it this winter...
Planted out chard and perpetual spinach in my double chard section. Thought I'd experiment with outdoor aubergines so put left over seedlings in spare thin strips of ground - against a south (ish) facing stone bank so might work.

Created a sorrel bed underneath children's slide - hope it works!

Lots of things potted on and sown. Tomatoes going great guns, will have to start feeding them soon as lots of flowers on about a third of them.

Squashes in individual pots put on trays for ease of carrying them outside for hardening off.

[bario1]

Mixed up a large trug of tomato growing medium - about equal parts of garden soil, home made compost, and farmyard manure, with some slow release fertiliser thrown in for good measure. Used this to plant up three basket tomatoes - Maskotka, Tumbling Tom Yellow and Terenzo. Mulched with wood chippings and hung up in the polytunnel.
Stapled down the inside edge of my blowaway cover.
Spayed my aphid infested Daubenton's kale with neem oil solution.
Noticed some of my red onions bolting already...

[DWSmith]

After work last night I put up some T-posts along the north edge of the garden and attached 3 cattle panels. This gives me 48' of 50" high support for vine plants. I also dug 32' of 2 fork wide soil so I can plant at the base of the panels. After work tonight I want to finish digging the base and go over it all with the Mantis to bust up the lumps.

I hope the rain holds off.

Minor update: finished digging this strip over my lunch hour. If it doesn't rain I'll use the Mantis tonight. If it does rain the ground should dry out a bit faster so I can use the Mantis. (A solid hour of digging and weeding. I didn't think I would be able to do that yet. Perhaps I've found my personal pace ... a snail's pace. )

[Nannysally99]

Made a net curtain 'cage' for my sprouts and kale buckets

[Jay-ell]

Popped my tiger nuts into two wheelbarrows. Hadn't been in 5 minutes and the birds are trying to get at them so piled on some hawthorn pruning to fend them off till they grow.

Planted out a fair bit of Yacon, leaves me with about 19 plants to go.

Also planted out the sprouts and calabrese, half dozen of each. Built a blue tent over them to protect them from the pigeons.

Cleared some of the duckweed from the pond and caught a newt - popped it back into the pond straight away.

Weeded the winter onions - Marco garlic is sending up scapes. I thought Marco was a softneck. The Elephant Garlics scapes are getting longer so I should hopefully be able to cut them off soon.

Watered the beds in the jungle.

Gave a couple of other plot holders the 10 minute tour. They looked as if they were going to hurt their necks straining to see over the fence.

Accidentally built a wall. I hadn't been planning on building a wall and if I had been planning to build one I wouldn't have built it where I did.

I was just digging over the back bit of the New Territories, pulling out the dock and nettle roots and throwing the stones, broken bricks and lumps of concrete to one side as I went. I heard the Robin chirping so stopped to let it get bugs and noticed that it was sitting on a branch above a rustic looking wall that wasn't there when I started.

Watched the bees buzzing round the raspberries (BM - both beds), strawberries and blackberries.

[bario1]

Popped my tiger nuts into two wheelbarrows.

Reminds me of Buster Gonads.

[burnie]

Noticed some of my red onions bolting already...

Are they from sets or from seed Bario? I'm trying seed this year and so far so good.

[DWSmith]

Popped my tiger nuts into two wheelbarrows.

Geez! it took 2 wheelbarrows to hold them???

[bario1]

Are they from sets or from seed Bario? I'm trying seed this year and so far so good.

Sets. Never again!