What I intend to do today/tomorrow!

[Chestnut]

Friday I have a day off, but the ground is likely to be frozen solid- so I plan to wash the pots and canes that are still stacked by the garage door, and make a seed sowing ruler!

Done about half the canes which has used all available drying space, theseed sowing ruler is finished and Christmas cards are written

[Penellype]

Friday jobs (work and weather permitting)
Continue tidying up
Harvest carrots

[veggiechicken]

Tomorrow is Weednesday - weather permitting I'll do a bit of hoeing on Bed 2,3,4,5,& 6. DONE on Weds & Thursday and Bed 7

Today, Friday 8th is Flowers and Bed 8. Maybe deadhead the geraniums in the GH - if it turns colder.

[Penellype]

Friday jobs
Continue tidying up - managed to remove the rest of the bedding plants from the back garden as the soil had not yet frozen under the mulch.
Harvest carrots - done - finished one of the outdoor buckets.

Weekend jobs (likely to be severely restricted by frozen ground and possibly snow)

At my friend's
Feed slugs to chickens
Check lettuces in greenhouse and water if required
Harvest remaining peppers from greenhouse - I think it is slightly too chilly for them now!
Tidy up in greenhouse
Check broccoli for caterpillars (found 2 last weekend!)

At home
The back garden is now frozen solid and likely to remain that way at the forecast temperatures until at least Wednesday (when there may be a slight thaw) and possibly until after next weekend. I now have 2 buckets of carrots and one of calabrese plus a pot of leeks in the garage. No idea how they will cope with the low light levels, but the leeks will be eaten soon. There are also potatoes, onions and tomatoes in store, salads in the house and various things in the freezer. This is the first cold winter since I stopped buying any veg, so this cold spell will be very interesting.

Jobs:
Wash plant pots
Planning for 2018
Sort seeds into months for sowing
Harvest salads, carrots, leeks

[Penellype]

Weekend jobs

At my friend's
Feed slugs to chickens - forgot to take them, Chickens not amused
Check lettuces in greenhouse and water if required - done
Harvest remaining peppers from greenhouse - I think it is slightly too chilly for them now! - done some, left the green ones, which could be a mistake.
Tidy up in greenhouse - no, too cold
Check broccoli for caterpillars (found 2 last weekend!) - done, none to be seen

At home
Wash plant pots - no
Planning for 2018 - done some
Sort seeds into months for sowing - got as far as March
Harvest salads, carrots, leeks - no

By the time i had finished mucking out the horses I was really too cold to do much in the gardens, particularly on Sunday when it was snowing. I did remove some aphids from the pepper plant in the kitchen.

Monday jobs (garden frozen solid after -3 last night):
Check to see how plants under cloches and in garage have coped with the frost
Wash some plant pots and labels
Harvest salads, carrots

[Penellype]

Monday jobs:
Check to see how plants under cloches and in garage have coped with the frost - done, the buckets under the cloches are frozen, the ones in the garage are icy but not solid.
Wash some plant pots and labels - done some
Harvest salads, carrots - done

As the forecast is for a colder night than last night, I decided to bring the stored potatoes and onions into the utility room as I don't think they will like being frozen. I don't want them too warm either, so they are on the floor in the utility room, near the back door, which I suspect is the coolest place in the house. They can go back in the garage, at least temporarily, on Wednesday.

Decided that I needed to rescue the green peppers from my friend's greenhouse as it was certain to be frozen in there too. Picked 9 small peppers and chopped and froze them. Also took the previously forgotten and now frozen slugs for the chickens.

Ordered a hanging basket raspberry from T&M. Clearly getting bored here - I don't have a spare place to hang another basket, so I might have to improvise with the current basket of strawberries.

Tuesday jobs (work permitting)
Continue planning and sorting seeds
Wash more pots
Harvest carrots from garage if not frozen in, otherwise I will be eating spinach from the freezer.

[veggiechicken]

Normal service is about to resume.
The neighbours have been packed off to the North today and the weather is becoming milder. No more excuses - its time to return to gardening!

Tomorrow is Weednesday the 13th and its Shoots week.
That means I need to weed, tidy bed 13 (M) and sow some shoots or things with funny names It will be spring onions and some mixed oriental leaves - both in the GH.
Also need to clean/declutter something with an M. (Should be N for neighbours as I've spent the last week decluttering them!!)

[Penellype]

Tuesday jobs
Continue planning and sorting seeds - no, decided I had better make a start on the Christmas cards instead!
Wash more pots - no
Harvest carrots from garage - done

Wednesday jobs
Hopefully a bit warmer (currently raining)
Put potatoes and onions back in the garage for now
Inspect remaining begonias and geraniums when defrosted and (probably) remove
Attempt to plant tulip bulbs if ground defrosted
Check calabrese, kohlrabi and turnips to see how they have coped with being frozen.

[Penellype]

Wednesday jobs
Put potatoes and onions back in the garage for now - done
Inspect remaining begonias and geraniums when defrosted and (probably) remove - no
Attempt to plant tulip bulbs if ground defrosted - no
Check calabrese, kohlrabi and turnips to see how they have coped with being frozen - seem ok

Ground was still frozen solid and then it started raining.

No gardening today (raining anyway).

[Penellype]

Friday jobs.
Depends on the weather (and work) - yesterday we were forecast a mainly dry day, but a band of heavy rain and sleet arrived at lunchtime and continued until dark. Today we are forecast unbroken sunshine but currently we have sleet showers.

Tidy up the front garden (remove begonias and geraniums) if lawn is not too squelchy
Plant tulip bulbs, ditto
Wash plant pots
Harvest salads, carrots

[Penellype]

Friday jobs.
Tidy up the front garden (remove begonias and geraniums) if lawn is not too squelchy - done the begonias
Plant tulip bulbs - no
Wash plant pots - no
Harvest salads, carrots - done

Very showery so not possible to get much done. My hanging basket raspberry arrived

Weekend jobs (frost permitting, currently frozen solid)

At my friend's
Check lettuces in greenhouse and water if required
Cut down pepper plants (all peppers harvested)
Weeding if possible

At home
Expecting warmer weather by Monday so most of the weekend jobs will be indoors.
Wash plant pots
Continue planning for next year
Sort more seeds
Harvest carrots

[Chestnut]

Wash the rest of the canes and fit storagehooks so I can stow them away for winter.

[Penellype]

Weekend jobs

At my friend's
Check lettuces in greenhouse and water if required - done
Cut down pepper plants (all peppers harvested) - done
Weeding if possible - no, frozen solid both days

At home
Wash plant pots - no
Continue planning for next year - done some
Sort more seeds - done some (well, bought some!)
Harvest carrots - done + lettuce

Also planted some of the tulip bulbs into pots. I'm waiting for the "half hardy" osteospermums in the pot in the front garden to die so that I can plant the rest of the tulips in there. Clearly -3.4C isn't cold enough as they are still green and have the odd flower!

Monday jobs
Judging by the state of the ground at the moment, everything is likely to still be frozen.
Looks like I will be washing plant pots.
Harvest salads

[veggiechicken]

I haven't done very well last couple of weeks - too many other things to do and I also blame the weather.

Tomorrow, 18th, is the start of Fruits week - that's a sowing of Bijou mangetout and Wizard beans - in modules. Germination in the cold GH has slowed down and the last lot of seeds, sown 4 weeks ago, are just starting to show some life.
Its also tidy bed 18 - we'll see.

[Penellype]

Monday jobs
Wash plant pots - no
Harvest salads - done plus carrot, some small beetroot and some bean sprouts

Still very cold on the ground despite not dropping below freezing last night and reaching 6C in the air today. Spent most of the gardening time removing a 1/4 inch thick slab of ice that was making the entrance to the garage lethal and defrosting the zips on the plastic cloches so that I could check the contents (still mostly frozen). The beetroot came from the cold frame which is sheltered by the leylandii hedge and is glass rather than plastic. Even by the end of the day the grass and cloches were still white with frost. Hung the strawberries (Just Add Cream) back on the fence - they have been in the cold frame since the fence was painted. One of them has a large green fruit on it which I was expecting to have rotted, but it seems ok. Whether it will ripen is another matter, but the top of the fence does get an hour or so of sunshine even in December.

Tuesday jobs (could be busy at work)
I'd like to dig up the perennials in the bed under the sitting room window, split them and replant them, as they are getting very crowded (particularly the crocosmia). Likely to still be frozen.
Remove geraniums from front fence (dead)
Wash plant pots
Harvest carrots, kohlrabi