What I did today 2018

[ESBkevin]

Spent the weekend being Dads Taxi, Cambridge Saturday and Southend airport Sunday. About 180 miles and 4.5 hours in the driving seat! I'd spent thursday and Friday evening playing in two different bands.
So the joys of gardening went largely by the wayside, After Cambs I had an afternoon nap, then sideshooted the toms in the greenhouse and watered there, hanging baskets and pots.
Sunday was another early start so after my quick nap I cut the grass (about and hour and a half), built a frame for one of the grapevines to hang on, put the sprinler on a couple of the lawns (well I had just cut them)! and then got on with some DIY in the garage/workshop.
Of course using the sprinkler guaranteed it would rain, so we had a decent local shower last night.
Back in the office and wondering when I will get time to visit the plot this week, probably tomorrow.

[Small pumpkin]

Just for a change pollinated chillies.
Took cuttings of thyme, lemon thyme, strawberry mint, pineapple mint. Took root cuttings of ginger mint, chocolate peppermint and spearmint.

[bario1]

Planted out a couple of Harlequin squashes outside, and some marigolds between my tomatoes in the polytunnel.

[veggiechicken]

Picked strawberries and raspberries - that takes ages!!
Sowed beetroot into modules
Planted a melon in the GH
Armpitted and watered the toms
Did some weeding
Found a lettuce in the middle of a clump of flowers
Chatted to chooks
Watched the woodpecker and a family of Great tits (7) on the feeder, the young ones being fed by their parents who are half the size of the fat babies.
Came indoors this afternoon and looked at some of my new, old books.

[Jay-ell]

Picked strawberries
Ate Strawberries
Picked Raspberries
Ate Raspberries
Picked Redcurrants
Ate Red Currants

Boy I was exhausted.

Harvested the garlic. I'm sure that there is supposed to be something in between the stem and the basal root plate with all the roots attached to it. Not on most of mine. The Early Purple had small heads, the Provence slightly better and the Solent Wight absolutely nothing (at best a slight swelling at the base of the stem). Tied hem into clumps and hung them in the shed to dry.

I would have preferred to leave them in longer but they were brown and covered with rust.

The elephant garlic weren't much larger than a large regular garlic - absolutely loads of corms on them. It seems that the smaller the bulb the more corms they produce. Of course all these corms are going to add to the perennial elephant garlic patch - or even create a second patch later on. I'll probably look to depleting this patch a little later on in the year to plant out some new bulbs.

The Japanese onions varies from not bad to slightly smaller than a small set size. These were transplants put in last year. The Jermor Shallots doubled their numbers. I guess that despite adding quite a bit organic matter last year the soil in the bed still needs lots of work to grow great alliums. The New Territories soil isn't nearly as good as the Jungles soil - except that it doesn't have

I've bought one of those clippy stably tape tieing thingymajigs so I taped up the kiwi fruit, 4 grape vines, red currants and gooseberries.

Done some strimming and mulching - laying down a thick layer of newspapers over the strimmed and mulched weeds (although in places it was 18mm fibre board because it's been lying around for years and has been too waterlogged to burn - should help keep down a patch of nettles and docks)

I hammered 6' stakes at the corners of the raspberries and blackberries tying in canes between the posts to hold and support the plants and I can now see a way forward. Quite literally as these were hiding the paths around them - the 2 raspberries beds looked like 1 bed but I can now see the path and pile of buckets in between them.

Weeded in the Jungle. Shows what the soil is like when I can hand pull docks including 12-18" roots intact.

Planted out the Tuberous rooted nasturtium - aka Mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum). Will pop in the support tomorrow once I figure out what it is.

Pulled a bunch of scapes off the potato onions so I'll see how these look in a month or so when they come out - still looking healthy and green at the minute.

Picked strawberries
Ate Strawberries
Picked Raspberries
Ate Raspberries
Picked Redcurrants
Ate Red Currants

Went home

[robbra]

Jay-ell,
Ate strawberries, raspberries and red currants but what about the garlic, poor little things must have felt left out
Rob

[robbra]

I strimmed the grass, too long for my hand mower and sat in the sun with my springer looking at my tomatoes.
Rob

[Bren In Pots]

Planted basil that had been rooted in water into my GH border, then did the same with some rooted Mint but that went into a pot sink outside.
Re-homed more self seeded Nasturtium seedlings these were growing inbetween paving slabs.

[muck lover]

I’ve planted out some baby leeks. Was sorely tempted to plant every last one but there were hundreds in the pot and it would have filled the garden. Have given the rest away. I still have far too many planted.

[Small pumpkin]

First wave of chilli pollinating is nearly over.
Put some more things on the sales barrow.
Harvested stuff for tea.
Watered chillies, fed chilli grows.
Dead headed nasturtiums.

[veggiechicken]

Made strawberry jam while it rained - another 4lbs.
Pulled up creeping buttercup from the woodchip "lawn" which was starting to look green instead of woodchippy. Pleased to see a great fat woodpigeon sitting on the pile of uprooted buttercups eating them. He's welcome to them - might leave the soft fruit alone.
Watched the baby birds being fed by their poor parents. Some of the babies make no effort to feed themselves, just sit them, squeaking, beak gaping.
Cut some basil mint and shoved the stems in a jar of water to root.
Too wet out to do much.

[Small pumpkin]

Chilli pollinating.
Cleaned out ferrets.
Planted some stuff in the front garden.
Weeded 2 beds.
Sown seeds
Packed away one of my hardening off benches.
Tied up sunflowers

[Gillykat]

Couple of hours before work - potted up nine Japanese Anemone that were delivered yesterday....repotted two sweet Peppers in greenhouse, dug a bit more of the front flower bed on the allotment.

Tomorrow will sow more veg seeds Getting my mojo back!

[Earthgirl Jen]

Made Rhubarb and ginger jam.. scrummy

As well as watering the greenhouse, cooing at my melons (they are increasing) shoed the sparrow gang from my eating peas again, hoed between beds in between the drizzle, tied and arm pitted toms and then resigned myself to the fact my greenhouse is now in fact a jungle (yet again) and then sighed at the fact I finally have some tomatoes ripening... Not to bad for a 7th March sowing

[elsie-scot]

Planted some salvia and coreopsis that had somehow fallen into the supermarket trolley yesterday.

Started making a new path but the midges were far too irritating that l didn't get much done.