What I did today 2018

[bramble]

Spent the afternoon digging out my old lavender hedge which must be about ten years old.
Planted out a new one from cuttings zi took last autumn.
It was a tough job getting out the old roots.
Won't let that happen again.

[Dynamo]

Another knackering day at the allotment. The temperatures and humidity were high but I'm not going complain. It's about time we had some decent weather. My first job was to take all my plants out of the greenhouse that needed hardening off. This was their third day out and with it being forcast to be a warm night they can stay out now.



After that I forked over one of my sections, About 25 square metres. While I was working on the plot I could hear the council mowers working on the local grass verges so when they'd buggered off I went over to where they'd been working armed with a rake and a couple of bags and picked up a few sack fulls of grass cuttings for my compost heaps.

Later on I potted on my Golden Globe and Tuscany courgettes into big pots for them to live in over the summer.



I'm keeping them in different greenhouses so they don't cross pollinate. I don't suppose it would make much difference but it won't do any harm.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Sadly not much going on today veg-wise, I did move my young chilli plants (Apache, Prairie Fire and Padron) which have grown quite well in the last week, out into the plastic green house (open) to take advantage of this glorious weather. I'm planning to put them out in the day every day for the next week or two, then overnight hopefully weather permitting.

My salad crop seedlings are all coming through and so are the spring onion, finally. All of my radishes are up. I repaired one of the pieces of twine I'm using to mark out my grid on my square foot garden which had snapped - pro tip: if using screws to hold the twine in, use screws with a smooth shank so the thread doesn't tear the twine as you finish screwing it in.

Otherwise today was about finishing off the boring post-winter maintenance jobs that need doing but nobody likes doing. Finished sweeping the driveway, and finally got around to pressure washing the patio. It's vitrified/porcelain paving so it doesn't take much cleaning but there was still quite a bit of muck and dust on there from when the garden was landscaped last September.

With that done, I mowed the lawn in preparation for the overseeding/fertilizer jobs this weekend. Removed a few lawn weeds and some more annual meadow grass.

I've gone one more horrible job to do which is trimming the 15 or so 3 metre high leylandii that line our driveway.

The sun is now shining and our tulips are starting to open. Our April-flowering daffodils are late but I think they'll open in the next week or two, then the purple alliums to follow.

Looking good I think
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#...6-45D6740AEF57

[Baldy]

Went to the plot at lunchtime to discover a thank you card and a potted tayberry - all I did was cut back someone's pear tree... So this evening, having soaked the pot I found a space for it an planted it out.
Strimmed the wildly overgrown community orchard - my little electric stirmmer did better than I expected. Dug out a couple of blackcurrant plants - one will go on my plot and one in the currant section of the hedge that I've been guerilla gardening for a couple of years
10 miles up the coast / inland its been a lovely day - here its been a pea-souper more or less all day - hoping for better tomorrow...

[the big lebowski]

i popped up the plot today and planted my potatos ,5 rows of desiree potatos in the ground ,slighty sunbunt but happy ,cheers

[SarrissUK]

I built the raised bed wall another couple of layers in the bright sunshine, started the little pond wall, replanted the strawberries that the dog unearthed, tidied up the compost that she's dug out of the bags, swept the patio, returned the flower trays that the cats had tipped over in the greenhouse and admired the cucumbers that have started growing! A bit sunburn on my back but otherwise I've managed to not burn to a crisp after a day in the sun!

[bramble]

It's amazing how much can be achieved with a few fine dry days.
List autumn I took several lavender cuttings.
On Thursday I spent the best part of the day digging out an old lavender hedge deciding me and my next door neighbour.
It was a tough job as the roots were so woody, about 10 year old I would think.
Anyway tidied it all up, replaced the old soil and planted it up with the new cuttings.
The difference is amazing an I didn't realise how untidy it was.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon potting on all my tomatoes into their final buckets and left them out in the unheated greenhouse.
Two big jobs achieved just because the weather stayed good.

[nickdub]

I built the raised bed wall another couple of layers in the bright sunshine, started the little pond wall, replanted the strawberries that the dog unearthed, tidied up the compost that she's dug out of the bags, swept the patio, returned the flower trays that the cats had tipped over in the greenhouse and admired the cucumbers that have started growing! A bit sunburn on my back but otherwise I've managed to not burn to a crisp after a day in the sun!

My mother-in-law used to go out to her allotment with her poodle. One day when she got to the end of planting a row of potatoes she found the dog there looking very proud with a pile of spuds that had been carefully dug up and collected for her so they could start this new game again :-)

[self-contained]

Lovely day here too. I want to mow my lawn but I'm expecting a parcel and I don't think I'll hear the doorbell over the mower. So, just pottering in the garden this morning. So far, I've:

Moved anything non-tropical out of the sun room - they seem much happier in part shade outside right now
Sown white silver chard
Tidied up the remains of last year's bright lights chard - some good healthy looking plants still
Sown borage, carrots, turnips, salsify, marigolds, rocket, leeks, coriander, nasturtiums
Spent some time observing where the sun falls in the garden - I think I relied too much on what I could see from the house last year and I've already spotted one very sunny under-utilised spot - might even be the best place for my cucumbers
Had a nice cooling glass of lemon and parsley shrub while sitting in the sun
Picked through the chard off-cuts so I can use any edible bits in my tea tonight

I'm writing this while sat hunched on the concrete step up to my lawn. I really need a nice comfy garden chair!

[Chris11]

Mowed the lawn for the first time yesterday.

Looking at some old records, that's a fortnight later than last year, and more than a month later than 2012. Reinforces the feeling that everything will be late this year.

But the current good weather giving us at least temporary grounds for optimism that things might catch up

[bikermike]

first mow here too. lots of lovely compost-to-be. blimmin' allotment is a foot tall. wouldn't look so bad but they mowed the paths...

[AmateurOne]

Potted on Chillis (half as ran out of pots) into final pots. Planted tomatoes in growbags

[Florence Fennel]

Tidied the strawberries, moved the bean wives and speed seeds

[Florence Fennel]

Sowed not speed, although with this weather they might be fast

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

As planned, prep work for overseeding the lawn tomorrow to thicken the sward and deal with some bare and thin patches. Raked over the whole lawn to remove some of the brown dead stuff and expose the soil, mowed it down to 45mm then fork aerated the whole thing.

The turf was only laid in October but some areas were very compacted. I also think the landscapers skimped on some of the prep as part of the now turfed area which previously had concrete on feels solid about 100mm down, probably the remains of what ever sub base was below the concrete. No wonder that area doesn’t drain as well!

Anyway, I only had 45sqm to do but fork aerating a lawn is bloody hard work. Blister forming already!

Tomorrow: seed and fertiliser.

I’ve also noticed lots of black ants all over my broad beans. No signs of black fly yet, the ants seem to feeding on small brown spots on the underside of the leaf folds. Very odd!

Edit: just like this!
http://people.csail.mit.edu/kraemer/favas/

I guess those spots must be a source of nectar or something else the ants like.