What I did today 2018

[1Bee]

A few days' worth:-

Weeded the brassica tunnel and earthed up the sprouts. Transplanted some self-seeded borage, but they didn't look very happy about it.

Harvested some charlottes, after tickling them suggested there might be some baby tatties ready. In fact found plenty of good sized ones, which made me happy. Also harvested baby carrots, radishes, onions, lettuce, mizuna, mustard and cut sweet peas and my first ever dahlia blooms.

Weeded and mulched the parsnips.

Took another cut of comfrey and filled a milk bottle with some for feed. Still need to chop up the rest, but interrupted by boys and visiting plot holders.

Weeded raised beds.

Planted out some more nasturtiums and a handful more sunflowers. This makes 17 or so, dotted around the plot. Eeep. Sowed some carrots.

[muck lover]

I watered and watered and watered in polytunnel. Boy it was dry.
I evicted from polytunnel troughs and some baskets of strawberries that are done for the year. Chopped off the leaves. It always looks like a massacre but I’m hoping they will grow some nice fresh leaves now. Tidied the strawberry beds in the polytunnel. I could have done better with those this year. I didn’t mulch and didn’t water enough so the yield wasn’t great.
I sowed some carrot fly resistant carrot seeds where I lifted garlic. I planted leeks and leaf celery in a small raised bed outside and hope I can keep it watered enough.
There’s an attack of pink coloured greenfly in my small polytunnel. Beneficial insects can’t really get in there and it shows. Going to spend some time there tomorrow squishing.
Fed my worms which all look very happy and active but they don’t seem to be getting along well enough with each other to make babies.

[elsie-scot]

Dug up some self sown seedlings and a few plants from front and transplanted into back garden. They had crammed themselves in so much, that the 1ft by 1ft space I took them from filled more than double. Love free plants.

Did some weeding and we picked some of our woodland strawberries, so tiny but oh so yummy.

DD did some weeding in the school tattie bed this afternoon, hmm, plenty weeds at home for her to pull!

[chillithyme]

-pulled up last of the broadbeans plants,removed the weed membrane it was grown through
-hand trimmed grass on path edge and allotment boundary edge
-harvest strawbs,broadbeans,raspberries
-watering bone dry allotment, no proper rain for weeks, over a month atleast

[Small pumpkin]

More chilli pollinating
Fed chillies,tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, aubergine, squash, pumpkins courgettes & sweet corn.
Weeded 2 beds
Did some strimming.
Raised the net on the squash and pumpkins in the compost bin.

[chillithyme]

-secured new bean frame ready for planting bean plants
-weeded bed from where broadbeans were removed from
-watering

[Small pumpkin]

Pollinated chillies
Fed chilli grows
Tied up some chillies

[veggiechicken]

Picked raspberries and strawberries, some disappeared on the way to the house
Pulled out some nettles and cut back brambles alongside the pear tree. Spotted more pears on there now that the tree is visible.
Weeded a flower bed - that's what I call it anyway. Most people would say its a buttercup bed.
Thinned out some baby apples..........again.
Watered the tomatoes and cut off the bottom leaves.

[elsie-scot]

Not much time today but dug up a large trays worth of self seeding seedlings ( there's a beginnings of a tounge twister). Some are quite small so don't think they would have survived.

[chillithyme]

-planted climbing French beans
-lay down weed control membrane to grow through
-planted 4 tomatoes through weed membrane
-planted soya plants through weed membrane
-planted onion sets in the hope of getting spring onion type onions
-watering a lot

[Jonny.D]

watered chillis in greenhouse & Dahlias in pots, pollinated sunflowers & amaryllis, dead headed dahlias & roses and squeezed dahlia pods

[Jay-ell]

Hot day today - clear blue skies.

Nice surprise down at the plot today - the self fertile SOLO kiwi flowers have opened

Bees and other pollinators were busy with them (although I don't think that'll make a difference). Hurrah! Hussar! (lifts leg, slaps thigh)

Only three years since I planted and these are the first 30 flowers it's had. Now to see if they set fruit and ripen.

Planted out another kiwi vine - this time it's a hardy kiwi Issai. Where as others may plant a greenhouse on top of a KIWI I've planted the kiwi to train up the frames of 2 glassless greenhouses and hopefully train it as an espalier along the sides and over the roof.

Watered.

Planted out some dwarf peas.

Built a trellis from hooped bamboo for the mashua to grow up - it was reaching for the sky so should make it's way up it quite easily.

Watered

Sown kale, carrots, parsnip, chervil, purslane, fennel, chicory, radichio, lettuce (loose leav & little gem) and a handful of other seed packets as a mixed poly culture - all seeds dumped into a bucket with a handful of compost and this is mixed thoroughly. A bit more compost is added gradually and mixed thoroughly to make sure the seeds are distributed through the entire bucket. This was then sprinkled over the bed.

Watered

Planted out 4 sweet potatoes into a long raised bed. Lets see if I get any tubers from them. Must remember that I can eat the leaves.

Watered

Squash have failed to come through this year so I transplanted a giant pumpkin from the giant pumpkin bed as it was going to be taken out anyway. Added a cucumber to the bed.

Watered

Harvested the Oerprie - nice little crop and a lot of brood balls to sow in September.

Watered

Planted out the (almost) cleared winter allium bed. Supposed to be a brassica bed - only had room for the sprouts (it's 4' x 14' - that's a lot of sprouts).

Watered

As the yacon had failed to do anything I cleared the weeds off that bed intending to put the rest of the brassicas in there - found a dahlia and a yacon shoot emerging from the soil. Ok the purple yacon may have survived after all, wonder if the rest of the plants are going to come through, I'll look for somewhere else to put the brassicas.

Watered

Watered the JAs, the figs, the onions, the currants, the orchard and anything else that didn't move.

Tomorrow I plan on watering.

[Small pumpkin]

Bit of a random day.
Pollinated chillies.
Wormed chickens.
Made meringues
Watered chillies.
Got our boat back in the water.
Continued the fight against aphids on my chillies with neem oil.
Harvested veggies.

Added seaweed to the liquid feed bin

[chillithyme]

-potted up globe artichoke plants
-sowing of: runner beans,climbing French beans,dwarf French beans, mallow musk,corn cockle, ox eye daisy,campanula
-hosing down of aubergine plants to remove pests that won't leave, will try neem oil next few days, not too sure how, but will give it a go
-rearranging/juggling pots
-planted gladioli white peacock, a bit late but il see what happens

[bikermike]

Well, over the weekend to be precise
- sawed up my wood stash for shed repairs and making some new raised beds. The cut bits are on end in a bath of wood preservative.
- repointed a wall (a good job I did, as a chunk of the end came away in my hand).
Not much gardening, but I did manage to plant on all my remaining Romano peppers and do lots of watering. Have had to use the tap a few times, as I have emptied my rainwater reserves, but a paddling pool fill on Saturday meant at least the majority of the water was re-use.
- Topped up the pond with the last of the rainwater

This morning I went to the plot before work (in my suit!) and harvested the mangetoute and do a quick water