What I did today 2018

[Small pumpkin]

Bob strimed the veggie patch. I raked it all up.
Cleaned the outside of all 3 tunnels.
Went fishing

[Jonny.D]

Fed the tortoise, I swear he thinks he's eating me, dead headed everything & collected a few more seed pods from the Hollyhocks & Dahlias.

[bramble]

Watered Tom's and peppers in the greenhouse.
Dead headed the dahlias and Sweet peas.
Weeding as usual.
Potted on some strawberry plants that were being sold off at half price. Lots of runners to make new plants for the coming year.
Picked lots of tomatoes and gave some to neighbours.
Picked another dish of blackberries.
Packed some more Tom's in the freezer.
Definitely need to grow less next year,

[Jay-ell]

I'm not doing the smegging Berkley method.

Finally got the nuts off the pigsty to take it apart and make a compost bin from it. Used a blow torch and spanners on two of them but the third needed an angle grinder and hammer. Only took me two years to get around to it.

OK, I'll not have to build any more compost bins for the Berkley method so that's not why I'm not going to do it.

The next two and a half hours were spent turning the manure pile. I'm not going to be doing that every two days. It can make do with a bit of prodding when I'm down and a turn maybe once a week or so. I don't think that I'll need the compost in 18 days time anyway. Especially not a tonne of it.

The other day I installed a solar panel onto the pumpkin. It was the best place to put it where it would get sun within cable length.


This is connected to the solar power water butt pump sitting on the blue barrel.


The pump has a hose running to the pond which is a bit low


Done a bit of weeding.

Done a bit of harvesting.

Done my back in.

Went home.

[Small pumpkin]

Put bits of slab under lots of squash and pumpkins so they don't get soggy bottoms.
Repotted 5 varieties of mint and potted up lots of mint cuttings and rosemary seedlings.

[chillithyme]

-dug up only 2 lots of potatoes, gave up the ground was like cement, rain tonight, hopefully will make it easier tommorow
-sewing of spinach matador and beetroot mix of left over seeds
-harvesting
-weeding
-watering

[Jay-ell]

Managed to do a whole day on the plot without having anything to do with manure - something of a rarity lately.

Started off digging up the nettles and docks which have taken over the back of beyond since I dug up the shallots. Despite the small amount of rain the soil was still lovely and moist.

Next I dug five planting holes and, despite the moisture in the soil flooded them and let it soak a couple of times to put more moisture under the plants.

Planted a Dwarf Quince, Dwarf Mulberry, Patio Medlar, Goji Berry and Saskatoon. Mulched 3 of them with cardboard / newspapers and straw then ran out of papers. Also planted a Kiwi Jenny at the other side of the greenhouse frames to the Issai, a Tayberry and a possibly dead blackberry.

Pumped more water out of the blue barrel and swapped it for a slimline waterbutt.

Came home and saw that the compost fairy had dropped off two big bags of grass - this is very timely as tomorrow I plan on turning the compost pile which is very carbon heavy and needs greens.

P. S. Also showed the photo of my cherries to my neighbour so he knows what a harvest is supposed to look like.

[chillithyme]

-sowings of carrot and swede
-watering neighbours plot
-harvesting some more Charlotte potatoes and removing weeds as I went along
-harvesting
-tied up falling over tomatoes

[Jay-ell]

Started off today turning the compost pile. I had struggled using the garden fork the other day so I bought a long handled manure fork and it seems to make it easier. I didn't realise how big the pile was - it had built up in dribs and drabs the last couple of months.

Did work on the manure pile - but only a little bit. It had started to push the front out so I dug out just enough to let me push it back and hammer in the tree stake again.

Took another bag of newspapers down and mulched the trees and brambles from yesterday.

Realised that there's enough space to plant out 4 currant bushes. As it happens I happened to have 2 blackcurrants and a gooseberry languishing in pots as well as a redcurrant which grew from from last years prunings which were just stuck in the bed (underneath which were an additional 3 little redcurrant plants) so that's that area sorted. Just 3 little redcurrants and a gooseberry growing in the path to rehome.

Watered - mostly the garden but also myself. Must fix that hose.

Planted out French tarragon, lemon grass, Vietnamese coriander, bergamot, day lily and society garlic.

Harvested a bit then went home.

[Gillykat]

Heavy showers on and off today so no jobs done on the plot. Yesterday though....

Got fed up of feeling bad about lack of jobs done so I made a start on clearing weeds and spent two hours pulling up nettles, willowherb and sow thistle and by the end it WAS looking a lot better Will finish off the nettles along the side of the shed tomorrow (and pray they're not actually holding the shed up!!!) and next week can make a start on digging a bed for some brassica seedlings and, in October, some Asparagus.

Before & After

[1Bee]

Saturday was actually a not-very-rainy day so I managed to get a lot done.

Cleared out the compost bay where I've been storing cardboard and a few piles of weeds. Picked out the growing weeds and started layering weeds, chopped up pea vines, chopped up potato haulms, mildewed curcurbit leaves, shredded paper, ripped up cardboard, a few handfuls of lime, some more weeds, some comfrey, a couple of handfuls of chicken manure. Then I watered it, and topped it off with sheet cardboard and black plastic. my first every properly constructed compost heap. I'm so proud...

Forked over where the peas had been.

On Sunday I nipped down and harvested another couple of kilos of beans, runner and french. Loads more to come. Spent the afternoon blanching beans for the freezer and making courgette moussaka...

There's lots more to do, but at least I feel I've made progress.

[bikermike]

had a quiet weekend - watering has gone from 6 cans round the garden plus the plot to 1 can... (for the greenhouse)

Planted out some mangetout to see if they grow. Interesting that the ground was still dry when you dug down one-toilet-roll-tube's length (not a recognised scientific measure, I'll grant you). and picked a big bowl of blackberries that we had for dessert after lunch and dinner. and then had to hose the small person down...

[Small pumpkin]

Ripped out a few thing that have finished.
Weeded 2 beds
Did a bit of harvesting.
Put everything I ripped out and a big pile of other stuff I've been collecting through the shredder.

[bramble]

Dug over some of the garden.
Rooted more strawberry runners.
Dead headed Sweet peas and dahlias.
Chopped up some peppers for the freezer.
Picked 2 containers of blackberries and they went into the freezer for later.
Watered thectoms and chillis in the greenhouse.
Took granddaughter to the park for a walk by the river and then for some ice cream.
All in all had s very productive day.

[Jay-ell]

Compost Fairy dropped off 8 bags of grass cuttings - he's off on holiday for 3 weeks so this will be the last this month.

Emptied 2 compost bins that weren't working and layered the contents with the grass clippings in the empty big compost bin. Turned the main compost pile on top. Loads of life on the outside - must have seen a dozen different types of spiders.

Felt something on my head and brushed it off - a spider 2 inches wide, 3 inches long and jet black. What a beauty.

Next turned the manure into the new empty bin which went faster than last time.

Managed it all with the manure fork and mattock (for scraping it together) so I'm glad I got it.

Picked beans, chard, cucumbers then nearly done my back in picking the courgettes. That's what happens if you skip a visit to the plot and it rains.