What I did today 2020

[bikermike]

(well, yesterday but anyway...)
built a bean frame out of angle-iron (I've made it a bit tall which will make putting it in interesting... sprayed it with Lidl "hammer-effect" green paint which has gone remarkably well on rusty iron).
potted on various tomatoes
finally started a bean assay on my new compost.
planted out beetroot.
Turned my compost heap (well, 2-3 and took a bit of the middle of 1 into 2).

It's all starting to happen out there.

Built a trebuchet as well, but that's not strictly garden...

[woodlouse]

- Sowed a line of carrot seeds next to my over wintered beans. Only reason because I could see a slot that was not already taken, acording to my master plan.... which involves a sheet of A4 paper and lots of scribbles. Not really bothered as they were free seeds, but if they seem to be doing well I'll thin them out and give 'em some love.

- spent a good few hours assaulting the sprawing ivey that has grown over my fence and is attacking my greenhouse. Gotta respect the way it seems to have started growing up the back of the greenhouse and targeting the metal clips used to keep the glass panes in place. I hate it, but have to give it props for finding the best possible way to annoy me today. Shout out to my ivey nemesis.

- Started snipping out my chili plants with much guilt. Everything I have read tells me to do so and is good, but I feel like a monster and a traitor to my babies.

- Planted my initial batch of sunflowers out and hope they do well. It's on you guys now. I held off as long as I could, but it's getting beyond a joke. Got a second batch if the first get a frosty bit.

- Enjoyed a cup of tea in the sun with my cat chilling. eventually she went for a poo, and I soon followed suit but inside.

- Still flicking through my seed box to hopefully find something I missed and can sow tomorrow. No luck so far.

[ameno]

More digging of the big bed.

I also sowed some more broccoli seeds, as half of the ones I planted out have died due to something eating the stem.
They are not severed all the way through, but just completely ringed all the way around the stem, so I have ruled out cutworms. I think it's either flea beetle (do they eat the stem?), tiny slugs, or black ants, which are nesting right under several of the plants.

[ameno]

Potted moremore beans. Also potted up four more rooted sweet potato cuttings, and took four more cuttings and put them in water (probably the last, since the parent plants look on their last legs). Assuming these latest four take, I'll have 16 sweet potato plants. Possibly too many...

Weeded around the onions.
Dug some more of the big bed.

I also noticed a lot of interesting seedlings coming up in my new asparagus bed. I brought a load of garden compost from home to improve the soil, so the seeds must be from that.
There are dozens of tomato seedlings, a sunflower, and at least half a dozen melons. If they survive on their own until mid-May then I may transplant them elsewhere to grow.

[ameno]

Potted up some more sprouted runner beans, and one sprouted squash seed. I'm running out of both space and pots...

Started digging the other half of the big bed. The soil was rock hard; hope we get some rain soon. Also lined the bottom edge with roof tiles.

Thinned my new Williams pear tree, which has set masses of fruit, despite only being planted in February. I know you shouldn't really let them fruit at all in the first year, but I always like to let them have one or two if they flower, partly to sample them and partly to check it's the right variety.

[jayjaybee]

When did you put them to chit, and how warm are you keeping them? If you can keep them 25c+ then they should sprout withing 3 days.
The mould is not necessarily a problem. Half of mine go mouldy within 48 hours, but they still sprout. I think it's just because they have so much sugar in them, and the mould is growing on that.

Thanks Ameno, they were last year's seed, which I thought would be ok. Chitting in warm airing cupboard on damp kitchen towel for 3 days as I have done for more years than I like to admit. Have put a second lot to chit, we'll see what happens. Those that did pop are now in root trainers.

[SarrissUK]

I have potted on 19 of my 22 varieties of tomato and I am officially out of room in the house. I've taken one of each variety and put them in the cold frame along with the sweetcorn that germinated. Sowed more sweetcorn, minipop and glass gem. I sowed the alpine strawberry seeds from VC in the latest seed swap (thank you!), two kinds of sunflowers, and potted on my tomatillos. Lots done, now coffee

[rary]

Planted up some onions half in ground treated with chicken manure, the other half in ground treated with some limestone and wood Ash, have also planted them closer than normal, just adapting a bit from the SFG.

[ameno]

Inspected chitting sweetcorn found furry black mould and very few sprouted, disappointed. Weeded, obviously. Sowed various courgettes/squashes.

When did you put them to chit, and how warm are you keeping them? If you can keep them 25c+ then they should sprout withing 3 days.
The mould is not necessarily a problem. Half of mine go mouldy within 48 hours, but they still sprout. I think it's just because they have so much sugar in them, and the mould is growing on that.

[jayjaybee]

Inspected chitting sweetcorn found furry black mould and very few sprouted, disappointed. Weeded, obviously. Sowed various courgettes/squashes.

[burnie]

Sowed more carrots this morning, wish the overnight temps would warm up a bit though

[Containergardener]

Lots of weeding and planting up

[Martin H]

Yesterday I finally got round to putting up a solid framework to restrain my autumn raspberries.

[ameno]

Took the second and final sack of cherry shreddings to the allotment. The compost bin is now almost full.
Also, I stuck my hand into the bin, and the centre of it is genuinely too hot to touch for more than a second or so. It should rot pretty damn quickly at that rate.

I then finished edging one half of the big bed with roof tiles, and dug over the small bed where I shall be planting my oca this year. The plants are coming along nicely in pots, so I'll probably plant them out next week.

[ameno]

Took one sack of cherry shreddings to the allotment and dumped it in the compost bin there (the two at home are full).
While I was there, I watered some stuff, earthed up the potatoes, did a little weeding, and sowed some nasturtium seeds in the gaps in the raspberry bed.

At home, I potted on some sweet pepper seedlings, potted up some tomatillo seedlings, and potted up some more seeds I had been sprouting on damp tissue:
-6 more butter beans
-3 black runner beans (I saved these from the crop last year. I'm hoping them might produce black beans themselves)
-1 Marina di Chioggia squash
-6 Pink Banana squash (I had to peel the seed coat to get these to sprout, as they stubbornly weren't doing anything, and so I thought the rather tough seed coat may be to blame. 48 hours later, they all had roots growing).