What I did today 2020

[self-contained]

Made a special trip to Asda as the nearby Lidl don't have Ecover washing detergent. My first time in an Asda superstore (apart from a trip to top up my electricity) in many, many years. I managed to resist the seed section, but have picked up some flat leaf parsley, thyme and rosemary plants that were packed just in brown paper. They look really easy to pot up - just have to get round to it before they get too sad. Will try to motivate myself to do it this evening.

[annie8]

I would cover the Mara des Bois with something, I grow mine in a greenhouse up here, they are tender this far north.

Hadn't thought of that. I always think of strawberries as really robust to cold. Will cover with some fleece. Biggest challenge will be stopping it blowing away at the moment

[keat63]

Sowed about 30 x Snowball Cauliflower indoors, with a view to doing some more in maybe a months time.

[Can the Man]

Went to A&E with my ingrown toenail and got an appointment for Saturday to have it removed.

[Small pumpkin]

Potted on some chillies. Filled up more pots for potting on more tomorrow. Refilled fresh compost into heated propagator. ready for more seed sowing tomorrow.

[PyreneesPlot]

Turned 2 compost heaps & spread the usable stuff on this year's brassica bed after forking out vole & mole runs. Put the rest in 2 daleks as the wooden bins need repairing. Cursed my decision to put chopped rose prunings in the heap.

[Can the Man]

Went to the cinema with my eldest grandson, went to see Birds of Prey from DC comics, brilliant film.

[self-contained]

Potted up the primroses I bought a while back. I couldn't fit many per pot (my biggest containers are reserved for veg) so have ended up with several small containers, each with one or two primroses and then a fair bit of empty space. I'll try and add some smaller plants in with them, but not sure what to go for. In future, some snowdrops and narcissi might be nice, but I suspect it's a bit late for that this year.

I've checked in on my wormery and filled the top tray with loosely torn up paper. I've recently started feeding into a new tray, and the worms haven't really moved up there yet so there's quite a bit of uneaten food. I'll hold off feeding any more for a couple of weeks, and the tray full of paper helps guard against odours and fruit flies. It's a bit early for fruit flies, but it's horrid when they get into an indoor wormery and I'm keen to stop them getting in if I can.

I've also watered my indoor sowing station plants. Several of my summer lettuce mix seeds have sprouted, as well as all my cress, peashoots (mark 2), and radishes (for microgreens). The potting compost I sowed the cress into is behaving a bit oddly though. It seems to have formed a thin crust that the cress seedlings have lifted up like a roof, rather than growing through. I tried watering to see if that would help, but I suspect I may need to wait until it dries again then pick it off.

[Gillykat]

Temporarily potted up 6 Gijnlim asparagus crowns in a seed tray in greenhouse and put some fleece on top to stop them getting frosted/chilled.

Back at home ~ set out my Carolus spuds to chit on eggbox on north-facing kitchen windowsill.

[Aberdeenplotter]

I managed to get my blueberry bed pristine and made a start on the strawberry bed. All in a single hour too

[Aberdeenplotter]

Strawberry bed cleaned up, 4 ft or so of fresh ground dug over and raked level and a couple of dozen new plants put in place. 4ft or so at the other end of the bed will see the two rows I removed there today dug down and spuds planted in mid to late April. My strawberry bed moves around annually 4 ft at a time

[Bonjour]

Finished turning-in the remaining seaweed mulch on the potato patch. I'm very impressed with the size and numbers of earthworms that have been gradually pulling it below ground. Now I've finished the job for them, I'll let it settle for a bit, then plant my spuds once the chits are a bit bigger.

I also sowed some more Lyon Prizetaker leeks in a deep pot to make up for the last lot being a bit poor at germinating.

In the greenhouse, I've sown Fiorano spinach for baby leaves in a large pot and sown Tuscan Kale, calabrese and 3 varieties of cabbage, Dutchman, Kilazol and a few left-over Sarmarsh from last year in seed trays.

While in the greenhouse, I noticed my Accord early spuds are showing above ground in their 12" pots. I expect I'll be adding some more soil or compost by next weekend to "earth them up".

[Chestnut]

Bit of path work, washed another batch of pots and left them to dry, watered the winter salads in the GH, and popped some shallot sets in pots to start them off ;-)

[quanglewangle]

Finally planted out the Charlotte potatoes, 2 weeks later than previous two years.

Dug out second greenhouse bed; laid warming cable; and back-filled with with my patent mixture of MPC, sterile, top soil, and sharp sand.

[.commander]

Stuck my garlic in modules until the ground dries a little. Need to go dig but it's far too wet