The 'What I Did Today' Archive - 2007

[berksmike]

As the birds massacred some of my brassicas I have planted some surplus plants in the brassica bed and put a frame of fine netting over it....
Hope that keeps the pigeons and catipillars off....
Will still have to do evening slug patrol unless anyone has any amazing tips other than pellets for keeping the blighters away

Mike

[wellie]

I potted my Tomatoes on into bigger pots, and noticed that some of them have the beginnings of their first truss on them!
Also potted on the Chillies, Peppers and Melons.
And yesterday I planted out all my shallot and onion seedlings, and put a tent cloche over the top to 'harden then off in-situ'.
A few bulbs of last years' Garlic that's beginning to sprout got planted in my new permanent herb bed, along with some Pot Marigolds, Black Cornflowers, Borage, Lemon Thyme and Parsley. Mmm! It's going to the Pretty/Tasty Salads this year!
Thank you for listening,

[Kimbo]

I ordered 32 bags of compost from Wickes ready to get my raised beds set up this weekend.

[pigletwillie]

An afternoon has been well spent in the heated greenhouse at home. The last of the peppers and tomatoes were potted on and gave me the space finally to start sowing other stuff. Sweetcorn was sown in 2" pots (80) and lots of flowers were sown into 4" pots from which they will be pricked out individualy into 2" pots later. In addition lots of salads were sown, a few of each mind, also into modules so that they can be intercropped between slower growing crops. These will be sown successionally every fortnight or so to keep a contant trickle of fresh salads.

Finally, having learnt lessons over the last two seasons, now that the sweetcorn is sown, the mouse traps are set and loaded with chocolate. Unfortunately the greenhouse is close to our secondary log store and the mousels come in and eat all the shoots off.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Today after work I went to Wyevales to collect a free sachet of water retention stuff (hurrah!), to ask about the 5l sample packs of West+ compost (not in till the weekend - boo) and to ask if I could have the broken pallets that I'd spotted on the way in (no - serves me right for being polite, I could easily have just had them - double boo)

I went to the Hill and reinstated Billy Scarecrow, marvelled at the bird song and picked a huge handful of rhubarb.

Rhubarb in the oven, blog updated, wineglass in hand - pretty good evening!

[Peter]

Intentions versus reality.

I had intended to plant my onion sets, but my back insisted it did not want to get exposed to cold drizzle and biting wind.

So I went and bought ten bags of postcrete as I had run out, then retreated to the unheated, but sheltered greenhouse and pricked out my "Piglet Willies" aka banana shallots supplied by Pigletwillie.

From one hurried sowing in a single tray on 23rd Jan, I now have ninety-seven pots, ninety three with single seedlings and four each having an additional little sprout.

Moved the Climbing French bean seedlings from the inner sanctum (growbag house with single-tray heated propagator in) to the main bench.

Pricked out the nine best seedling Cayenne Chilli Peppers, discarded the rest and a whole mini-tray that had dried out , sowed another tray of sweet peppers. The whole lot staying in the sanctum.

Pricked out the eight nice little Butternut Squash seedlings and replaced them in the sanctum.

Turned the fifty nicely growing sweetcorn seedlings round, as they had a slight lean.

Watered everything, then did some site agent stuff to agree with Michelle how much of the available five rods she wanted.

[wellie]

Today, I did mostly...

Pot on my summer calabrese and mini-cauliflowers from three and a half inch pots into 5", and put brassica collars round the stems, as I lost a whole bed of them summer-before-last to cabbage root fly, and I was 'gutted'. It may seem unnecessary to grow on to this extent in pots, but I haven't finished extending the potager sufficient yet to plant them, and the area I have intended for them is the 'firmest ground' available, where the turf just needs to be skimmed, and any grubs, or other nasties, disposed of..., and I don't want the plants to suffer any check to their growth because I'm greedy, and want an early crop to harvest for the freezer, then be out of the way for growing something else gorgeous in its place very soon after.
Thank you for listening.

[Seabreeze]

Today, or was it yesterday? I sowed a row of Cabbage F1 Minicole. This year I intend to cover them right from the very start - well almost - with a new, double row, net tunnel bought this year after the wretched frustration of losing so many brassicas to Cabbage White caterpillars in the past.

Rather alarmingly, the green, plasticky netting, used in the construction of said tunnel, appears to be exactly the same material that I bought from B&Q for greenhouse shading! Anyway I've now swiped the cloche-net off the broad beans - that seem to be growing pretty well anyway, shade or no shade, and I will next site the fore-mentioned over the cabbages as they emerge. I am not going to bother to grow tall brassicas until I can get a decent movable frame organised. Is it possible to grow sprouts sort of 'on their sides'... I am tempted to wonder?

Anyway, much shovelling first thing this morning during the construction of raised bed no.5 (2.4 x 3m). I doubt if I'll get to use it seriously this season due to almost running out of compost.

God, it's getting dry here now. After several weeks of incessant rain, the lawn is cracking up and the pond is running low. I topped the pond (12' x 8' approx) up, running the hose over it while we had supper tonight... using my new Hozelock Ultra 6 spray gun (that arrived from Ebay today), cheaper than could be gotten locally.

Hopefully our latest wildlife addition will appreciate the re-oxygenated water: I had to go out after dark this evening when I shone a torch into the pond to check the frogs. There, scuttling among the goldfish was - our very first newt! The pond has been there for almost ten years and I have always hoped they might appear. I will check to see if this is Common Newt in my prized collection of Collins Wildlife field guides.

Anyway, as Bill and Ben would say,

'Goodbye'.

PS I must have seen re-runs as I was only just being thought of when the series first appeared 52/54....

[cheshire61]

Went to my plot

Today i went to my plot and then it started to pour down so i sat in my greenhouse having a cuppa i was the only one on the site but it was GREAT

[ysb33r]

Just soaked some beetroot seeds (Boltardy & Globe 2) so that I can sow them tomorrow morning.

[Kimbo]

Today I dug out two raised beds, re did the two I dug the other week because they werent high enough. Then I took delivery of 32 80L bags of compost which I moved from the roadside to the garden in just under an hour. Then I filled the four linkabord raised beds and covered with cardboard/plastic compost bags to keep the cats off.

Tomorrow (if I can get out of bed after all the digging today) I need to finish digging out another raised bed and fill it with compost. Then assemble to lots of staging for the plastic greenhouse. Repot my tomato seedlings and start off some more.

Need to buy some fleece and some enviromesh to make tunnels with the canopys I bought for my raised beds so that I can plant out my sutton broad beans and make room in the greenhouse for the next lot.

I think I need a miracle

[ysb33r]

Today I dug out two raised beds, re did the two I dug the other week because they werent high enough. Then I took delivery of 32 80L bags of compost which I moved from the roadside to the garden in just under an hour. Then I filled the four linkabord raised beds and covered with cardboard/plastic compost bags to keep the cats off.

I also added Perlite to my raised beds to improve the soil structure

[kirsty b]

Been busy since Tuesday. When I went back down late Tues afternoon, I found and intriguing note in my greenhouse. Someone had popped in to see the girls but helpfully did not put their name on it. The pink ink indicated that it was a female friend - leading to me ringing round and leaving garbled messages asking basically 'was it you?' My sister in law owned up to it today, said she left her name off on purpose to keep me guessing. It worked!

Back to the plot
I have got my Arran Pilots in the ground. Sedlings and young plants seem to be doing okay.
Have sowed Golden Acre cabbage, and tomato Garden Pearl. Pricked out Mixed capsicum peppers, Spinach and Marmande seedlings. Peas are coming through now, as are sweet peas.
Things ticking over nicely down there. Got into a routine of dig a bit, sow a few.
That way I don't get fed up with non stop digging. Having good tunes on the mp3 helps, going through batteries fairly quickly

Thanks
Kirsty

[ysb33r]

12:30 and I'm done with all I need to do on the lottie today. A number of people were out there today.

Managed to get some alfafa sowed to be occupy space and be used for green manure (until June/July when some brassicas will take over).

Also sowed beets (soaked overnight), and carrots (Purple Haze & Yellowstone).

Checked the radishes and hopefully the first bunch will be ready in 1-2 weeks. It seems these radishes sowed in late winter take about 8-10 weeks instead of the usual 3-6 weeks.

Mmm.. the sun is disappearing, and the wind is picking up. I just hope the new cloches stay in place ....

[madderbat]

Grateful thanks to Piglet Willie and Pigelette

This morning we went to Leicester and visited PW and Piglette who were so generous with their time and seedlings. This is the second time they have helped us and I love seeing their efforts.

We were lucky enough to watch a blue tit settling in the nesting box outside the patio door, which was a wonderful sight, and once again came away loaded down. This time with about six varieties of tomato, an aubergine and not only sweet pepper seedlings, but some chillies and Big Jim too.

Hopefully the parsnip wine won't explode before they can drink it!

Grateful thanks to you both.