The 'What I Did Today' Archive - 2007

[supersprout]

Lovely fillbasket piglet!
Nicely shaped carrots too - what variety are they please?

[pigletwillie]

They are D'Eysines Carrot and are very fat, just like me.

They are bought from the real seed company, here is their description:-

"This is a good productive old French variety , of the "half-long Nantes" type, that makes nice orange roots, more cylindrical than the others we have. It has been grown for many years in the region around Bordeaux. They are a good orange colour throughout, including the core, with a good flavour and medium-sweet taste. Early in the season they are long and thin much like any other orange carrot, but later they get incredibly fat, with a unique conical shape. We included it in our carrot trials for the first time in 2003, and in the end because it makes such very fat roots, it gave one of the highest yields of the lot! Traditional carrot from France. High yielding with good flavour

They and Chanteney are pretty much the only ones that I bother with. Both have a great taste, good yields and are easier to get good results with compared to long varieties.

[Earthbabe]

Well today we wrestled with our Lidl composter and failed. I will try and wrestle with the photo software to post some pics. So no more compost bins moved or sorted out yet. We have dug over, limed and covered what will be the brassica patch. It's huge by previous standards but we are aiming for more calabrese and broccoli this year as we all love it and it can get very expensive. I have planted some seeds in the propagator with the assistance of Miss E who is getting very good at planting even quite small seeds.

Harvested carrots (Autumn King), JAs, leeks.

[supersprout]

Thank you so much piglet, it was that stumpy conical storybook shape that appealed so much! That's another carrot on the list - I don't have a great deal of success with anything other than stump rooted carrot, so this would help break me in gently

[Peter]

I had a great day!

Daughter at a sleepover party.
Sone & I got chauffered to rugby, where in a convincing win over Bury St Edmunds he got two tries and praise from the coach, .
Chef was doing roast beef rolls, a first and so much nicer than beef burgers.
Got chauffered home, went staright up the allotment site and showed latest prospective tenant the last available plot, from someone giving up at end of March, then dug 20 sq yds of one of my plots, finished by pruning all the herb plot.
Another plotholder took three of my ancient blackcurrants that I'm getting rid of, so I did not even have to dig them up, just four left to dispose of.
Gaynor showed up and agreed to clear the end bit of her plot where I need to get in to do the fence.
Took the dog for an hour long walk, came home, had a hot bath and was presented with a roast leg of lamb dinner with lashings of good beer.

Now to the forum.

[kirsty b]

Went to Focus today and treated myself to a mini greenhouse, will use it for my trays of seedlings until its time to put them in the ground.
Went down to the allotment and found that rats had burrowed into my daleks and piled up the excavated compost around them. Didn't mind too much, as they did half the job of mixing the compost for me!
Moved them to another part of the allotment and weeded around the broad beans. They are doing fine, but my overwintering peas have died a death, and the only ones I have left are the two I left under cover.
Going down again tomorrow, plan to have a bonfire as the brambles have dried out quite nicely now and should hopefully burn without too much fuss/smoke. Going to break up a few pallets to build edging for the beds and start getting some digging done.

Kirsty

[Amanda1]

I finally have something to add to this thread! Got my garlic in at last, cut down my rasberries to ground level and, best of all, dug up 3 of the most enormous, perfect parsnips! I have clay soil and so I was amazed they had made it (I'd actually forgotten about them as all the foliage had died away!). I've made parsnip soup and the rest is for parsnip mash with my dinner tonight. There's probably about nother 3 in the ground, if I can find them, they can be for next week's Sunday roast. Roll on Spring....

[Bex]

I took the car to the garage and while I was waiting for the phone call to go and collect the car I did some studying. Car was ready at 11, not too serious just needed the speed sensors cleaning so picked it up and then went to lottie for a couple of hours. Managed to do some much needed weeding. Cleared the onions and garlic with my new onion hoe (£2.49 from Ryton yesterday), weeded the broad beans and my sons strawberries. Dug over a couple of beds and planted my shallot sets, also put my red baron sets in, they only cost me pence so not too bothered if its a bit early and I lose a few.

Everything aches now, certainly made me realise how unfit i am.

[NEWTO THE PLOT]

my new seeds and potato's have arrived don't you just love coming home to find a surprise.

[pigletwillie]

As the tomatoes that were sown last week were at risk of going leggy in the kitchen they were pricked out into pots and moved into the heated greenhouse. About 200 are done with about 80 to go, some aubergines were also pricked out as were the first 160 banana shallots. There are plenty more of those to do over the next couple of evenings. The peppers and chillies, notoriously slow to germinate if you dont bother with a propogater (I dont) are just starting to show.

[Poledragon]

Finally managed to get out into the garden, to discover snowdrops everywhere! Started clearing the benches in the greenhouse, stacked up all the salvageable bamboo canes and inspected the coupke of PSB's that survived last year's neglect. Looks like we may get a half decent crop this spring!

Flled some modules with compost read for onions and shallots, but by then had had enough of standing up and had to come back indoors for a cuppa and a sit down Did manage to drive down to the lottie though, and was pleased to find my shed still intact!

[angie loves veg]

what a good morning so far - I turned all three heaps (a metre cubed each), all moved along one box to the left, then spread the 'cooked' over anything and everything!

started cleaning my tools too - a job I always know i should do, but never seem to get around to. anyhow, my spade and fork are now clean and resharpened.

time for a spot of lunch

[Lesley Jay]

I have had a fabulous afternoon with Nicos!!!!

[Nicos]

Well thankyou LJ !!
Compliment returned!! .....
So what's the bidding for gossip on E-bay GYO??????

[BayViewPlot]

Just stopped aching from digging 4m worth of ground for summer fruiting raspberries over the weekend!

Worth a well deserved beer, I think.