What I Did Today Archive 2008

[Mrs Dobby]

I worked today, bt Mr D was off to the plot all day, so I met him there from work!

He's been busy again, has cleared the small bed next to the fartichokes, another of the larger beds in the middle of our original plot (only 2 left to dig now!), done a lot of weeding and hoeing, tied up the toms in the greenhouses, sowed final successin of mange tout peas, watered and had a nice day pottering around! I got a load of piccies of the plots and uploaded them to the blog, so its looking good on our plots now! We're on holiday for 2 weeks in a weeks time, so looking forwards to getting the plots absolutely pristine (and to a few days away camping with friends)!

We also harvested the first pepper, first courgette, more broad beans and mange tout, which all went into a lovel rissotto for tea!

[Snadger]

Won't be able to get to lottie tomorrow as there's a cycle race and all the roads will be blocked off!
Decided to bunk off work early today instead!

Watered all indoor plants first as I hadn't been for a couple of days. Did a bit of sideshooting and tying of tomatoe plants. Ate a few indoor strawberries. Pulled up half a bed of garlic that was keeling over and planted calabrese where I took it out.
Whilst I was there the tame tree surgeon arrived with another load of woodchip so after unlocking the gate for him I gave him a hand with tipping. Asked him to bring another load next week if he could!

Finally got around to planting my Ne Plus Ultra and Purple podded peas which I'd saved from last year. Decided to put them either side of an arbour I've built so had to pull up a few recently planted spuds and some garlic to make room. Added a couple of buckets of compost to the area and covered with mesh to keep mice out. Had a few blue lake frenchies left so mixed a few of these in with peas.
Collected a couple of barrow loads of chippings from the pile by the gate and added them to some more paths. Put old grass seed sacks down first tho to keep the weeds down.
Was glad to see my maincrop carrots have finally germinated and my sweetheart cabbage should be ready to start picking in a weeks time.

Finished the day by tipping out one of my early potato pots I started in the greenhouse and along with a few sprigs of mint had enough for supper. One of the other plot holders also kindly donated some calabrese as mine isn't ready yet!

[gemlady]

Spent all afternoon (1st day of my weeks holiday ) lugging lumps of concrete from DD's back garden to her front garden to fill in before putting sand and gravel down. Have got to go and water plants as neglected over past couple of days but don't know if I can muster the energy.

[Mrs Dobby]

Got to the plot at a reasonable time this morning, and came home at gone 7pm! Fed all the greenhouse crops, hand weeded the mares tail and bindweed (which finally seems to be getting a bit weaker), then prepared one of the last 3 beds and planted out 2 rows of turnip, 3 rows of swede (3 types) and another 3 rows of parsnips! Moved some of the comfrey plants from the half plot and planted them into the small bed in the middle of our original plot, then gave everything a really good water - it took an hour and a half just to water!!

The first earlies are looking good on the half plot, so I'm going to harvest some for tomorrows tea, along with some more broadies, mange tout and courgettes!

[shirlthegirl43]

Levelled off the brassica area that Madmax kindly finished digging for me last weekend. Planted out the rather miserable looking cauli and cabbages that I grew from seed - think they waited too long so will have to see how they come along now. Spent hours pottering - weeding the patio (hasn't been done for 2 years and I couldn't even remember what pattern I laid the slabs in) - emptied out some terracotta pots whose contents had long since succumbed to something and planted up the two lavenders I bought at Homebase last weekend for 75p each (originally 6.99) after cutting the dead bits back to new shoots and generally taking out all the rubbish bits - hope they perk up now - they certainly look better. Still need to mow the hay field that sometimes passes for a lawn.

[Wren]

Spent a pleasant day wandering in around the gardens at Wakehurst place ( the sister garden to Kew gardens) Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Visitor Information for Wakehurst Place and grabbed myself a couple of Horse Radish plants from the shop there. I love horse radish and this will be great for chutneys and sauce.

Wren

[Garden_girlie21]

Yesterday, I spent ages at my 'plot' (It's actually my elderly next door neighbour's garden, but since they can't manage it all, they let me garden in some of it). It's funny, when I type the list of things i did, it doesn't seem like much, but I was there from half past 1 till about 9pm, with only breaks for a cup of tea and dinner briefly.

I weeded our entire potato bed (with a little help from mum), and mulched around the actual plants with grass clippings. I'm now waiting for the next load of grass clippings, as I really want to mulch some more!! I planted out some courgettes and Italian summer squash/courgettes/pumpkins. It depends on what stage you harvest them at, you can treat them as different things at different stages. The great thing is, I think they're immune to slugs and snails. There were slime marks over a couple of leaves, but nothings been eaten!!! Woohoo!!

I also dug over another area for some pointed summer cabbage (yes they are a bit late). I them planted 16 of them (the strongest plants) and collared them. I then build a cage with fleece to stop butterflies getting in there - not completely finished, but will finish it off today.

Then I went home.

Jennifer

[Flummery]

Yesterday I planted out the last of my courgette, patty-pan and butternut squash. all now big enough to throw off slug attack. Tied up the tall peas again - Lancahsire Lad and Latvian - from the Heritage Seed Library. Why's it called a Library? We don't read them. Had a second go at cross pollinating some peas. I would love to see someone do this. It's not quite the same reading a book!
I had another session on the bark path in the front garden. I started removing a nasty, mossy, scrubby little grass path and putting membrane and bark chippings down in about April. Job got put on hold when veg took over! Back to the garden reclamation!

[Snadger]

Cut up numerous 25Kg grass seed bags that I salvaged for to use as a permeable layer under wood chippings on lottie path. Applyed a thick layer of wood chippings on path (about 50' long)
Planted out a few onions I had left, planted Tagetes around tomato plants, planted cornflowers in border plus annual chrysanths and opium poppies (for edible seeds!)
I sprinkled a packet of mixed annuals and some nasturtium seeds around. They've got two chances.
Tipped out another bucket of tatties and pulled a few sprigs of mint for supper.
Did loads of hand weeding and watering and left about 6pm!

PS Forgot, I also planted Cardoon and Sea Kale along with perennial Gypsophila!

[Mrs Dobby]

Harvested the first batch of overwintering Garlic today (the cloves bought from the GC rather than the cloves saved from last years crop - which are still growing on storng), 44 bulbs, the majority reasonably sized, with a couple of large ones (that will be replanted in September for next years crops) and a few smaller, but still usable!

Also harvested a few first early spuds for tea, another lettuce, more mange tout and 2 more courgettes. Didnt stayy too long as Miss D has an exam tomorrow and needs to be revising (and of course she forgot to bring her revision books with her! D'oh!)

[lynda66]

looked at veg patch, dug a bit, looked at veg patch, dug a bit more, looked at veg patch, dug a bit more, looked at veg in airing cupboard dug a bit more, built a new compost bin, looked at veg patch, laid a couple of paths from bricks, found when digging over the garden (i think it used to be a brick factory or something ) looked at veg patch again, broke a nail, finished digging another 2 beds,got a blister and a huge bruise on my leg where i bashed it with a fork, checked veg once again ......... i can definitely confirm ....... nothing has sprouted above the surface yet lol ..... though a couple of broccoli seeds in my airing cupboard had risen to the top of their pots ...... and they are busy germinating ..... it's so exciting, wish i hadn't buried them again now lol

Lynda xx

[Winged one]

Went to the plot for "an hour" yesterday. Had to buy slug pellets en route (cue half an hour wandering around tescos getting a couple of "useful" things). Arrived and got chatting to neighbour whose plot I have to go through to get to mine.

Finally arrived at mine. Dug over bed for carrots (took almost 2 hours!) and planted 2 short rows, with some radishes and spring onions. Was going to cover with fleece, but need assistance as the hoops weren't working well and I was under serious time pressure by now. Planted 1 each of butternut squash, pumpkin spooktacular and pumpkin Dill's Atlantic Giant amongst the remaining spring cabbages. Need to pull the rest of cabbages next weekend to plant the other plants (1 each of both pump's, and 5 more BNS's).

Also planted my 10 pots of sweetcorn from home amongst the 4 (of 15) seeds which germinated in situ - I left those pots which had 2 come up (2 seeds per pot and 12 pots - 2 no shows but about 7 doubles) as 2 together rather than risk losing the seed off the plant.

Had a quick harvest - few broad beans, 1 cabbages, couple of peas, 5 onions and 7 new spuds (from a quick rummage - will start digging next weekend as entertaining the IL's!!). Noted parsley has all gone to seed, and pulled a lot of bolted winter lettuce.

Then dashed home, VERY late, for bringing the toddler to a birthday party - where I got to sit and enjoy a lovely glass of vino in the sunshine (had been cold and windy, threatening rain, earlier).

Hope to have an evening weeding during the week - onion beds need a bit of attention, and so does fruit area, and I want to sow some more peas - might get another night's worth of spuds while I am there. And next weekend, apart from showing IL's, hope to have the OH up to help out for a couple of hours general tidying up (pull rest of cabbages and caulis, plant out squashes, plant out some lettuce and beetroot from cells and spinach from pots at home, start digging spuds in earnest, cover the carrots with fleece and harvest all the broad beans ebfore they go over, will freeze any spares, and clip the paths as the grass is starting to take over a bit).

[Winged one]

Last night, I mainly watered my garden. But I also planted out 3 pots (5 plants) of sweetcorn minipop and one pumpkin spooktacular (and hope it doesn't grow toooo rampantly!!). And I potted on the peppers big banana as they had stopped growing in the small pots - 8 in total, 2 staying indoors on the playroom windowsill and the other 6 going outdoors on the patio.

If I get time tonight, I will be planting a couple of coffee cups worth of peas to bring to the plot in a couple of weeks and possibly some mangetout for the garden as well.

Still no sign of my latest T&M order being sent though (not charged to CCard yet) so I may not get a second crop of broad beans this year after all.....

[jackie j]

Today .
Planted 12 spring greens plants
Moved two butternut squash
Planted sweetcorn
Picked my first courgettes 4 in total
Picked strawberries
Picked broadbeans
Pulled up my onions
Tommorow I need to get some more netting from the market if there is any left to cover my spring greens and to plant my Calabrese.

[Snadger]

Today I had a flying visit to the allotment after work, watered everything that needed watering indoors and cut my first sweetheart cabbage!