What I Did Today Archive 2008

[Snadger]

Snadger, you're just showing off now .....................................

Guilty as charged!

[wellie]

We're not supposed to 'chat' on this thread folks, so I won't.
Haze - freeze as is, then thin a little when you defrost it....

Trizers and I harvested baby Savoy Cabbages and Purple Sprouts for our lunch today, Leeks yesterday, because we're not greedy or at all 'show-offy' like the rest of you, she lied.....
Made shed-loads (12 jars) of Blackcurrant Jam this evening, and doing Redcurrant Jelly at the minute..... no peace for the wicked!

[momol]

Today, managed to harvest some nero di toscano and 3 zlata radish ( for salad mix) when the rain stop pouring down. Collect the remaining of falling oak leaves and set them in black plastic bag ( to be composted). topping up some compost with bunny and cavy waste and checking the potato seeds ( the HBR and SB are chitting, the arielle seeds are starting to chit and the Nicola still has no sign).

Momol

[hypnophil]

today i worked... again!...
but i did spot that my leeks have germinated and are poking up to say hi along with my peas,
and yesterday i got some exciting seeds from a company and also off 2 other grapes...
it's like christmas all over again, but without the stress.

[Flummery]

Yesterday I defrosted the freezer (not a long job - only got a fridge freezer) harvested green cabbage, parsnips, artichokes for tea and extra artichokes for soup - made today. I invented marmalade bread and butter pudding - go on, try it, you know you want to!

The sweet peas are all leaping out of their root-trainers so they're going into the greenhouse from the kitchen sill.

[FoxHillGardener]

Yesterday I finally finished double digging my first raised bed. 1m wide 4.5 m long. I'm now eagerly awaiting the delivery of my seed potatoes to go in it. Also my out-laws brought round their garden shredder that they don't use any more so I can shred all the clearing prunings that are currently stacked on the mud patch I call a lawn

[momol]

Today, I am going to cultivate my Mushroom spawn on birch woodchips. sow some brassica if I still have some time left and moved the tiny pea seedling in the plastic/mini green house if it stop raining.

[pigletwillie]

Today I collected my trailer of very well rotted manure from our local farm and topped off a large raised bed and part filled another whos levels had dropped as the contents settled last year.

On plot three the last of the scrap metal went into the site compound ready for collection when there is a worthwhile amount piled up.

A little repair job netted me a crisp £20 note and this was largely spent on onion sets from our local hardware shop along with an energy saving lightbulb that is equivalent in size to a "40w golfball" shape. Whilst I can readily get ones that are a bit bigger they show over the top of the light shades and this one doesnt. As its good for 15000 hours I wont be changing them very often but at a penny under £6 each I wont be buying them all in one go (I need 15 of them).

[bramble]

They look lovely and healthy. The pre packed ones are always a risk but its hard to find a store where they sell them loose but well worth the search.

[Wendy]

Well its been a long time since ive been on this forum - to be honest winter was a bit of a disastar on the vegetable front! my poor garden was so destroyed by the weather that not much survived. However during the summer/autumn months i did manage to harvest some lovely courgettes, lettuce, cucumber, spinach, radish, broad beans, runner beans, chillies, baby sweetcorn, carrots and potatoes!! My main crop - tomatoes, didnt make it, they all suffered with terrible blight, some of the courgettes and my peas had downey mildew and the chima di Rapa and other italian and english brassicas didnt work at all. I have decided to take all i learned last year and start again with the plan of a whole years supply of yummy veggies.

Today I have harvested the last of my spinach and carrots, took down my wrecked plastic greenhouse and threw it away, removed many many weeds and old dead veg and generally started to get my garden back into shape.
Over the next few days i will clean out all my pots, remove more weeds and buy new compost and some growbags - i decided not to recycle much of last years compost because of the diseases etc., so im really starting afreash apart from some of the growbags in my lil poly tunnel to which i will add some lovely horse manure! so thats it a long way to go but its a start and im happy with what i have done so far and i think this year maybe better now i know exactly what grows well and where etc.

[zazen999]

Harvested leeks, romanesco, swede and strange swede type roots [Real Seeds specials] for soup. Put the raised raised mini beds in for the carrots and filled with sand/sompost mix.
Lettuce and beetroot from early sowings had come up, so moved to light place until ready to plant out. Ditto Auroro and Grushovka toms.
Trialled some mushroom spores.

OH planted out some stuff I bought him for the borders, Echinacea/sea holly/ and other stuff [not really good on non-food plants].

Did weeding until it rained. Made a cup of tea when it did.

[pigletwillie]

Today was a day without rain and actually a little sunshine and I made full use of it as I am back on shift tommorow.

The last of the parsnips were lifted and boy were they big. They were "Gladiator" and came out to make way for another raised bed which now needs filling.

Parsnip-Gladiator

In the new tunnel, two blue barrels and two scaffolding planks were turned into staging and will hold all of my onion seedlings when I move them from the greenhouse at home later this week.

Still on plot 2, the permanent climbing bean bed had scaffodling planks fitted around it "raised bed" style but it was just to hold back the soil from spilling onto the path as the level was higher due to all of the kitchen waste and compost added over the last few years.

On plot one, two beds of Autumn bliss raspberries were cut down to the ground and the prunings put on the bonfire. This has exposed a few weeds which can now be dug out before the new growth really gets going.

All in all a good, productive day and I was not held up at by not being able to dig.

[shirlthegirl43]

I finally succumbed and bought the poorly Lemon (Citrus Limon) and Calamondin, Panama Orange (Citrofortunella microcarpa) that have been slowly dying in Woolworths for the past week. I decided I would give them a chance of life.

I haven't got proper citrus compost and don't feel able to invest in a bag of this for 2 nearly dead plants so they will just get potted in multipurpose compost to see if they survive. If they do come round I will buy the proper feed and soil for them. Here's hoping they rally as I have wanted a lemon and an orange for ages but can't afford the big ones they sell in the garden centre.

[nkp1962]

What I Did Today?

Posted first post on the 'Vine (Hello all Grapes) -

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...bie_11978.html


Still haven't been to allotment this year

But did look at all seeds I have got - and the catalogues for those I want!

I went to Wilko's - has anyone bought Seed Potatos from there? they are about £3.00 for 3 kilos - not bad I thought, but hey - I'm a newbie!

Will have to start things at the weekend!

NKP1962
From Plot to Plate

[bramble]

Well today was a real improvement on the last few days. We actually saw a bit of sunshine today. It was an ideal day for being out in the garden but unfortunately i had to bring my mother to the hospital. By the time i got back it was rather late. However i did get to the greenhouse where i sowed my first lot of peas (ONward) into my saved toilet rolls. I also sowed some red onion seed. It was lovely to be able to get back to doing something garden related after all the bad weather.