What I Did Today Archive 2008

[Wren]

I have been pressing my Jealous face up at the gates of the allotments i am on the waiting list for , but alas there was nobody about to let me in for a look round. So i went a visiting round a couple of other allotment sites to get ideas and found a lovely lady who was chair person of another association who made me feel very welcome an let me have a wander round their site. I was very impressed at how well it was run. There was a place for everything and everything in it's place and a very friendly "welcome" by the few people that were tending their plots this afternoon. This is so frustrating, i am gonna pop if i don't get my own Lottie soon!!. Hurry up on the waiting list will you!!!

Wren

[FionaH]

Planted out some little leeks given to me by a friend.
Sowed onions sets in patch and some in modules. See how they do.
Planted 50 Allium bulbs out the front, backs killing me. Also planted a rescued white jap anenome.

[zazen999]

Planted out more onions and garlic
OH dug over another bed.
Moved the last remaining spilt onions into new positions
Harvested mainly beans and tomatoes, with the last few sweetcorn as the rest seem to have gone over. Also courgettes and some winter squashes [lovely roasted] and parsnips and carrots. And loads of Quinoa [first ever] and coriander seeds.
Booked onto the Grow Healthy Plants in a fortnight at Garden Organic.

[Snadger]

Biked to allotment, noticed that the police or council must have been around chasing cars that were parked on cycle lane. What's the point of having a cycle lane anyway, if cars park on it?

Sorted chooks, checked on broody, collected eggs. Was given half a dozen panes of glass for my ally greenhouse by an allotment neighbour. Decided to get wheelbarrow out and collect some wooden glased frames I had been offered by another neighbour before they got broken. Stashed them inside my half built greenhouse to strip the frames off them at a later date and cut glas to size. A lot of work I know, but if it means glasing my greenhouse for nowt, who cares!
While I had the wheeel barrow out I collected a couple of heaped barrow loads of woodchippings from the pile at the end of the allotments and added it to the chook run. Didn't need to spread it around...........the chooks did that!
Progressed with my second chook run which I had scrounged some 10' X 3' boards for. Let the chooks into area as a trial and watched them fly over the top........ah well, back to the drawing board. I'll need to fully enclose them as I don't want to clip there wings.
Had a tidying session in one of my greenhouses clipping back rampant tomato plants and pulling up the ones that were finished. Clipped back the cape gooseberry as well as it was making a quest for world domination.
Collected some Ne Plus Ultra peas for next years seeds and sat in the sunshine shelling them.
Had to head home then as I have no lights on the bike and got home about 6.30pm, knackered!

[wellie]

I'm a bit nervous of posting up on this thread now that I've started the 'Go on....You Choose' thread in General Chat, because what I've done this very day is probably against all the what I SHOULD have done today in terms of BioDynamics - but hey! I've not started BioDynamicking yet! and besides, I'm learning that 'proper' for my next garden!
So, today, I planted about 150 red overwintering onions, three whole heads of fat garlic cloves and a whole raised bed of Aquadulce Bored Beans.

Besides that, I harvested loads of Coriander Seeds, Chervil Seeds, Nasturtium and Pot Marigold Seeds.

Gave my 'Elderly Next Door' neighbour some Carrots, because he said he hadn't succeeded with his this year, and neither too his onions..... (see Wellie count her onions and see how many she can spare?!)

Wow! Got loads done today. What a beautiful sunny day!
X

[Hazel at the Hill]

Sorry to be such a heathen, but beautiful days like today are are wasted at this time of year - although I did go to the Hill last light and noticed that the overwintering rye has sprouted and picked some runner beans.

The beans for shelling are not really ready yet (they may as well do their thing on the plant) and the squash are ripening as they are.

[BrideXIII]

very pleased with myself today. After browsing this forum last night and bemoaning the lack of space and money for a proper greenhouse, I have been out and windproofed my 2 1/2 by 4 plastic cheapy. I taped all the joints, and used left over log roll spikes to anchor it. My sons have ordered me another one, and we are going to join them together giving me a grand 5x4 bodge job not ideal, but dead cheap, and if possible I can then get a proper one in a year or so of saving. I put the 4 tier mini inside so that the tender seedlings have double insulation, put lawn edging round the bottom of the whole to fill the slight gap at the bottom, and washed the whole thing down inside to clear off the plastic and snail poo.

emptied all the dead pots out, and fed the compost for spreading in spring.
pinched some over ripe passion fruit off a bush down the road , and set the seeds to dry.
de-seeded a pack of dates which we all HATE, and set the stones ready to dry for planting , should have some date palms for next year

now I am enjoying a nice glass of white grenache whilst looking out on to a nice tidy ( for now) garden, ful of sun.

[womble]

I'm determined to get at least something in the greenhouse over the winter.
So today I have sown in the greenhouse
perpetual spinach
pak choi
oriental mixed salad

Outside, I have sown red cored carrots and overwintering field beans.

Garlic in a pot because of white rot.

Apart from the beans, I'm not sure how any of it will turn out.
I've also been expanding the veg plot in the front garden and taking out useless old flowering plants.

[kentvegplot]

Removed some tomatoes from tunnel, picked last pumpkin. Talked to butternuts to ask them to ripen , please. Picked another 2lb of tomatoes from 'Ferline' outside, a bit green but they'll ripen indoors fine. Probably last of the courgettes too - roasted 'marrow' with lunch. Cut down some more of the leylandii to make way for a fruit cage. Put some tomato seed in to ferment.

[Flummery]

I removed the last of the Ruth Bible and Bird's Egg climbing beans to finish drying indoors (weather forecast iffy this week here) and took down the canes to bring home. Got them on newspaper in a sunny place. (The bean pods, not the canes!)

[Newbie]

On Saturday i edged, hoe'd, weeded & generally tidied up one half of the veg patch - looks MUCH improved! Nearly died off several times when i inadvertently grabbed a handful of big fat Toad with my weeds - there are two huge ones living in one of my 2 veg beds & they seems to be doing a fab job this year as not been bothered by slugs much at all! Tidied up the greenhouse too as it was beginning to resemble a bombsite, found another toad living in there but relocated him as couldn't see there much to sustain him.

[zazen999]

Painted shed
Put up comfrey and nettle tea strainers [will post photo on blog page this week].
Burn more blighted toms

Generally cleared up stuff, and harvesting beans, last of the toms etc.

Cucumbers and courgettes still growing like crazy though.

[Marthaclematis]

I got home from holiday and am in need of a bit of a rant... we've been to the US for 18 days and we must have had some sun and not much rain here because the pots were all dry, the grass has grown a lot, the honeysuckle has gawn' sprawling over next doors fence and the nasturtiums have gotten really large (we should have pulled them before we left). There are blackfly all over the gladioli and my poor potted fern looks like it is dead (I've put it into a container full of water). My Lilac too was in dire need of a long drink. Indoors there is a mountain of post to open, the cats have left mucky footprints and fur everywhere (we had someone to come in each day to feed them and clean the litter but not to hoover, wipe or water the garden). Who said 'its nice to go travelling but its so much nicer to come home'? Obviously whoever it was had a housekeeper. I know I'm moaning and I shouldn't, we're really lucky to have been able to go on such a nice trip. Its the jetlag. Its 5 am in the morning for me though the correct time is one pm. DH has gone to bed for a couple of hours but I'm trying to ride it out till UK 9.00pm. I will feel better after a nights sleep but I feel really bad for my poor garden, like I have abandoned and neglected it - its never been left 'alone' for more that a couple of days before and its my first one too. I feel guilty. I will make sure in future that we have someone to nurture it as well as the cats. Poor thing. I just didn't know so much could happen at this time of year. Before we went away it was all slowing down, and it had rained a lot. I think this has been my first lesson of my first year.

[Snadger]

Sorted chooks..........pulled up remaining sweetcorn which have come good in the end..........pulled up my french bean plants which haven't, and after adding some horse muck planted 40 garlic cloves in the same area!
Took home three small sweetheart cabbages, a bag of large toms,half a dozen eggs(freshly laid), some carrots.........in leiu of the beans i was supposed to bring home for dinner..........oh yes and two large onions!

[pigletwillie]

Somehow 3kg of plums, 3kg of apples plus sugar and cider vinegar reduced to 7 1lb jars of plum and apple chutney.

After yesterdays efforts in pulling up the 60 odd sweetcorn stems, pulling a trug of finger carrots to can and bringing in 23 assorted pumpkin and winter squash from the car boot its wine and pork pie time.