What I Did Today Archive 2008

[pigletwillie]

Converted the tomatoes, onion, peppers and some garlic into pasta sauce and then bottled it using the pressure canner.

Shelled some Mrs Lewis, borlotti and coco bicolour beans.

[Rodley]

Finished digging up the two roots of the Acacia trees in my new area of my veg plot yesterday. Thank goodness "she who has to be obeyed" has a strong back to do the heavy digging because my back wouldn't have survived more than 5 minutes. I can do light digging but not digging out trees Now I can finish rotovating and preparing the ground for next spring.

[BrideXIII]

Made up 2 gallons of mead, and 2 gallons of fruit juice wine, bubbling away nicely now.

[jackie j]

Yesterday planted 100 red onions and some shallots. Dug up some beetroot, sowed some meteor peas made some space in the shed. Still got broad beans to sow and some more shallots.

[zazen999]

Yesterday; met new 'helper' on the neighbour's lottie - he's doing the hard work so they don't have to. Shame - he's 6th on the list and done more in the last few weeks than they did all year. We wondered who had been sowing seeds, and clearing the plot - I didn't think it was the actual plot holders.

Cleared a brassic bed up [disposed of dead leaves and other gubbins]
Took pea and bean netting down as I'd taken all the seeds for next year's sowing off. they're all nicely drying out/bagged up.
Did a germination test on the pinto beans, and it sprouted in 2 days.
Packaged up loads more seeds.

Made first 4 sides of first lottie raised bed; sieved loads of soil for it and added a bin bag of coffee grounds [thanks Starbucks]. Added a bag of our compost, sieved as well. Mixed it all up, made ridges like Joe Swift and put the rest of the onion sets out.
Dug up the leeks that had been held back in a corner, and planted in above bed.
Took a seed head from an unknown allium, and sowed the seeds in corner of above bed.

Went to local large DIY outlet to get a hammer and some nails for the raised bed-making, and asked if they have any old pallets; and yes they do - I can take any that are out the back. So, as I was on my own; I took 2 largeish ones and 2 smaller ones. Told the OH he needs to help me get some of the largest ones as they will need to go into the back of the car at an angle. Result! We'll pick one or two up each time we are in the area and it won't take long to get full palleted up. Wish I still had my truck that I had this time last year...

[hawthorns]

moved the greenhouse so its now south east facing. moved the eglu into a permanant place on wood chippings. topped up the raised beds. pulled a mammouth parsnip.

[Newbie]

Pulled up the runner & french beans, sweetcorn & butternut squash plants & stuck them on the recently emptied compost heap. Planted up another 4 big planters for winter / year round colour, pottered in the greenhouse.

[Scotkat]

Yesterday am I went to a crochet and knitting workshop then came back and was in my greenhouse all afternoon moving plants in and out and for 1-to 2nd greenhouse winter protection plants fuchsias etc then was dead heading pruning back.

This afternoon want to wash all pots that have been used.

And decide what new seeds I want.

[wellie]

Scotkat, you've got the right idea there... And I won't be far behind you with cleaning of my own pots and bamboo canes for a clean start next year. Good on you! Excellent practice to start with clean pots and stuff.....

Today, I abandoned my own Potager Garden and took a drive to our Allotment, which sadly, we're about to 'Give Up' and let some other lovely couple take it over.

Thankfully, the remainder of my Borlotti Beans were ready to harvest, and so I was able to pick them, bag them, and then disassemble their wigwams for the last time to bring the canes home for disinfecting.

Once home, I was able to implement the dream I had a few nights ago....
Being 'privvy' to the sheer amount of Borlotti Bean pods that I was about to harvest, my rather over-active brain has been working even-more-overtime I'm afraid (!) and therefore, I had another Wellie 'Ping' thought/moment whilst trying to sleep the other night? which might be useful to you in the future, if you ever find yourself so Wellie-Deep in Bean Pods to mature or dry....

Get yourself a darning needle and a piece of string/knitting wool/twine or similar.
Take one bean pod and thread the needle through, then the next one, then the next one, then the next one, then the next one.....
At the risk of repeating myself........ then the next one!

Once you've got a suitably long string of bean pods on there, then, hang it all up somewhere and shell them from their pods either 'mature' or 'dried' as they become available to you..... It'll save on space.

Anyway. After that, I made a gorgeous Sarah Raven Borlotti Bean, Cumin & Garlic Soup, which Trousers adored. So Wellie earned valuable Smartie Points for a change!
Thank you for listening.

[wellie]

I shelled 2 more kilos of Borlotti Beans and made them into yet more of the gorgeous recipe in Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook: Sweet & Sour Borlotti Beans.
AND I did all of that with 'Woman Flu'...!

[rustylady]

Cut back the oxeye daisies in the garden, tidied up a bit. Took a load of peelings, chopped up oxeye daisies and grass clippings over to the lottie to go in the compost bins there. Made the first beef stew of the season - yummy!! Should last be 3 days if the kids don't come round.

[Kayt]

Have spent the weekend moving from my original allotment to a new one - its a long story!! The new one is great though having fruit bushes, bean cage, cold frame and 2 sheds already in place. Sorted out one shed yesterday and this morning have moved the best 6 purple sprouting plants to new plot along with the 2 dozen paving slabs I was given a few weeks ago. Am now looking for advice as to what I need to do with the fruit bushes I now have!!

[Hank_Hill]

I Just brought in my first (Hundredweight)pumpkin, around 11 pounds. I only got one out of two plants, it was a poor growing season here in Ireland. Just contemplating whether to stuff it or bake it

[zazen999]

Yesterday, came back from hols, and got some more beans picked and one last cuke.

Went to the lottie today, dug over 2 more squares and made one into the second raised bed [little by little]. Harvested swede, carrots, romanesco, broccolli, and leeks for roast dinner tonight. Did weeding, and cleaned up a few brassica beds.

In garden; got rid of all the courgette and bean plants and tidied up.

[hawthorns]

ive sown some meteor peas into guttering and the thermidrome garlic into the raised beds.