What I Did Today Archive 2009

[digthatchick]

Rained off work yesterday (Tuesday) but managed to pot on 48 Pentsemons and 90 Foxgloves in the plant greenhouse. Also bought a new Stihl long reach Hedgetrimmer.

Gathered Courgettes, Lettuce and Aubergines from veg plot.

[Two_Sheds]

First dry day in over a week; still very windy though

- harvested dry broad bean, coriander & parsnip seeds
- planted the last 4 French beans (Blue Lake)
- sowed a row of Markana peas & one of Kelvedon Wonder
- popped the last Hawk squash in (it is a runt, very small & weedy)
- dug up a row of King Edwards & Rooster to make space for cabbages
- finally planted out my poor brassicas: dried up, not thinned out, addled by caterpillars. They have 2 choices
- pulled carrots, peas, beans, onions, cabbage & spuds for dinner

weeded, weeded, weeded

[taff]

wandered round feeling proud, doing the odd spot of weeding, de-foliating, de-sideshooting, tying in, and harvesting beans, courgettes, squash and cucumber and chillis.
Will sow mizuna, rocket, kale and spinach in a bit, and feed the toms.
Very windy.

[Newbie]

Before getting rained off i pulled up my 40+ bulbs of garlic & set them out to dry on racks in the shed, also pulled up last 10 or so onions which were last to be planted- their stems were starting to go mushy so will use them without drying (am thinking onion marmalade as seen on here somewhere). Also pulled up a few bolting lettuces & Chard and sprayed my Goosegogs which were being ravaged by caterpillers. Now all that lot has been pulled up i have lots of empty space - and i haven't even started pulling up my spuds yet. I guess i best get sowing some more stuff!

Went back out again after the rain & dug up a row of spuds (was only a short row of 5 seed spuds) got about two colanders full! Although i'm not sure if they are Vivaldi or Sante and their two labels have dissapeared, they're definately not Rooster as that label is still in place - why does this happen to me every year!

Also noticed that my Autumn Rasps have a few fruits starting to colour up!

[susieq100]

yesterday - went to the plot early to avoid the rain (ha!). I had a car full of huge cardboard boxes from work - deliveries of new equipment - which I had begged from the Site Managers. So cutting up boxes and laying them on the paths between beds, then covering with bark chips and tree trimmings (one of our plotholders is a tree surgeon and he brings 'waste' that we can use). It started to rain very gently so I thought - I'll just finish this bit and carried on .... then the heavens opened and I got very wet indeed! So I came home. It's a bright clear morning now and I can't go to the plot as I have a dentist's appointment.. Aarggh!

[Newbie]

Edged one of my flowers beds, weeded it & one other, tying up a few things as i went along. Thinned out the leave son my tomatoes in the GH as they were taking over the place, dead headed the French Marigolds & fed the toms, chillis, peppers & melons.

[sewer rat]

At hotel walled garden, double dug and weeded all the spare ground - will put all the rest of my leeks in there instead of the field now.
Picked broad beans and peas for 22 guest dinners.
Came home, had supper, played with Niamh, bathed Niamh, put Niamh to bed, went out to field to get boxes ready for tomorrow.
This weeks boxes will contain some or all of the following; new potatoes, lettuce, cucumber, chard, sweetheart cabbage, calabrese, kohl rabi, florence fennel, broad beans, peas, chilli peppers and gooseberries.
Just home ten minutes ago - having a coffe, then shower then bed.

[solway cropper]

As a family we eat a lot of onions and use them in everything from sandwiches to the evening meal. I like to have a constant supply of spring onions so i sow them in pots every few weeks. This year I tried the variety 'Lilia' and forgot about one pot which was tucked in between celery and chard. It turned into a solid clump of small red onions which I separated and ended up with almost 1lb after cleaning and trimming. Not bad for a 10 inch pot. They are now soaking in brine ready to be pickled tomorrow. That's a pretty good use of space and something I'll be doing more of next year.

[Herbie]

Went to lottie, started to build fruit cage. Managed to get half of the posts in, eventually it should be about 25 ft by 6ft wide. The back end is complete, posts in netting for the roof and scaffolding netting around the sides. Built raised bed for strawberries and planted up with plants from the flower thingy, plants have started to produce runners so hoping to make another raised bed for the future babies.
Planted some chard, spring onions and chinese lanterns that I had left. At Home picked large bowl full of tomitillos, and some more courgettes.
Yesterday dug up garlic, some good, some not so good, going to prepare a bed at the lottie for garlic and onions and see if they do better there.

[trolleydolly]

Today I weeded 3 beds, while the OH strung some onions, and harvested the potatoes; I sowed the remaining packet of Beetroot (bolthardy), Carrots (Nantes) and the purple radish (Hilds Blauer Herbst und Winter). I swear these are the last time I sow radishes, as the French Breakfast Radishes had absolutely no flavour!!

[COMPOST CORNER]

This weekend I have taken out all peas and beans (about 3lb of crop, mainly peas), weeded the bed and planted Musselburgh and Autumn mammoth "snowstar" leeks in the same bed.
Harvested 4lb red Duke of York Taters from a compost bag.
1 Patty Pan squash (OK raw, tastes rubbish fried, will stick to courgettes next year.)
Strimmed round raised beds, amazing how long grass can get when you go away for a week.
Weeded most of the beds, rained off before I could get to the sweetcorn bed. Must do that one evening.

[solway cropper]

Quite a high tide this afternoon with a strong wind behind it so tonight I walked along the marsh and collected a sack of seaweed. Half is soaking in a tub for liquid manure and the other half is in one of the daleks. Earlier today our friendly local vet brought me some big tubs used for animal health products. They're about 3 gallons/15 litres so a very useful size. All she asks in return is a few toms or a cucumber. Just before sundown I sowed some spring onions and mizuna in pots. Who said it's grim up north?

[sewer rat]

Working at estate garden today - reclaiming some areas of the garden from three years of neglect and self seeding - Lady's Mantle might be pretty but it, along with Jacobs Ladder are way too good at self seeding. Anyway - finished there this evening, called in at the field, picked 1lb rasps, dug up a basket of Duke of York Potatoes, picked three heads of broccoli, a ballhead cabbage, 2 kg San Marzano tomatoes, 3 femspot cukes, 5 Passandra cukes, 10 red Cayenne Chillies and came home - now making bread and butter pickle, Wellies Tomato Ketchup, and have started off the raspberry vinegar. Would have started the Tarragon Vinegar and made mint sauce but forgot to pick them - will do that tomorrow.

[Herbie]

Weeded raised bed in the back garden pulled up some cabbages that had been ravashed by slugs and caterpillars - argh. Potted up some biennuals for next year. Had a sort out in the greenhouse, dug up some raspberry canes for the lottie.
Made tomatillo sauce, courgette bread. Visited mum who had found an elephant hawk moth which looked rather ugly and large but turns into a beautiful moth

[taff]

chopped up rescued green tomatoes with onions ready to give chutney a go.
weeded a bit.
felt slightly despondent about blight in general.
watered.