What I Did Today Archive 2009

[Winged one]

Today, I bought an extra bag of compost, and some calabrese plants (as mine are a bit behind). Rain stopped play on planting potatoes and doing some digging on the plot.

Tomorrow, all being reasonably dry, I am dragging OH behind me to the plot. We ended up both doing a lot of digging, planting and clearing for our families over the holidays so now its our turn (the 2 households decided to put in raised bedds for veggies - both are veg growers but one had lost her veg patch last summer and the other had left it slide in the past couple of years due to work pressures).

I have to get the last of the maincrop potatoes in the ground, and dig the brassica bed, the rest of the legume bed and the squashes bed. Plant out half a dozen calabrese. Perhaps a few beetroot and other seeds (like trying the parsnips again) in the roots bed. And put a lot of slug pellets down.

And then, back home, I need to sow a few pots of leeks, some courgettes, some more squashes, plant out a few more lettuces, prick out and pot on the brassicas, and then sprinkle a LOT of slug pellets (nasty buggers got my courgette plant and half the lettuces when we were away).

I also want OH to clear out the gutters and toss the moss into the compost bin. Best make use of his rare days off wisely!!

[miffy]

Soaked some sweet pea seeds so i can plant those, sowed a tray of pepper seeds and lots of sunflower seeds for the lottie as want to give the bees and butterflies and hooverflies something nice to feed on too

[Meschuee]

Seeds arrived today from the Real Seed Company and I sowed the leeks ("Bleu de Solaise") in a tray in the greenhouse.

Drizzling all day - good.

Penny

[taff]

Potted on some celery and celeriac I got from the garden centre, mine are barely past the two-leaf stage and I was jealous, so I'm keeping them hidden in the greenhouse till I can get some big cardboard-type tubes from work.
Tsked over the slug-eaten broad beans, sowed some more.
Potted on a little bay tree, scraped all the snail eggs out of the compost[I assume they were, not entirely sure, but they squished when I popped them, so out they went, although if they were some kind of fancy fertiliser, let me know?]

[Bazza]

Not at work so decided to visit the organic gardens at Ryton in Warwickshire. Really wasn't at all what I expected. For those that haven't been it is laid out in a very similiar fashion to Barnsdale i.e. "Gardeners World" style with loads of individual small gardens. The emphasis however is on the edible rather than flowers and shrubs. Lots to see and at �6 entry reasonably priced, although cafeteria prices were expensive. One area was given over to displaying all manner of composters. Found out that the one I have just been given, a tumbling type is meant to be filled up in one go. I have been adding a bit at a time. Was able to enjoy the visit at my leisure as my fifteen year old didn't want to come, so no sighing and other expressions of boredom to put up with. Relaxed time over I then rushed home to look for more ingredients to fill up my composter.

[susieq100]

Lovely afternoon after rain in the morning. Down to the plot and put in my main crop potatoes - Pink Fir Apple. Then I planted a row of radish under the bean sticks up one end (no beans in yet, so I'm hoping to get a quick crop before the beans overshadow them). Also some Iceberg lettuce seeds in the cold frame - bargain seeds from Lidl and some sunflowers against the end of the shed near the water butt. Cleared the cardboard off last bed and forked it over - lovely tilth and the manure I put on in October has all broken down. Now ... what shall I plant in there? Possibly sweetcorn.

[Two_Sheds]

A sunny day! At last!

- painted another bit of fence
- sowed a pack of Lark & a pack of Swift (sweetcorn) in paper pots in plastic g/hse
- planted pansies, foxgloves, Senetti & more clematis in the new borders at home
- planted Osprey spuds at lotty
- picked a stir fry for dinner with the last of the kale

[Meschuee]

I added more sand and grit to the bed for leeks, weeded and pulled up grass, trowelled over the herb bed and planted a rock hyssop, which I've not grown before (Hyssopus officinalis aristatus). Watered the newly planted leek seeds. Went to the garden centre and got a little under-heated propagator to start off the mange-tout, dwarf peas and pattie pan squash, and some little, biodegradable plug pots for the peas and mangetout.

More carrot seedlings have appeared.

I also planted the asparagus seeds I'd kindly been sent by people here.

The day began overcast and damp but the sun is shining intermittently now. Time for a cup of white tea, I think - it's a lovely, silky brew and will go down well after working in the garden.

Penny

[shirlthegirl43]

Yesterday, Madmax and I (with some help from the boys) took down one of the remaining leylandii and trimmed the final one so that more light reaches the veg beds. I weeded half the onion bed (need to finish that today). Aranthos raked out the hen run (blimey they make a mess) and I put together the 'new' hen house ready for when we are all here to move it into place.

This morning, we have cut the timbers to make the new raised beds and younger son and I are about to go out and screw those together. Hoping to get some of the brassicas planted out today, dig the last bits of bed and plant out the first of the peas and maybe sort out the bean trench ready for those to go out when ready.

[Gryfon]

Yesterday I got the children to plant tomatoes, pumpkins, courgettes and sweet peas. That was about it. I've run out of seeds now so need some more!

Today it's very overcast so think we may just go for a mooch at the garden centre.

[RobintheBobin]

Planted out the broadies - looking lovely and organised in a random sort of way

I'm going to dig holes for the courgettes and fill with the remaining manure we have in a bag then I'm going to sow the early PSB.

After that I think I may go and spend my voucher at the local garden centre and get a nice bottle of wine at the bottle shop on the way home.

And all in the middle of this I'm trying to sell a boat for my beloved husband who is....away on a stag do!!

[miffy]

Planted my sweet pea seeds i soaked, pricked out my brussel sprout seedlings, potted on my cucumbers, burpless tasty green and crystal lemon, jumped up and down because my little marvel sweet peas have come up in just 5 days!! After doing a little dance, applied for two more jobs. Want to get up the plot but have washing and housework to do yawn!!

[hamsterqueen]

planted rows of salad leaves (1 herby, 1 crisp)

radishes

pak choi

spinach (bordeaux - reddish)

spinach ( normal)

and remembered to cover the raised bed with netting. I lost nearly all my planting in teh autumn as the cats used the bed as a litter tray.

Runner bean seedlings are coming on nicely, I used the ones from the dried pods from last years crop.

Tomato seedlings coming up too

Should be enough from last years perpetual spinach to have with tomorrows beef stew.

[Meschuee]

I've just come in from digging over a new bed I made in the autumn, adding manure and I'll add grit when I get more from the garden centre, to break up the clay. Watered all the young things. Put blood, fish and bone on the beds for beans, peas, mange tout and on the potato bed, trowelled and watered that in. Fed the clematis - saw on a gardening programme that it's best not to feed them while they're flowering. This was advice from someone who keeps a clematis collection.

Now I need to rest my aching back.

[Snadger]

Went to a rare breeds poultry show at Hexham this morning. Didn't buy anything but had an ejoyable day!
Sowed two lots Crimson flowered broad beans. Weeded a bed. Potted on some Jalapeno's and Purple Jalapeno's. Potted on some Yellow pear tomatoes. Added some rubbish to the communal skip whilst there was still some room left in it. Came back from the skip with small plantpots and wire that someone else had thrown out!
Made a start on my new onion raised bed until my back gave way and I returned the chicks to there coop and left for home for a bath and a shave!