What I Did Today Archive - 2010

[trolleydolly]

Today me and the OH tidied up the edges of the beds, with an edging iron. We also sowed some wild flowers to attract the bees.

[glasgowdan]

I seperated a bunch of young plants as they were growing in 2's and 3's in their pots. Courgettes, pumpkins, brussels sprouts, globe artichokes. Got them all out in the greenhouse now and space is starting to get tight in there!
Cleared away some overgrown daffs in the front to make space for corn and artichokes when they're ready.

[CaroltheCarrot]

am making marmelade jelly today and shirls tea bag wine, o my kitchen smells very fruity indeed

[Maddie106]

Put together my remaining potato bags (which were a real struggle to get the plastic reinforcing ring threaded through) and planted some Charlottes and Nicolas in them.
I still have my weirdly chitting (Sharpes Express and Elgar) ones going (which ended up with small green leaves and thing stringy roots) and I'd chickened out and got some Charlottes and Nicolas in as a back up. The others are showing through the compost in the bags so maybe they will be ok after all.
Now my patio is full of bags.
Had a brainwave of writing on wooden pegs the variety and clipping them to the top of the bags so that I knew what was where.

Planted up 2 containers, one with spinach and the other with some cut and come again lettuce.
Not much actually in the garden yet but I'm researching what grows in shady spots so I'm off to read these forums for inspiration.

I cut up old margarine pots to make plant labels and write details on them with a permanent marker.For potato bags, I use a hole punch and attach the label to the handle with a bit of string or re-cycled tights!

Tights/stockings are brilliant in the garden because they make soft ties that are also strong! I cut the legs into strips about 25 cm wide (about 1 inch).....put all the circles over my wrist, then cut the lot to make ties. Brilliant to tie plants into canes/errect a bean frame etc.
The tight tops are good for securing fruit trees to stakes.

But roll on summer when I can put away my jeans and go bare legged!

[Maddie106]

Got the saw out on a buddleia in the front garden that is like a TRIFFID!
Still some way to go with it....with a bit of luck it will die (I hope!)

Earthed up the pots of spuds in the frame, transplanted some lettuce in modules, sowed some more raddish, cut the lawn and gave the chickens the clippings.
Let chickens out of their run so I could clean them out and had to remove them from the onion patch, where they were scratching happily.
10 mimutes later, there were no chickens in sight. I found them on the front garden around the butchered buddlia!

Sat in the garden with a glass of wine at lunchtime( The JOYof being retired!), thinking about what needed to be moved and sorted for when the lean-to greenhouse that I ordered from "Garden buildings Direct" on Wednesday arrived. (plenty of time I thought, it will arrive next week at the earliest!)

It arrived before I'd finished either wine or contemplation!!!!!!!!
Spent the rest of the afternoon moving the compost bin, rationalising plants in containers in the greenhouse space and clearing the decks for construction!
Negotiated with my lovely neighbours to borrow long spirit level and spanner in mm( mine aren't metric) over the weekend.
Alerted my partner that I WILL need help...very sexist of me, so sorry gals, but I really can't do up bolts/screws as tight as a bloke!

Sent an e-mail to Dobbies asking where the plant house I ordered nearly a month ago is.
Wanted it in order to sow French and Runner beans under cover.Will cancel if they can't give me a date.

Now totally cream crackered!!!!!!!!!

[Welsh Wizard]

-2 degrees overnight here: Frost has killed off my yellow wax french beans that I module grew, but thats the risk you take with an early sowing! I view the garden rather like a stereotypical General in WW1: Its a war of attrition, I will keep sending seeds to their death until victory ie some of them live! My beans were lions, led by a donkey (gardener (me!)). If the plants cop it then I get that much more humus in the bed....

Finally put together blowaway greenhouse to give some much needed protected growing space, and moved some of the cloched pots of vine toms into the shelter. One casualty (slug damage). Potted on 20 odd chilli plants.

Direct sowed: Florence fennel, rainbow chard, perpetual spinach, carrots. Planted out 12x sweetcorn. Bunged some grass like leek seedlings into a bed to thicken up a bit. Sowed zinnia, cosmos for the wifey who likes girly flowers.

Artichokes looking good, now getting a bit tough for the birds to eat I think...

[susieq100]

Yesterday, watered at the plot - all peas are now up and showing about 1 inch - I know it's not impressive but it pleased me! Weeded and fed onions and shallots and garlic - chicken poo pellets. Tidied out the shed at the plot - ha - I can now stand in there on both feet at the same time!! Came home and watered plants in greenhouse and conservatory - planted a second lot of sweetcorn - first batch are about 3-4 inches high. Courgettes are up! Planted more gherkins, put some peas to soak to plant around my 'rustic' obelisks in the raised beds in the garden. Watched Gardener's World - not great but did remind me that I need to plant out my cornflower seed.

[glasgowdan]

Put the last of my spuds in the ground, got a good big bed now, and moved a lot of things from windowsills into the greenhouse. Put the pots of herbs outside from the greenhouse to make some space and starting to think where other items are going to go now. Might use the young apple and plum trees as supports for sweet peas (they won't mind!).

Also made some preps for the polytunnel, built a door and frame, dug the trench, sprayed glyph on the ground (will be using growbags) as I can't be dealing with thick straw-like grass, rushes and all their roots.

[selfraising]

Sowed some annual flower seeds direct. Put netting over my arch ready for courgette and mexican gherkin to grow over. Sowed French Beans in gh. Potted on cucs and toms. Had all plants outside today as beautiful weather but have now brought cucs, melons and courgettes back indoors for the night. Toms and aubergines are spending the night in the gh and peppers are outside for the night, they have been in the unheated gh for the past two weeks. Thinned out basil and potted on. Planted some more peas. Sowed more annual flowers in modules in propagator.

[Newbie]

Today i walked the dog for an hour in the sunshine, had late breakfast with OH, went to B&Q for six 75l bags of Soil Improver & some new secaturs. Came home potted on 4 box plants, assessed my 6 fuscias which were overwintered in an unheated GH and thought dead - i think 5 may still be alive so repotted them & put back into GH. Shuffled all the seeds & plants in the GH as space is now at a premium, decided the broccolli, teasles & feltham 1st peas can have their first night outside under netting. Spread the 6 bags of soil improver over the big bed in front of fence - need at least another 6! Fed apple trees, watered veg beds, watered GH & anything else that needed it. Came back inside & started cooking Roast. perfect day .

[Jeanied]

Today I got 10 Colleen and 10 Pentland Javelins into the new deep beds - late this year I know but there have been frosts during the week.

[frogga]

Mowed the lawn this morning, had a relax with the chickens over lunch and realised the amount of pidgoens in the garden, so looked at ways of trapping them, then began building a greenhouse we found in my OH fathers garage, however with no plans its quite a challenge!

[NewbieGardenerRow]

I cut up old margarine pots to make plant labels and write details on them with a permanent marker.For potato bags, I use a hole punch and attach the label to the handle with a bit of string or re-cycled tights!

Tights/stockings are brilliant in the garden because they make soft ties that are also strong! I cut the legs into strips about 25 cm wide (about 1 inch).....put all the circles over my wrist, then cut the lot to make ties. Brilliant to tie plants into canes/errect a bean frame etc.
The tight tops are good for securing fruit trees to stakes.

But roll on summer when I can put away my jeans and go bare legged!

Thanks for the tips. I'm all for re using/recycling stuff.
Got all excited this morning because my peas are showing through the compost in my mini greenhouse as well as my scallop squash. whoo hooo.
I'd used an old glass chopping board to cover the seed tray rather than messing about with cling film and the peas under the glass are the first thing to pop up.
Yhe propagator thing isn't showing any sign of anything yet but I'm very impatient and it has only been two weeks since I planted things. My windowsill coriander is doing great though.
I remember being all nervy last year that things weren't going to grow then all was great in the end.
I must be more patient

[binley100]

Got the saw out on a buddleia in the front garden that is like a TRIFFID!
Still some way to go with it....with a bit of luck it will die (I hope!)

!

I doubt it, we tried and we tried and ours still didn't ............

[NewbieGardenerRow]

after googling and reading various posts on here I pulled up the flower stalks on my rhubarb, then put some trays in the mini greenhouse with Cauliflower (All Year Round), Broccoli (Green Calabrese), Cabbage (Greyhound) and Carrot (Early Nantes).
I figured that the growing season seems all out of sync at the mo anyway (with frosty nights and daffs still coming up) that I might as well give anything a go this year and I consulted the veggie seed sowing calendar that someone posted on here too. I got hold of some seeds from a local discount store for 89p for all 4 packets. If they don't work then I've not lost much apart from some time.
If they do.....ooooo I hope my little garden is big enough to plant them all out in or I might be giving some away