What I did today - 2019

[SarrissUK]

Another bed never to be used again.

Aww SP, that's sad!

What's happening to your house when you move out?

[lolie]

Sowed some more flower seeds. Collected a heap of snails from around where I planted out some seedlings the other day.

Waiting for the mail to arrive as it should bring more seeds today.

The seed delivery I was expecting didn't come, so I moved some really poor quality soil to a patch which is uneven. I will probably throw in some pumpkin seeds and see what happens.

I'm off to help someone else sort out their patio garden tomorrow so I probably won't do anything in mine again until Thursday.

[Small pumpkin]

Aww SP, that's sad!

What's happening to your house when you move out?

It�ll probably end up being another holiday home. Hopefully we�re not going anywhere till our new one is built. But I won�t have time for full scale gardening next year as I�ll be a builder


Today another 3 half beds weeded & covered. I�ll cover the other half of them when I�ve finished harvesting from them. A couple more chillies cut down. Emptied lots of pots into the compost.

[lolie]

Went and helped my son and daughter-in-law sort out their patio garden. There's something not right with their bay and lemon trees but trees aren't my thing.

They gave me a lightweight tomato cage which is nowhere near strong enough for tomatoes but which will be just fine for the out of season peas I planted yesterday.

New seeds arrived but the ones I wanted most were out of stock so I still don't have a second variety of cucumber.

[Small pumpkin]

Started emptying chilli pots and saving some of the compost for reuse.
( written like that it sounds like such a straight forward and quick job )
Well over 3/4 of the pots emptied, very pleased with my self!
At the start of the week I was very behind with shutting down the garden for winter. Now I think I�m slightly ahead of schedule

[greenishfing]

I sort of emptied and sorted (mostly) two of my greenhouses. I can't finish them as the grapevines in them are still more or less alive.

[chillithyme]

I removed and composted my karela/bitter gourd and cucumber plants from indoors. They were still going strong but I decided to clean the area in order to overwinter 4 chilli plants.
I cut back the remainder of my chilli plants which didn't fit in the space, in the hope to find a place for them. I removed the lower leaves of some and left some alone.
Planted up winter containers with hardy perennials. Some underplanted with a bulbs.

[lolie]

Planted more of seeds I already have growing.

Moved a couple of pots which aren't doing as well as I'd like to different locations.

Emboldened by having managed to keep leaf lettuce alive in the heat, I sowed some all year round lettuce seeds.

Emptied out a grow bag of Otway Red potato plants which were looking poorly. I'm not sure what went wrong. I planted them at the same time as the Dutch Creams and looked after them the same way and the Dutch Creams are thriving. I will try again.

[muck lover]

Used the lawnmower to lift leaves from the back grass ( won’t call it a lawn!) which gave me a nice mix of grass and leaves to compost. Some of it went as a weed suppressing mulch in an area the chickens love to scratch about in and some went on a compost heap. I’ve become obsessed with my compost heaps lately and run about checking the temperatures with my thermometer. Some are around 30c and one has been at 40c for a couple of weeks - that has a layer of year old cow manure included. I also filled my rotary composter despite thinking it’s too cold. I have chicken manure and kitchen scraps coming all winter so I want somewhere to put them. It may as well go into the rotary composter and I’ll also add some coffee grounds. So more temperature checking. I have a large bin of finished compost to dig out but I’ll need help with that. If the current heaps all perform as expected I’m going to have too much compost next year.

[muck lover]

I gave a friend half a dozen autumn raspberries and have promised a neighbour some as well along with strawberry runners I potted up in July. I find it deeply satisfying to share plants that will provide healthy produce to others.

[lolie]

Realised that I emptied out the bag of failed spuds in the heap where I'm planning to put pumpkins. Conventional wisdom is that the two shouldn't be grown together.

Oh well. The pumpkins will just have to take their chances.

[muck lover]

These tomatoes ripened surprisingly well on the windowsill. I used some to make tomato and pepper soup and the rest are in the dehydrator destined to get dunked in olive oil.

There are a few more still to ripen but the day is coming very soon when I�ll be buying fresh toms at the supermarket.

[lolie]

Mowed half the back. It's really too hot and smoky to be doing it but there's rain forecast for Sunday followed by more heat and it's already long enough that you can't see the dog poop. Will try to finish it before sundown but I don't like the chances of any edging getting done.

[greenishfing]

I braved the miserable weather to go to the allotment and dig up a couple of leeks.
I have changed my mind. So muddy. I think I may need to learn how to bog snorkel if this weather continues (and it's forecast to).

[muck lover]

Today I was pottering in the garden and discovered FOUR hen eggs on a sheltered compost heap. It must be one of my new hens. I do have seven girls and am getting six eggs per day. So the maths stacks up.
The eggs had to be fed to the dog as ive no idea how old they are and they were a bit muddy.
I’d be grateful if experienced chicken keepers could advise me on how to persuade the errant hen to lay in the damned nest box. I’ve made the compost heap a bit less cosy but am worried she will just find somewhere else.