What I did today 2012-2014

[Likac66]

Hour on the plot and I PLANTED MY FIRST SEEDS ON MY ALLOTMENT TODAY!!

I planted some Early Nantes carrots with radishes interspersed then Autumn King carrots with turnips interspersed. They are under a cloche which had been down all week to warm the soil.

Keep your fingers crossed that at least some of them come up.

[Gearoid]

Just gave my herbs a trim.

[KittyColdNose]

Just back from a jolly to Aboyne for chips after pottering in the garden most of the day. Waved at Snohare on the way past

Absolutely shattered.

[VirginVegGrower]

Assisted Mr VVG in finishing the summer house build, but not before I went and got some scented shrubs for the other half of Tansy's garden. Searching for some shepherd's hut wheels as I mentioned it would be good to lift it off the ground (rats) and OH rather fancies that idea. That or stilts!

[Scarlet]

Took my boys to their Rugby match this morning and spotted a sign for the local village potato day.

Came home with some interesting varieties - Highland Burgundy red, Blue Salad and Purple Majesty. all now sitting in egg boxes.

[binley100]

Planted out my first sowing of crimson broadies , covered a bed to warm ready for some seed sowing, forked over where my main tatties will be going and started layering it with newspaper and leaves , ran out of time to finish it .......

[Jamesy_uk]

Did some sowing of Cabbage, Brussels and Romanesco into cells (12 of each) then went down the plot for a small fire and some digging. Came back to find my earlier in the week sowing of Pak choi and Lettuce are already poking their heads through which is always good to see.

[wizzbang]

Can it be 'what I did this weekend' please, because I was so tired last night that I wanted to just go straight to sleep. As it turned out Merlin the cat had other plans and I only slept about 3 hours!

Went to the new house on Saturday Morning

I planted my garlic! Yayyyyyy! Finally I got it in. Lets hope for nice plump bulbs.

I dug over the two main walled garden wall borders. No signs of any plant life in there so I don't think anything has grown there for a long time. It is very neglected and there were very few worms in there. I think ill be composting directly into the ground for a couple of months to give the worms an incentive. Im hoping that they are still just surfacing and that there are loads of them in there somewhere.
I cleared out the coldframes. My goodness the Rhubarb is looking magnificent! I upended a big black plantpot over one of them, and as and when necessary i'll put a bigger black pot over them till its a dumpy dustbin size, so hopefully I can give my daughter and son in law a nice early rhubarb treat.
Disappointment prevailed at the rest of the cold frames though as I found Mares Tail (Horse Tail) lurking in them. No wonder there was weed matting in them. Looks like somebody had tried to kill it off before. I don't normally use weed killer on anything, preferring to do it naturally but my son in law has no qualms and he had a pump full of stuff that he had been using on some paths so he squirted the soil in the cold frames and I promptly covered it back up with black plastic. It will stay like that for the rest of the year. Ive got loads to do in the garden and losing the cold frames for a year to get rid of that monster wont upset me too much.
EWwwwwwwww, also in the cold frames there were piles of, you know those cells, I cant remember the proper name for them, the ones that go to a point that you plant plugs in, you know the things I mean. Well there were loads of those stacked up on each other, loads of seed trays stacked up on each other
and plastic plant pots. Every single crevice and nook was filled with snails, hundreds of them!!!! It was like a snail farm in the cold frames! disgusting. Ill have to lift the lids each week and see if any more have appeared and deal with them as they come. Yuckkkkk!
Chopped a killer rose down that has nearly had my eyes out a few times.
Which way up do rose thorns go? Do they usually point up or down?
I swear this was a devil rose. It was terrible. At one stage I almost got completely tangled in it. it grabbed hold of my hair, my specs which were perched on top of my head, it got my gardening trousers and my jumper. Damn thing - I had to chop it down. It even looked evil, dark and sinister with cats claw thorns. I cant risk letting it get a hold of my dog or my daughters cat so I had to do it.
I finished spreading the compost from one of the heaps over the rest of one of the pie pieces in the kitchen garden. A lot of the time was spent looking for the keys to my son in laws sit on lawn mower. It was only delivered in the morning and he lost his keys not long after, he doesn't make a habit of losing things and we were all really frantic looking for them No wonder I was shattered!!
Today, Sunday was just as busy.
Its a two hour drive to get to the new house so after the four hours of driving yesterday and a full days gardening and then my daughters cat keeping my up most of the night I was already shattered and wishing I could go to bed half way through the drive there today. I didn't give in though and got there at about 10.30. Boy was it cold! The first thing I did was drove another 20 miles to get some yard brushes from B & M bargains but I couldn't find the shop so we ended up at B & Q. I bought three brushes. Different types obviously lol.
Then I got to work packing away the Multi purpose compost in the greenhouse. 9 bags. I heaved one up onto the staging so that I could do my potting properly like Carole Klein and nearly did my back in but I did it and managed to stay upright afterwards!
The first thing I did was sow some mixed salads and a bit of mustard. I had every intention of getting to grips with some flower bulbs but I didn't get chance. I started to help my daughter clearing some debris from where her fella had been burning bits of tree rubbish and bits of twigs, leaves, dead plants, and all sorts of crunchy stuff. That job turned into a mammoth undertaking because we found some steps that had been almost completely covered with grass and muck. My daughter is having a baby in June so she couldn't do any heavy work so I ended up cutting round and scraping off the overgrowth and it just all carried on from there. I clipped the box hedges in that area, swept millions of leaves up from around the rose beds and chucked them on the fire, cut the English lavender back and burnt the clippings, and tidied up the twigs and sticks that my son in law had left scattered all over the place. All the time I was working in this part of the garden a little robin redbreast was keeping me company. Ill be carrying a little packet of mealworms in my pocket next time.
I took cuttings from the English Lavender and potted them up in the greenhouse because the lavender bed is past its best and quite straggly. It smells divine though so I wanted to have babies from the same plants. Time will tell if they take or not. The greenhouse smells of lavender now.
The last thing I did was to hang a birdbox from the bough of a tree. I hooked it onto my rake handle and put it as high up the tree as I could reach. Lets see if anything nests in there.
Im too tired to tell more, but there was more and I had such a wonderful weekend, I couldn't have been happier.
Lynne x

[veggiechicken]

It all sounds fantastic Lynne. I'm so pleased for you

[Doive]

Busy day today. Sowed about a hundred leeks of various varieties in seed trays. Found my rainbow chard and purple carrot seed packs after losing them two weeks ago, so planted up a selection of both of those. Fine sieved about 50 litres of peat moss for the carrot beds, mixed with various things and stored safely until needed - only 250 more litres to sieve. Set out carrot and parsnip seeds on damp kitchen towel after listening to Terry Walton! Let's see how that goes.

[kathyd]

Planted a few more seeds in pots to replace the 1/2 cm high ones the slugs have already eaten!! Sprouts, cauliflower, leeks and spinach. Risked sowing the last 6 beetroot seeds direct into polytunnel, along with a row of carrots. Must remember slug pellets today!

Finished ripping up and replanting strawberries! Yay! It's a real weight off my mind.

Cut rosemary right back (despite flowers ) to try to protect siskins from the cats.... they've caught about 4 or 5 now, even though feeder is very high and inaccessible - can only assume cats must be hiding in the rosemary and pouncing on those that land on the ground .

Barrowed lots of soil to cover liner around edge of new pond - can't wait for it to finish filling up so can get started on the planting - hoping for lots of dragonflies .

[Noosner]

Went to lottie yesterday with a mate who volunteered to do some digging (the best sort of mate) and we dug over 2 beds. I dug 2 short potato trenches (short trenches, not trenches for short potatoes) and planted some Orlas, bit early but I couldn't resist. Prepared a bed for beetroot (Boltardy and Alto) and scattered some chicken manure which I gather they like. Back home, sowed tomatoes on the windowsill, Moneymaker (a bit boring but was given free seeds) and lettuce in a plastic drainpipe (Webbs Wonder and Reine de Glaces) which is now on the bathroom windowsill. The plastic ducks had to move over but they took it with equacknimity (sorry).

[VirginVegGrower]

Dug over front border on LHS. Soggy clay. Turned it to break down and mulch going on it this afternoon. Noticed four clumps of comfrey are bursting into life YES! Got up all those damned strawberry plants FINALLY.
Planted some iris and three roses that I've had lounging in pots for a year.

[kathyd]

Dug over the top bit of soil in a bed for brassicas - still aspiring to go no-dig, but the docks and dandelions seem to have other ideas. Plus I had to distract the chickens for a couple of hours while OH finished shovelling soil from where he dumped it (in the chicken run, I ask you), to the edge of the pond to cover the liner. So they all feasted on worms which should be doing their stuff to my veggie soil - they're not very 'sharing' are they? They do a real Jeckyl and Hyde thing when there are worms at stake...

[Rhoda]

Planted plenty of chillis and spoke to my lovely mushrooms who are growing well! Might just be beginners luck!!