What I did today - 2015

[Bigmallly]

Did you start your banana shallots off from seed Bramble?..............Sorry for chatting.

[bramble]

Dug a space in the garden and planted out my banana shallots.
Planted my red onion sets in modules until the outdoor tomatoes are finished.
Started the never ending job of raking up the autumn leaves. We have trees in front and behind our house so a busy few weeks coming up.

[Jay22]

Sounds like you had a great day BM, I would be absolutely shattered!

[Bigmallly]

I seemed to have lost a day.......................Was up all day Tuesday doing garden duties. Had a small nap around 9pm before picking a coach up at 01:30 (yesterday). Travelled down to Dover & across to Dunkerque on the 8am ferry (was supposed to be Calais but there was a 2 hour delay) to do a little fighting on the beaches. From there, up to Andinkirke, Belgium for a little shoppin'..........back down to Dunkerque for a little more shopping.....................was supposed to go to Cite Europe Shopping Mall but didn't have time due to original ferry diversion. Back on the ferry for a 4pm crossing. After shuffling around with watches, I eventually got back in the house around 11pm............got up this morning & hadn't a scooby doo what day it was........

[Lisasbolt]

Yesterday, pulled out some of the tomato plants that i should have done ages ago, very easy though being completely dead and dried out.
Planted out 70 sweet onion seedlings, 20 kohl rabi, 11 romanesco broccoli, 40 different lettuces.
My peas are just about poking their heads out
Good excuse to go to the garden centre to see what else i can fit in.

[bario1]

Pulled up my slug-ravaged Dwarf French beans and marigolds in the polytunnel, I need to clear the beds now for some spring greens and chard. Found the two giant orange slugs that had ravaged my beans and threw them in the compost bin. Picked a tupperware's worth of ripe tomatoes.

[ESBkevin]

Saturday I lifted (almost) the last of the potatoes and fired up the rotavator to stir the top 3 inches of the potato bed. Then planted some green manure (Rye grass and a vetch type thing). All being well this will germinate before the cold (I might even have to water it), and get chopped in during the spring cultivations. This is my second attempt to use green manure, hope springs eternal!

[susieq100]

Yesterday - finished forking over the bed where the raspberries were and then used chopped up comfrey and well rotted cow manure to 'mulch' the bed and covered it with cardboard. It is going to lie fallow over the winter and I shall plant strawberries there in the spring. Then I forked and raked over another bed and planted green manure there. Cleared out the old strawberry bed completely and prepped the ground for my garlic next month (ie in a couple of weeks' time. Lordy it is almost October!) Got another allotment holder to help me move my 1,000 litre water butt to a new location behind the shed. I can have 2 gutters from the shed roof fill it now ... much more efficient. You can see where I have been!

[Peony]

Today was mainly spent weeding in between the butternut squash, courgettes and cabbages. I also cut off my green tomatoes to ripen at home - I'm hoping this was the right thing to do but getting impatient now!

I've also cleared my one and only raised bed with the intention that garlic will go in there soon.

I harvested some kale (going to attempt kale crisps later), potatoes and a few purple runner beans. My harvest has been small this year but I know I planted late as I just couldn't dig the solid ground in April.

[Bigmallly]

Neil is promising me an even bigger one!!!

There's an answer there somewhere but I'm too much of a gent to go there...............

[Gillykat]

General tidy up and weeding...do those darned sow thistle EVER give up?

Tomorrow's job is to measure the plot properly so we can get a scaled up diagram done on some lining paper and we can then work out where beds & paths & seating area are going to be next year and I can also spend the next two/three months working out next year's growing plan so I'm a lot more organised than this year!

I've also discovered that the polytunnel is virtually rotten along one whole side so I think that will be coming down in the coming months and a new one rebuilt from scratch - Neil is promising me an even bigger one!!! And this time it'll be a proper one with no draughty gaps where slugs can sneak in!!!

[skeggijon]

Dug over part of my garden and planted out my onion sets Shensyu today. Beautiful afternoon.

Me too. Also strimmed around the plot and generally tidied up. Then sat and admired my Pumpkin

[Martin H]

Lovely afternoon today so I did some clearing up in my greenhouse. Cleared all the tomato plants before the botrytis can spread any more, so now I've got a pile of red toms in the fridge and green ones on the windowsill. There's still some sweet peppers and cucumbers ripening, so they can stay a bit longer.

At Wisley Flower Show last month, Chrysanthemums Direct were selling rooted cuttings of early varieties with a promise that they would flower in a cold greenhouse before the end of the year. So I had to buy a couple. They've shot up, but no sign of a flower bud yet. So I've moved a couple of my own earlies into the greenhouse to keep them company. I've been pinching these back to slow them down as much as possible, but they will flower in 2 or 3 weeks now.

I've got space to start some salad crops in pots now, I'll probably do those tomorrow.

[bramble]

Dug over part of my garden and planted out my onion sets Shensyu today. Beautiful afternoon.

[bramble]

Beautiful antumn weather this afternoon.
Decided to clear out the toms from the greenhouse that were past their best. Brought in some in containers still producing. Cleaned all the glass to get a little more light.
Dug out the roots of a five year old sage that had taken over a half barrel.
Planted more daffs in containers.
Emptied a lot of pots from spent soil and finally made dinner. Now sitting here exhausted but happy with a good afternoons work.