What I did today - 2015

[Gema13]

Went to the town yesterday to pick up all the bits I needed with the view to get out there today and start planting out root veg, got fruit trees to move etc. So far have only managed to cut back a very overgrown part of the garden since it snowing here again. Got to love the British weather. Did pot up my leek, sweet pepper and chives. Potted yellow, white and wild red strawberry, melon, goji berry and golden berry, beetroot, reddish, spring onion, more nastrutium, black hollyhock, sweetcorn and ring o fire chilli seeds into trays and placed under the light.

[Onion patch]

I'm a day late really but yesterday was a beautiful day and I got a few hours down on the allotment. Just some general tidying up, marking out the beds and getting one half dug over. Was going to finish it today but it's actually snowing again so I have to make due with lots of tea and seed catalogues...

[skeggijon]

Having seen the weather forecast, decided to get out bright and early today before the wind and rain arrived.
Finally got another leaf mould cage built to empty the bin liners covering most of the drive into.
Sowed some climbing french beans that I collected last season, then the heavens opened, so put the kettle on and had a cuppa. As the rain kept going I did some tidying in the polytunnels and sowed some early carrots in one of the poly beds. Harvested some broccoli raab and bright lights chard before admitting defeat and coming home, where I transplanted some yard long beans

[bitShifter_]

Transplanted some garlic from smaller trays to these larger pots. Fun fun... They seem to be going quite well!

[hellybore]

Put some paving slab steps into the steepest slope on my allotment - have come a cropper there a few times in winter as it gets quite slippery so hopefully will manage to stay upright now

[Florence Fennel]

At last! Planted the elephant garlic I've had since November. Sowed peas in a raised bed and chillies inside on the windowsill. Cleared all the old chilli plants out of the greenhouse and had a bit of a tidy up.

[Gema13]

Couldn't do much in the garden today due to the snow so just a quick check on things in the Polly tunnel (not much lol) cleaned hen house then put more seeds out under lights.

[maverick451]

I bought 4 blueberry plants from Tesco for £2.50 each no idea what variety they are but just bought them for a try and bit of fun, also bought 5 raspberry canes from the garden centre to try in a shady-ish area of the garden to see if they do anything or not.

I also topped some of next doors conifers that were coming over the garden fence.

[Penellype]

Watched the wind bouncing my blowaway greenhouse up and down and decided that as its going to be worse tomorrow I'd better take the cover off. It had dislodged 4 of the 10 bricks holding down the frame, and taking the cover off was somewhat challenging, but I managed to find a short lull in the gusts. Theres nothing in there except strawberries at the moment so its not a problem - the main idea was to test the thing to see if it was likely to be stable enough to use. I think the answer is no - according to the local weather station the base wind speed at around the time was 22 kts and the gusts were 33 kts. Tomorrow we are forecast several hours of base speed upto 26 kts and gusts of upto 40 kts.

Time for plan B methinks.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Time for plan B methinks.

I have mine against the garage wall - I drilled in three pairs of eyelets and lash the blowaway in position with those stretchy bungies with hooks on the end.

Today I sowed sweet peas in pots/ I'm pleased that I thought about how many I need in order to plant out round a wigwam and prepped enough pots accordingly. Normally all my seed sowing is done in batches of 15 - irrespective of how many the final planting out location will accommodate - because that's how many 3" square pots fit into a gravel tray.

I also sowed leek seeds - following advice on here I used a large deep flowerpot. I've only ever sown them in seed pots/shallow trays before and never got them to 'pencil thickness' (more 'blade of grass') by the time it's time to plant them out.

[Lumpy]

Dig - de weed - tread - rake in that order so last big bed is ready to sow.
Marvelled at the heroic tenacity of the seeds I planted in the porch because against all the odds (my treatment of them) they have germinated and are growing.
Realised that I need to get to grips with planting my chilli's etc - late as usual.

[bussinspain]

Yesterday and today

Yesterday - noticed that the 6 varieties of tomato seeds that I sowed on 15th Feb have now come up. Only sowed 2 of each variety at the mo - will sow more next month. More digging in of the green manure on my fruiting vegetable bed done. Today - sowed some FLOWER seeds AAAAAARGHHHHH! and more digging done, just about 1 square metre left to dig. Then I will get the planting holes dug for the cucumbers and squashes incorporating some chicken manure into the soil. Also sent an email to my "Horse Poo" friend asking how much he has got for me this year Busy days eh? Now sitting indoors, wood burner alight, cookery programmes on and continuing to knit my "Scarecrow" family. Happy days

[ioan]

Planted a couple of plum trees ( opal ) trained around the kitchen window, tried to make it look like the one tree.
nice south facing aspect so should be ok, chose a plum cos I'm in the garden proper and I like plum leaves.
see how it goes...
kind regards
ioan

[Penellype]

I have mine against the garage wall - I drilled in three pairs of eyelets and lash the blowaway in position with those stretchy bungies with hooks on the end.

Hmm, I have a garage wall, but it has raised beds against it and it faces north. I'm also allergic to drilling, having drilled through the main electric cable to the house last time I attempted it. Luckily I was using a RCD.

[Penellype]

Not a great day today. First up was the dentist for a filling (another reason not to like drilling!). Survived that and came home to a lovely sunny morning but a perishingly cold gale. Retreated indoors. Inspected my tomato plants which were not looking great, and decided 3 of them had had it. Not sure if this is due to cold or over watering. Cut my tongue on a sharp edge of tooth and had to go back to the dentist to have it smoothed off.

Went back out to see if there was anything I could do in the garden and inspected the strawberry plants, which seem to be growing a bit, but again decided that it was too cold. Looked at the forecast to see when the wind will die down. Tomorrow looks better, but I am not around for gardening. More gales possible at the weekend and start of next week.

Ah well, its not March yet.