What I did today - 2015

[Jay-ell]

Moved a pile of rubbish consisting of bits of rotting wood, chicken wire, plastic safety nets, broken glass, unspooled lengths of wire, dug in plastic bags, nails, mesh panels all interwoven.

Move the flags underneath the pile along a bit to make the path between beds. I'll be putting in a new bed there once I've finished digging it over. This will probably be the last bed I build in the middle section this year.

That bit of the garden is getting close to being tidy. Have the paths to sort out between a couple of the beds then it's the front garden to work out/on.


Picked a bag of pickling onions - cheap sets planted tightly so that they only form small bulbs.

Picked the golden beetroot and cauliflower - greens as well so double the veg.

Planted out the bulbils I found in the garlic stems into a couple of bits of space to see what happens.

Summer pruned the gooseberry triple cordons I planted the other week to give them a framework and shape rather than a mass of spikes

[Snadger]

Took down the fence and gate at the entrance to my plot and 'remodelled' it. Painted it with Poundland green wood paint which I must say I'm quite impressed with!

[Penellype]

Time to be ruthless in my friend's greenhouse this morning. There were 12 tomato plants in there and 10 of them have at least 3 trusses setting fruit. One of the remaining 2 was a Sungold armpit that I stuck in a pot as a spare, just forming its first flower truss and in need of repotting and the other was a Sweet Aperitif. I have not grown this variety before. The plant was as tall as the others and looking every bit as healthy with one crucial exception. Every single flower on the 3 lowest trusses has failed to set fruit and fallen off. It has been treated no differently from the Shirley, Sungold, Belle, Roma and Garden Pearl plants in there and all of these have plenty of fruit. Very odd. Nothing for it but to cut it down and pinch its pot for the Sungold armpit plant.

I'm not good at ruthless, so I cut off the top section of the plant, which still has flowers and buds, and stuck it in a pot in the hope that it might grow. If it does it can go outside where it might possibly be happier. My Sweet Aperitif at home have set some fruit outside.

Came home and picked the rest of the white currant crop as the local wildlife (birds and slugs I suspect) have discovered it and it was starting to disappear. This is the 3rd year I have had this little bush, which only produced 1 truss of fruit the first year. I'm training it as a double cordon, and having eaten about 10 large trusses of fruit already, this is what I got:



Time for a nice bowl of currants and ice cream

[CaroleL]

Yesterday:
More weeding. I hate those flipping brambles. It doesn't matter how much I dig them out, they just keep coming - and they grow so fast. Grrr.

Had a good water and put some more compost on the chilli and pepper pots in the greenhouse as they looked like they needed it.

Pulled out some bolting pak choi and lettuce and now have some spare squares which I'm thinking of sowing with more french beans. Hopefully it's not too late.

[susieq100]

Yesterday. Hoed and weeded at the plot. Picked broad beans, lifted some spuds. Such a disappointing yield from the first earlies. Let's hope that the Pink Fir Apple are better. Picked raspberries. Pottered gently for a couple of hours - therapy rather than actual work, but it was what I felt like doing. I spent the morning at home tidying out the greenhouse - armpitting and de-leafing tomatoes. Had to move one out of the gh altogether - much too crowded in there. Took some leaves off the cucumbers and pinched some of their ends off. Ouch! Then weeded the raised beds. I have a tiny curd on one of my cauliflowers. Yay!

[Jay-ell]

Didn't do too much today. Watered the insides and bent down to pluck a cucumber and got hit by a hidden cucumber lurking under the leaves - those stealth ninja cucumbers get me all the time.

Pulled up my carrots and replaced them with chard. Picked a courgette that was threatening to turn into a marrow and three others just in case.

Stood there grinning to myself at the fact that one of my pumpkins looks like it has not just one but four fertilised baby pumpkins on it with the other two each having two unopened female flowers on them.

Tied up a couple of my climbing courgettes and squash in a bid to get them to climb. Noticed that some have their first female flowers forming.

Unwrapped and tied up the new growth on the kiwi - it's now 41" - revised pinch out date to mid - August.

Gave my french beans a scolding telling them to stop climbing each others poles and to stay on their own - I don't think they listened though. Unwrapped, rewrapped and pinched out a few of them.

[kris1960]

Dug trenches for manure and sowed 2 types of beans and two of peas, planted flat and curly parsley, watered and continued weeding.
Harvested all the remaining broad beans- 10lbs.

[Penellype]

Spent the morning at my friend's harvesting a bucket of Charlotte potatoes and a nice big Piccolo courgette for soup. Tied in the tomatoes, which have reached the sloping part of the greenhouse roof, and the melons and cucumber which are not far behind. One of the melons has a flower on it but I have no idea if it is male or female - it looks like half way between

Came home intending to get some things done at home, but developed a migraine, probably due to too much sun . Managed to pick some peas and another courgette for tea and take the plastic cover off the Sungold tomatoes as it was flapping about and in danger of damaging them.

Picked yet more sawfly larvae off my gooseberry bush. The single fruit is still there and starting to change colour - I may yet eat my first ever home grown gooseberry!

[veggiechicken]

Prepared more onions for stringing. Although they all bolted, they look OK.

[kris1960]

Sowed about 15 things, planted out leeks and was just getting into my stride and ready to plant the next bed when I noticed that my outside tomatos desperately needed armpit and foliage removal and staking.Two hours later decided to plait shallots and put garlic under cover to finish drying.
Only time left to harvest more fruit. Will carry on with planting tomorrow.

[CaroleL]

Did some weeding today and some general tidying. I think I've spotted flowers coming on the butternut squashes so I'm a bit excited about that. Never grown them before

[Ovce dom�c�]

Just been forced in by a storm, got wet but managed to finish defoliating my Tomatillos. I think they've got blight. The outside ones were worst with the inner ones near the pea/chicken wire windbreak look the best.

Would a polytunnel reduce the chances of blight? Its hot enough here to grow outside but the
garden is taking a battering at the moment, the tomatoes always look ragged after a good storm.

[kris1960]

More digging and crop removal to plant seeds tomorrow(with labels!), unloaded of large trailer of horse manure delivered by kind local today free for allotments- it was humid and between that and digging required a long shower this evening. Son in law returned my forgotten seeds so looking forward to filling all my new found space and remembering to note varieties in seed sowing thread.

[pandasyard]

I forgot about this thread so its a weekly update for this post and I'll be sure to update more often.

We planted 3 runner beans and 2 are showing already, also tried spring onion but they are not showing yet. Our carrots seem to be going well as are our potatoes that I top up with compost everyday too, all have been planted in the last 2 weeks.

[Penellype]

Removed the remainder of the early peas and their supports and weeded behind it. This is the area that didn't get a mulch because I had run out of cocoashell and couldn't get any more. Planted out 2 Shirley tomatoes that had been lurking in the growhouse waiting for space, and was absolutely horrified to find that the soil where the peas had been was dry to a depth of at least 6 inches. I know its been dry, but this is my water retentive clay soil, not the sandy ex-patio area! Drenched the soil before planting and covered it will a load of fresh compost. Note to self - find something - anything - to mulch things with!

Dug out the bottom of the hotbin to provide the above compost and to make room for the rest of the pea foliage. Moved the bucket of Geisha peas from behind the fruit cage to next to the newly planted tomatoes, where they will get more sun. I do like these 30 litre buckets - big enough to grow decent crops in but easy enough to move around.

Now I need to think of a new home for my florence fennel - I was going to put it where I have just planted the tomatoes, but I think soil that dry would cause it to bolt in no time. Perhaps another of those useful buckets, if I eat some more potatoes...

Deadheaded some of the flowers, trimmed the pieris and pruned the wiegela. Harvested more peas, a few beans, carrots and the first of the calabrese for tea.

Now I just need to water everything as its been really warm today.