What I did today - 2015

[Snadger]

Pulled up the remainbing leeks and gave them to the chooks. Raked the bed and planted Brussel Sprouts where the leeks were. Surrounded each plant with magnesium limestone and a sprinkling of slug pellets for the mollusks.
Put four net retaining hoops up and wrapped debri netting around them as Poundlands finest mesh was only about 1 metre wide when I opened it up! It looks a bit untidy with bits of orange washing line tying net on but I'll probably get some zip ties and tidy it up eventually..........or maybe not!

[kris1960]

Finally planting out seedlings as weather looks set fair and warm for a bit- sweetcorn, tithonia, zinnias and sweet peas so far. Watering and weeding. Struggling to keep up with everything at the moment!

[NatalieCooke]

Hey all.

I've planted out sweetcorn (first time ever)
I was planning on planting out the pumpkins but next doors little came around.
Stuck a fews sunflower plants out
Oh and sown scented night stock.

[Bigmallly]

Started off by planting Sprouts, Caulis & Beetroot into there final place. Strimmed around the beds until the battery packed in. Made some new 3"x2" stakes for the Raspberries, attached strings to bent bolts through the stakes to adjust the tension (don't ask...). Re-Tied the Rasps and pulled out the old supports.............2 rows done, 3 rows to be finished tomorrow.

[1Bee]

Earthed up potatoes, half-filled the raised bed, weeded, tidied, and sat and ate my lunch watching the thrush flapping about in the hedgerow a couple of feet away....

[Penellype]

I may regret this, but took the plunge and started planting summer stuff. I had to do something as the tomatoes and courgettes were pressing against the grow lights so everything needed shunting onwards.
Planted the hardened off Piccolo courgette into its pot and moved it into a sunnier place. Moved the spinach off the path out of the sun in the hope that it will stop it bolting. Moved some tomatoes into the space in the growhouse vacated by the courgette. Moved some random pots of ornamentals I was in danger of falling over onto the path.
Dug up the bolted mizuna and put a cloche frame where it was, covering the turnips. Put 2 courgette plants in there in their pots and covered it with fleece as the ones in the plastic cloche were wilting in the heat (plastic cover can be added if it gets cold).
Had a play with a frame for supporting tomatoes, but decided that it was simply too big to go in the alloted space, so it will be back to the stakes and canes as usual. I do this every year, and the frame is always too big.
Noticed some brown spots on the Rocket potato foliage, hopefully just because they are starting to die back (planted in February). Harvested some for lunch
Planted out the runner beans. Put the 2 pots of french beans onto the pole garden, removing the mizuna and bringing the total number of pots on there to 7 (6 had happily survived the gale). Soon decided 7 was too many as the pole was starting to bend. Found a place among the onions for another pole and potted up 4 pots of wild strawberries (been looking for somewhere to put 12 plants for a while!). Reorganized the poles which look much happier with 5 or 6 pots each.
Decided to take the plunge and planted out one rather straggly Garden Pearl tomato into the chiligrow and put it near the back door. It is near enough to the garage to be moved in there if the weather threatens to get really cold, but frankly if I'd left it in the growhouse any longer it would have keeled over.
Debated what to do with the strawberries currently on the path, which look like they are about to turn red. Discovered aphids, hoverflies and a tiny little yellow ladybird but didn't solve the problem of how to stop the birds eating the fruit.
Debated what to do about cucumbers and melons. I was going to use the other chiligrow (I got 2 for Christmas) but I took it to my friend's to use in the greenhouse for tomatoes the other day. I'll think of something...
Beginning to feel a bit dizzy after all the moving around (although it could be too much sun). Alarmingly I seem to have some unoccupied space on the path near the hedge. As the garden appeared to be fairly full before I started moving stuff, I'm not quite sure how this has happened - its where the spinach was.

[Bigmallly]

Moved some random pots of ornamentals I was in danger of falling over onto the path.

So let me get this right...........you moved a pot that you may fall over onto the path which you will definitely fall over.............

[Penellype]

So let me get this right...........you moved a pot that you may fall over onto the path which you will definitely fall over.............

Not quite - they were in the 2ft gap between the raised bed and the fruit cage frame, they are now near the edge of a 3ft wide path.

[Bigmallly]

Oh, that's ok then....................

[ESBkevin]

After I got in from the orifice last night, I used an electric scarifier on the lawn of my neighbour for an hour (little old lady whose grass I care for) and then did my little patch too. All this two weeks after feed and weed, two cuts and a walk in those silly sandals with spikes in the bottom. A fair bit of effort in a scraggy bit o' grass but most years it bears witness to the care. There was so much debris that the silly little collecting bag on the scarifier filled about every 40 feet! She suffers lots of moss. So apart from the really bad patches I left it all on the surface and will collect it with the rotary mower with this weekends cut.

[veggiechicken]

After I got in from the orifice last night,

Sorry, I know predictive text has a mind of its own - but this made me laugh

[1Bee]

I thought it was deliberate and thought how apt it was....

Weeded, finished filling the raised bed, talked to a Blackbird, talked to COA (Creaky Old Allotmenter) who was very nice and who determined I was not from round here because a) I don't speak with the dialect, and b) I live in the neighbouring village, not this one. Put in some onion sets wherever I could squeeze them, just for pickling or salad onions, sowed some bee-friendly seed mixes randomly on the margins and planted out some french marigolds.

Happy, happy.

[Snadger]

I had this afternoon off work and it was a nice day so I decided to get stuck in to the allotment plot!
Weeded a bed that has pantile surrounds. Hoed said bed, raked said bed and planted out some Marian Swedes I had set away in modules. That took up about 1/3 rd of the bed so the other two thirds were sown with the same swedes and Golden ball turnips. Because the bed is surrounded by pantiles it was easy to stretch netting over it and give a good watering through the netting.
I did a bit of general weeding around the plot (mainly paths) then decided I was sick of waiting of my leeks to achieve pencil thickness and at matchstick thickness i was going to plant them out. Hand weeded the bed, hoed and raked the bed then put dibber holes in roughly 9 inches apart. Transplanted around 50 leeks into one end of the bed and will use the other half for carrots. Watered all dibbered leeks.

Weeded my proposed pumpkin bed and planted my pumpkin in the middle. Erected an old shower cubicle door on the windward side and a put a supported double glazed window over the top to keep the majority of the weather off it and create a micro climate around it. We have a pumpkin competition which I organised at the allotments so I need to try and produce a decent sized pumpkin, grown from the seed of the pumpkin I won the vine show with!

[skeggijon]

Did some much needed strimming, then set about trying to repair a hole in an ibc I was given recently. I trimmed a piece off the top and heated it up with my weedburner and then squeezed it into the hole and smoothed it off. After giving it a chance to cool down, I filled it up and hey presto - no leaks

Did loads of watering, a bit of hoeing round the onions and tomato armpitting. First trusses of tomatoes are just starting to ripen.


Oh then I picked these and ate them while sitting back with a cuppa and surveying my work

[kris1960]

Yesterday- ground rock hard where I was intending to dig so decided to hoe tall weeds in jungly areas instead. Watered most needy plants and still have many seedlings to plant out but springwatch forecast mentioned grass frosts next week with some wind between times. Plagued with indecision at the moment.

Got home at 8.30 and realised borders were full of nettles and other plants were being smothered by buttercups. Worked until dark to restore order.

Looking much better this morning. My attention has been completely focussed on the allotment lately as there is always so much to do there. Must do better!